Rather than propose or endorse a single theory of comedy, this essay explores a wide variety of implications in sometimes-conflicting ideas on the subject. It groups questions under such topics as types of comedy, plot, social morality, and identity. These questions are drawn from a wide range of viewpoints both ancient and modern. It concludes…

If I can show my literature students how Nabokov can take them from familiar representations of experience to representations of less familiar experiences, from a knowledge of the given world to an understanding of the world of the imagination, then, it seems to me, I ought to be able find some way of showing my composition students how to do it…

In this article, I demonstrate how the use of reflective writing assignments in first-year composition facilitated students' understanding of their own writing process strategies. I first discuss the theoretical roots from which reflective practice among student writers grows. Next, I employ my students' voices to demonstrate that reflection…

For my purposes, I approach writing assessment as more than just grading or responding to a set of student papers within a classroom context. Instead, I look at writing assessment as a complex act that links to teaching and learning, that affects the educational environment and students, that acknowledges the consequences of the assessment, and…

The pedagogical principle of experiential learning embodied in the oral interpretation of literature through Readers' Theater provides an avenue to accomplish a seemingly daunting task. Students' participation in reading, interpreting, discussing, writing, assessing, and performing their own creative responses to a literary work promotes a…

I propose that we think about what a paragraph is by considering its "function," what it does in a piece of writing, whether in a popular novel, a newspaper article, an e-mail, a business report, or a lofty piece of literary criticism. We might think about a paragraph as a "rhetorical dwelling."

The historical transition from the 20th Century to the 21st has sparked a boom in identifying names and classifying characteristics of the young American adults and teens coming of age at that time. Though there is much discrepancy about the starting birth year and the life span parameters of "Generation Y", generalizing descriptions abound in an…

This essay has been one of the hardest professionally to write as it documents some very personal and professional soul-searching that involved myself, many of my colleagues, and the students in our department over the span of four years. When I first presented our initial reform attempts at the 2010 CEA in San Antonio, much of this paper was…

Integrating writing instruction into the content-area classroom poses a variety of challenges for instructors at all levels. Beyond the need to embrace a new skill set involving writing instruction, there is the resistance of students (and faculty) who find a disconnection between content-area and literacy learning. Developing a method for…

Describes some of the beneficial effects of studying the heritage embodied in Afro-American Literature. (RB)

Examines the results of a team teaching approach used in a freshman English literature course at Rutgers College. (RB)

Explains why courses on adolescent and children's literature are valuable additions to the college English curriculum. Outlines the content for both courses offered at Youngstown State University in Ohio. (MM)

Shows how teachers can increase students' general appreciation of literature and improve students' writing skills by studying literature with legal issues and images of the law. Cites several examples of such literature, including Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," William Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure," and Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's…

Discusses how the nonfiction genre of natural history literature (particularly by women writers) provides a valuable addition to the college English curriculum. (MM)

Describes how "jigsawing," a teaching method using two types of group inquiry in sequence, is uniquely suited to the classroom analysis of literature with multiple perspectives. Outlines the procedure with examples from lessons on Judith Guest's "Ordinary People." (MM)