Composition theory and pedagogy have variously understood writing as a noun or as a verb, a product or a process. This paper proposes a shift to theorizing writing as a gerund (writing "g.") and argues that this approach opens a space for more productive composition theory. A gerund orientation focuses attention on the virtual and…

Published in a 2008 issue of "Journal of Basic Writing" ("JBW"), "Journalism, Poetry, Stand-Up Comedy, and Academic Writing: Mapping the Interplay of Curricular and Extracurricular Literate Activities" was Kevin Roozen's first single-authored publication. Drawn from data collected for the first case study from…

This article describes Sondra Perl's retrospective review of the composing processes of unskilled college writers and whether her assumptions and values in the designing of research projects have changed over her long teaching career. She uses her college dissertation "Five Writers Writing" as the basis to reflect on the authors and…

In this essay, I propose a concerted effort to begin devising a theory and pedagogy of failure. I review the discourse of failure in Western culture as well as in composition pedagogy, ultimately suggesting that failure is not simply a judgement or indication of rank but is a relational, affect-bearing concept with tremendous relevance to…

The College Writing/Elon Academy summer partnership at Elon University offers a program model for supporting underrepresented students' transition to college. While the modified section of a required first-year writing course has some limitations, the summer course supports students' development of more complex writing processes and provides…

This article provides an analysis of the growing phenomenon of community writing groups for military veterans. Drawing on the scholarship on literacy studies, community literacy, and veterans' writing groups, the author profiles three veterans' writing groups and provides strategies for starting up, conducting, and sustaining such…

The treatment of a research paper as an isolated utterance within a composition classroom is problematic in that such papers may fail to encourage transfer of writing knowledge. In this essay, I argue that a research paper's failure to work as a utterance situated within a conversation--as critiqued through a framework constructed by Mikhail…

The one-on-one format of tutoring, which is the norm for "writing" centers, can foster the much-maligned view of a "writing center" as a fix-it shop and undermine the role of the tutor as a co-learner and facilitator of peer-to-peer interactions. The peer-interactive "writing center approach", presented here, moves away from the one-on-one model…

Interviews Susan Miller, a teacher of composition studies and author of well-known articles about the field. Discusses what it means to be able to write, and the cultural forces that have shaped her as a writer and teacher of writing. Argues for a renewed focus on the act of writing and the production of texts. (PM)

Addresses the need to extend the conversation about critical literacy narratives beyond the composition classroom. Argues that students who plan to enter careers that will require them to produce and distribute written materials benefit greatly from an examination of literacy events in their lives. Describes a pedagogical exercise that attempts to…