Analyzes three examples of research in technical communication to illustrate the distinctions among modernism, antimodernism, and postmodernism. Suggests that antimodern rejections of the scientific enterprise within composition studies and technical communication are valuable in a culture in which science seems to have unlimited authority. (RS)

Discusses successive drafts of a student's response to a short story, illustrating how an initial personal response to literature can be developed into a critical essay with a specific purpose and audience. (HTH)

Surveys recent feminist research on gender differences in social and psychological development, and shows how this research and theory may be used in examining student writing, thus suggesting directions that a feminist investigation of composition might take. (SR)

Describes a 1988 article entitled "Composing as a Woman" as an attempt to reconcile feminist inquiry and composition studies and to persuade composition specialists that the feminist view has a bearing on their field. Explains that a study of the relationship between gender and reading produced a new perspective on student papers. (SG)

Argues that the recent feminist analyses of gender and power can illuminate the situation of the profession of composition studies as it has struggled for legitimacy and power within the academy. Focuses on the negative consequences of identification with the sciences and social sciences on the part of empirical researchers as the field struggled…