Presents results of an informal study indicating that (1) external contingencies that force writing productivity regardless of mood seem to facilitate rather than impede the appearance of creative ideas for writing, and (2) productivity precedes creativity. (HTH)

Presents results of a study indicating that evaluations of basic students' writing more closely resemble those of employers than those of English faculty. Suggests that English teachers redefine the basic writing student and the criteria used for evaluations. Includes samples of student essays evaluated in the study and evaluation results.(HTH)

Outlines a basic writing skills course organized around the process of transcribing reading and lecture notes from students' other classes. (HTH)

Notes the prevalance of advertising language and personae in student writing. Includes exercises that evoke the advertising voice, suggesting that using these as a stepping stone to teaching advertising is preferable to a separate advertising unit. (HTH)

Notes that while faculty grumble about academic writing in a "publish or perish" atmosphere, many enjoy writing and its inherent discovery processes. Presents methods and suggestions that have helped the faculty/author publish numerous works on the writing process to invite others who publish to reveal their own craft. (HTH)

Explores the complexity of the concept "specificity," then looks at some of the misinterpretations made by developmental writers to illustrate how developmental writing students have difficulty moving from abstract to concrete. (HTH)

Notes that George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" is frequently encountered in textbooks that ignore the existence of the original audience. Argues that textbook editors thereby misinform students by failing to show how writers recognize and write to particular audiences, and how writers' specific audiences determine many of the authors'…

Reviews briefly the state of library instruction in today's academic libraries. Discusses three approaches to teaching library skills at the freshman level and details the author's experiences in working with a freshman composition course. (HTH)

Describes the use of a succession of freshman English assignments that begins with a paper not based on research and concludes with a paper based on extensive research, designed to prepare students for term paper assignments. (HTH)

Describes a method used to teach freshman students how to make research a conscious part of their reading and writing processes, by helping them use their personal associations with a text and their questions about a text, to compose meaning and become conscious of the activities they are performing. (HTH)