Looks at the current interest in thinking about rhetoric and composition not just as a required first-year course but as a program of study. Suggests that the current trend to think not just of writing courses but of writing studies and a curriculum with advanced courses, majors, and minors is interesting and important. (SG)

Considers how over 10 years of teaching first-year composition, more than two-thirds of the authors' students have elected to write about things that have caused them sorrow, about the deaths of loved ones, about the deaths of neighbors, even of hope itself. Composes a set of "meditations" - brief essays in which the authors try to understand…

Notes one of the most prominent debates in composition over the last 10 years concerns abolition of required first-year English. Elaborates three points as they contribute to the author's overall argument that the abolitionist debate is not one that needs to be resolved, but instead is an exchange of ideas from which others in the field can learn…

Proposes that emotions should be regarded as important components of learning. Focuses on recent trends in composition relating to how the emotions have or have not been included in discussions emphasizing writing instruction. Suggests opportunities for further research that give attention to emotion. (PM)

Proposes that general education curricula often have difficulty remaining faithful to goals of student empowerment. Provides case study of first year composition (FYC). Suggests that a strong commitment to reflection and revision of programs will create curricula that are more questioning and less comfortable with their own assumptions. Proposes…

Argues for the importance of "gesturing" to the rhetoric and composition field's discursive conventions when writing for publication. Discusses two forms of gesturing, using graduate student submissions to the journal "Rhetoric Review." Shows how recognizing these gestures leads to important discoveries on how emerging scholars can participate in…

Notes that writing instructors want to resist authoritarian classroom arrangements because they want students to be active in their education and in their lives. Describes efforts to develop a "new model of authority, a new space," using peer group leaders, advanced standing students who facilitated writing groups in a first-year basic writing…

Reviews the inclusion of literacy lessons and rhetorical learning into the architecture and urban planning curricula. Reviews these curricula in order to demonstrate how they can be turned to inform attention to place in the teaching of writing. Concludes with a discussion of some assignments that such perspectives support. (SG)

Argues that while competence in interpretive analysis is a commonly acknowledged goal of a college education, it is rarely explicitly addressed in the curriculum. Notes that because interpretive analysis makes specific cognitive and generic demands on writers, expository writing students would benefit from both theoretical and practical training…

Presents a conversation that is designed to get at the differences in definitions of basic writing across institutional boundaries, divergences in placement procedures and assessment mechanisms, and problems theoretical work has had historically in tackling the issues of central importance to educators and their students. Concludes with…

Shows how academic discourse can be taught as a site of conflict to be examined by first-year writing students. Shows that the articulation of personal experiences and beliefs by students can be the starting point for significant learning. Concludes that educators should consider their audience of first-year students and engage them in the…

Outlines the characteristics of traditional academic discourse. Analyzes some examples of the new hybrid discourses in order to show what the author means by hybrid and to provide suggestions for hybrid rhetorical strategies that may be helpful to share with students. Offers some tentative suggestions on teaching intended mainly to stimulate…

Examines how assessment is constructed and understood, i.e., some of the conflicting subject positions writing instructors occupy when in the throes of grading. Suggests that "teacher selves" affect the act of grading, but so too do the subject positions of "student selves," namely, unconscious and/or superficial factors. (PA)

Suggests that it is important for writing teachers to focus on specific students within specific contexts and to try to reclaim the term "student centered." Proposes a new formulation of critical pedagogy that calls for an examination and location of the teachers' positions. Reflects on teaching the course "Writing and Reading about Sports" using…

Considers how the problems of writing centers relate to their ethos, or moral character. Advocates a way of constructing an ethos in writing centers which promotes writing response groups rather than just one-on-one peer tutoring. Argues that writing response groups engage writers in valuable ways. (HB)