Compares evaluation criteria for writing held in two contexts; explores the criteria used to evaluate English-language student writing by German and United States secondary school teachers; and compares the rank ordering of three essays given by teachers from these three groups. Presents results that have important implications for writing…

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)

Describes the author's first response to the concept of reflexivity in qualitative research. Explains how those initial perceptions were challenged when the author became a subject in a colleague's research. Considers reflexivity as a "recently researched researcher" and explains how the author drew on her experience as a research subject when she…

Notes that it is not unusual for writing teachers to place "religion" on lists of forbidden subject matter. Describes a two-year research project that developed and tested a pedagogy for responding to the unique problems that composition instructors face when intellectually and rhetorically unsophisticated religious texts do cross their desks. (RS)

Questions the role of argumentation in the college composition classroom. Studies the responses of a variety of students to three sample arguments that address the same topic. Shows that most students can correctly rank arguments, suggesting that students have a tacit knowledge of argument prior to instruction. (HB)

Presents data gathered in a year-long case study of the day-to-day life of a writing program administrator of a large, state-funded university. Identifies aspects of the job of program administrator that make it problematic. (HB)

Examines students' accounts of meaning-making and compares those accounts to students' ideas about writing. Presents two case studies of students as they use their ideas about meaning-making while writing for a first-year composition course. Provides implications of this research for teaching writing. (HB)

Discusses Gary Tate's career as a teacher of writing and as an administrator and scholar in the field of composition. Includes questions and responses concerning pedagogy, the state of contemporary composition research, composition publishing, and the changing status of the teaching of writing. (HB)

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)

Discusses the career of Victor J. Vitanza as a teacher of composition, an administrator of a major writing program, and a leading scholar. Includes questions and responses concerning pedagogy, theory, the emerging field of composition studies, and other topics. (HB)

Complains that, even though composition instructors beg their students to improve their writing style, much professional writing is stylistically dense and unreadable. Questions whether writing teachers can teach style or whether asking for sentence variety is useful. Criticizes the treatment of style and sentence variety in composition textbooks.…

Considers how college English instructors view their students. Studies and analyzes references to students appearing in the February issues of the pedagogical journal "College Composition and Communication" for 1990, 1991, and 1992. Calls for increased attention to this subject. (HB)