This report highlights one of six language arts case study teachers whose classroom was studied for a 2-day period to observe writing instruction, to ask questions about the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System assessments, and to talk with her students about their writing. In this paper, the focus is on questions and how this…

At the high school and college levels, teachers tend to teach to their own learning styles because they find comfort and ease using methods they know. Students, however, exhibit a variety of learning styles. A questioning process led some teachers to analyze their students' problems further and to consider various categories for which they…

Today's society is so bound by the conventions of print-based culture that it is almost impossible to recreate the spirit of the highly dynamic, ancient art form of rhetoric. Rhetoric's origins lie in the art of oral rhapsodic composing that involved a complex set of interrelated mental and linguistic patterns. Most contemporary scholars of…

An unavoidably ideological frame of reference in Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) exists and an unavoidably political job must be undertaken if Writing across the Curriculum is to escape being the handmaiden to the so-called content disciplines. Despite this, many teachers who work in the field do not see their task as emerging from a distinct…

Since students enter college with a basic knowledge of the mechanics of writing, including grammar, spelling, and punctuation, most student writing mistakes amount to a failure to see what they have actually written. Thus, instructors must help students to apply knowledge they already have and to see their own errors through careful proofreading.…

Noting that the study of composition has been less affected by postmodern theory than other humanities and social science disciplines, this book assesses the study and teaching of writing against the larger theoretical, political, and technological upheavals of the past 30 years. The book addresses the theoretical debate about the "self"…

This 1994 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Roundtable was composed of "Permanent Temps" from schools across the United States; it originated in audience reaction to one session in San Diego (California) in 1993 (ERIC ED 356 483). This 1994 session highlighted ways in which these permanent temporary faculty are…

This paper presents a proposal for "Perspectives on Professional Knowledge," a course designed to introduce junior-level Syracuse University students to rhetorical and linguistic concepts as tools for the examination of professional knowledge and professional education. The paper briefly describes the course and discusses the…

Theories of phallic authority outlined by Jaques Lacan, Sigmund Freud, and Luce Irigaray suggest that one can effectively undo authority only from a position of authority, a position that traps feminists within the very phallic economy they hope to subvert. Attempting to avoid this trap, feminist pedagogues have made a distinction between…

Intertextuality is a term that is defined variously and, in a sense, cannot be defined categorically and should not be. The term serves as a point of departure for engaging in an academic discourse grounded in differing theoretical and institutional frames. In the wake of poststructuralism, the classical notion of a "definition," a…

A review of research on writing textbooks suggests that in general, they do not reflect current theories in either content or instructional approach. Examination of some second language writing textbooks reveals three types: (1) those with a traditional approach emphasizing grammar, form, and models; (2) books acknowledging but not integrating new…

A pilot project in Eastern Lancaster County School District, Pennsylvania, will use portfolio assessment in a Chapter 1 program. Based on test data and the input of classroom teachers, Chapter 1 tutors and classroom teachers will collaborate to identify two or three goals for each individual student, who will be asked to commit to them and add one…

Each fall at Syracuse University, new teaching assistants participate in an ambitious teaching project. Over the span of four days, new teaching assistants select their own topic of inquiry for the one or two writing courses (or "studios") they will be teaching, imagine a sequence of reading and writing assignments, construct a grading…

The time has come to re-evaluate the metaphors used when people think about composition. Such a re-evaluation is under way and may affect composition theory, research models, and classroom practice well into the future. Robert Zoellner rejected the prevailing metaphor for teaching writing which equates the act of thinking with the act of writing.…

The process of writing is explored from three perspectives in this paper. In the first part of the paper writing is viewed as a communicative act with four principles that form tacit objectives in any communicative act: comprehensibility, enticingness, persuasiveness, and memorability. The second part of the paper, which examines writing in the…