This essay reports on a study of first-year student writing. Based on a stratified national sample, the study attempts to replicate research conducted twenty-two years ago and to chart the changes that have taken place in student writing since then. The findings suggest that papers are longer, employ different genres, and contain new error…

Sketches in the traditional contours of intellectual property in the digital age and its institutionalization. Surveys the forces, intellectual and technological, that are challenging that tradition. Shows how composition studies has been informed by models that do not participate in these challenges. Suggests how composition studies may move…

Offers a self-critique of the authors' earlier work "Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience in Composition Theory and Pedagogy." Proposes an alternative to the agonistic approach to establishing the new at the expense of exposing the faults of the old. Aims to learn from the cultural, disciplinary, and institutional forces at…

Carl Rogers' theory of argument is in accord with traditional Aristotelian theory since both are based on mutual trust and understanding. (DD)

Presents the conclusions of a study of the reading and writing skills and strategies of 92 remedial English students at Ohio State University and offers recommendations for teaching remedial English. (DD)

Describes the authors' error-frequency research, relating how they collected 19,615 teacher-marked student papers from the 1980s, analyzed them, and determined the major patterns of formal and mechanical error in current student writing. (SR)

Examines two very different views of essay assignments and essay writing, both evident in the teaching of nineteenth-century Scottish rhetoricians. Comments on what these rhetoricians wrote to their students about the students' essays. Reveals no unanimity on composition activities and on what the rhetoric or composition class should include. (RL)

Reports that vocabulary choice and linguistic virtuosity are closely tied to levels of writing skill, to cognitive development, and to self-concept. (RL)

Studies writing teachers' rhetorical comments on student papers, including its historical background and as a recent phenomenon. Reviews the findings of an extensive study conducted on a sample of 3,000 student papers concerning instructors' rhetorical commentary. Outlines basic patterns and types of teacher comments. (HB)

Reflects upon the 40-year history of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Calls upon conference members to "compose themselves," both historically through awareness of those who have studied writing in the past and subjectively through knowledge of those who have taught writing. Identifies characteristics and goals of the…