In this essay, the author suggests that performance studies--a large and varied body of work that takes the fluidity of self and the relationship between word and action as its central concepts--offers theories and methodologies for writing teachers to use to help students construct discoursal identities. Although the performative screen offers…

Although interest plays a large role in motivation and confidence, we need a clearer understanding of how teachers and classroom practices can influence students' interest for the act of writing. Rebecca L. Lipstein and K. Ann Renninger studied the perceptions of 178 students in grades 7, 8, and 9 to develop this understanding. They offer…

The authors report on three case studies of ESL students who are taking courses to enter professional programs. The goal of the study reported in this article is to examine ESL students' language and general academic performance in content-area classes at one open-access college of a large midwestern university. The authors were particularly…

Cultural studies aims to critique and challenge existing boundaries. Particularly relevant to a discussion of cultural studies in the context of composition pedagogy are the boundaries that exist between minority and dominant cultures, between disciplines, between academic and street cultures, between ethnicities, races, genders and classes,…

Projects that require students to perform ethnographic research can be a form of empowerment. Lester Faigley argues that while ethnographic research still requires invention and other writing skills required of more traditional assignments, it has the added value of giving students the opportunity to explore their own locations within the culture.…

One of the biggest complaints shared by writing teachers is that students lack a sense of self. Writing handbooks and teachers are full of advice and exercises pointed at assisting students in finding their voice, their persona as writers. One method that may assist writing students in finding that voice would introduce students to spy fiction.…

In one sense, it has never been easier to be a feminist in composition studies. In another, it has never been harder. While the variety of scholarship is rich and the role models plentiful, there are forces at work that are making it difficult to maintain connections. Among feminists, lately there has been an impulse to define theoretical…

Writing centers have to adapt their philosophies to meet challenges that are unique to individual institutions. Working with faculty in other disciplines inevitably brings changes in what writing centers do, creating a need for some adaptation in the way a center operates--on at least a practical, day-to-day level. The greatest challenge is to…

In a recent debate on authority in the discourse of English Studies scholarship, writers seem to line up on two sides: the "friends of the familiar essay," and those who advocate "the article." The essay/article debate seems to be part of the conflict opened by the Renaissance over writing, selfhood, power, and knowledge. What…

In the mid-1960s, social scientists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss developed grounded theory as a systematic and rigorous method of qualitative data analysis leading to "the discovery of theory from data." In grounded theory, the researcher applies a set of coding procedures to the data until a provisional theory emerges inductively.…

Suggesting that, as a field of research, reading-writing relationship is still in its infancy, this paper examines how the field has developed over time and where it is currently heading. Using different decades (beginning with the 1960s) as a guiding time frame, the paper (1) delineates major shifts in the conception of reading and writing, and…

In "Discourse in the Novel," M. Bakhtin notes that writing and speaking are both fundamentally social acts--every utterance "exists in other people's mouths, in other people's contexts, serving other people's intentions" until the writer/speaker is able to appropriate it as her own. As an institution, the writing center enacts…

There need be no quarrel between those who believe that writing comes primarily from an individual's discovery of selfhood and those who believe that writing is primarily the result of social interaction. Two theoretical perspectives are helpful in considering this issue. The first, presented by D. W. Winnicott, suggests that an infant learns…

This book is in favor of the inclusion of co-authoring in writing instruction and provides theoretical and research background to support the value of this strategy, which involves more than just peer editing and small-group revision. According to the book, co-authoring builds naturally on the social emphasis of the writing process and…

Writing is a fundamental skill for students to develop. A learning environment should be in evidence which assists students to achieve more optimally in writing. Writing activities should be interesting, purposeful, meaningful, and provide for individual differences. Students need stimulating learning opportunities involving a variety of purposes…