In the UK, teachers have moved from a process approach to the teaching of writing to a more didactic and objectives led programme. This has given rise to concerns about the suppression of creativity and enjoyment. Writing is a convention bound activity where spelling, punctuation and expectations about different text types imply a right and wrong…

Argues that incorporating computers into writing across the curriculum programs is important because computers are becoming more common and more essential in business and professional writing. Argues that the success of institutionalizing the computer depends on convincing teachers that teaching the processes of writing and thinking is essential.…

Suggests that one place a writing center should be is online, as a virtual space of unlimited size in the form of a "writing cooperative," a term the article defines and discusses. (TB)

English department heads often find themselves walking a tightrope, trying to keep the various elements of their departments in balance. Yet despite the diversity of interests, English departments should maintain a united house. In fact, separating disciplines--such as writing and literature--into different departments would be negative for both…

This paper examines the direct relationship between curriculum, instruction, and evaluation, suggesting that following a national curriculum and preparing students to take national examinations requires diverse teaching materials, teaching methodologies, and testing techniques to train students to apply their cognitive skills to thinking,…

Outlines writing theories proposed by researchers that have contributed to current second language teaching and learning classroom methodologies. Drawing on the insights gained from these theories, one English-as-a-Foreign-Language freshman composition classroom learning experience in doing practical research with first language Arabic nonnative…

Teaching always occurs in a rhetorical context. It involves discovering and maintaining a proper balance among three elements at work in any communicative effort: the available arguments about the subject itself, the interests and peculiarities of the audience, and the voice of the speaker. Teacher management of the classroom, writing assignments,…

The adversarial forces of governmental censorship, freedom of expression, and capitalistic appropriation are engaged in an acrimonious debate over "Gangsta' Rap" that is being played out in the public spaces of popular culture. However, as a literacy of lived experience, Gangsta' Rap warrants critical investigation. Many postmodern…

According to Lawrence Chua, "zines" are "xeroxed broadsides" which "make marginality their starting point, empowering voices excluded from the slicker journals." According to "Ms," they are "downsized stapled rags...often defiantly tasteless." A subgenre of zines, "Grrrl zines" are those written, produced, and distributed by young women, usually…

Disagrees with the contention that the differences in approaches to teaching writing can be explained by attending to the degree of emphasis given to universally defined elements of a universally defined composing process, arguing instead that different rhetorical theories define these elements differently. (JL)

Mel Livatino had stopped attending Conferences on College Composition and Communication (4Cs), but this year one came to his hometown, so he attended and now reports back. Where once the 4Cs had offered helpful insights into teaching kids how to write, today frivolity and radicalism reign. Professor Livatino's notes paint a very precise, largely…

A college English teacher, dissatisfied with the approach used in her composition classes and with its results, turned to the Outward Bound concepts of the German physician and schoolmaster, Kurt Hahn. These concepts include a belief in the value of creating adversity in order to overcome it, a belief that important things happen to people who are…

Introduces the topic of student-centered pedagogy as it relates to the college composition classroom. Describes current theories of how to adapt collaborative learning models to the classroom. (HB)

Classroom teachers and administrators often see the writing lab as a simple extension of the classroom experience, rather than as the tutorial practice that it should be with interactive one-to-one teaching. Students should be acting participants, spending at least 50% of lab time talking, questioning, trying out, practicing, and composing. Tutors…

Explores new conceptions of genre and genre learning: learning genres, learning through genres, and learning about genres. Argues that reconceptualizing genres as situated, social, and active, rather than focusing on formal features, can extend and enrich process approaches to writing and enhance learning in the elementary classroom. (SC)