In Our Own Words takes the unique approach of using student writing as a resource for writing instruction and idea development. The defining characteristic of this unique high-intermediate to advanced writing text is the use of non-native student writing to teach writing. This feature makes the text easily accessible to and popular with students. The third edition features 15 new readings by student writers, five new readings by professional writers, updated writing topics, Internet activities to support the writing process, and contextualized revising and editing activities.

This book examines the institutional history and disciplinary future of creative writing in the contemporary academy, looking well beyond the perennial questions 'can writing be taught?' and 'should writing be taught?'.
Paul Dawson traces the emergence of creative writing alongside the new criticism in American universities; examines the writing workshop in relation to theories of creativity and literary criticism; and analyzes the evolution of creative writing pedagogy alongside and in response to the rise of 'theory' in America, England and Australia.
Dawson argues that the discipline of creative writing developed as a series of pedagogic responses to the long-standing 'crisis' in literary studies. His polemical account provides a fresh perspective on the importance of creative writing to the emergence of the 'new humanities' and makes a major contribution to current debates about the role of the writer as public intellectual.

Just as the majority of books about computer literacy deal more with technological issues than with literacy issues, most computer literacy programs overemphasize technical skills and fail to adequately prepare students for the writing and communications tasks in a technology-driven era. "Multiliteracies for a Digital Age "serves as a guide for composition teachers to develop effective, full-scale computer literacy programs that are also professionally responsible by emphasizing different kinds of literacies and proposing methods for helping students move among them in strategic ways. Defining computer literacy as a domain of writing and communication, Stuart A. Selber addresses the questions that few other computer literacy texts consider: What should a computer literate student be able to do? What is required of literacy teachers to educate such a student? How can functional computer literacy fit within the values of teaching writing and communication as a profession? Reimagining functional literacy in ways that speak to teachers of writing and communication, he builds a framework for computer literacy instruction that blends functional, critical, and rhetorical concerns in the interest of social action and change. "Multiliteracies for a Digital Age "reviews the extensive literature on computer literacy and critiques it from a humanistic perspective. This approach, which will remain useful as new versions of computer hardware and software inevitably replace old versions, helps to usher students into an understanding of the biases, belief systems, and politics inherent in technological contexts. Selber redefines rhetoric at the nexus of technology and literacy and argues that studentsshould be prepared as authors of twenty-first-century texts that defy the established purview of English departments. The result is a rich portrait of the ideal multiliterate student in a digital age and a social approach to computer literacy envisioned with the requirements for systemic change in mind.

"Tenured Bosses and Disposable Teachers: Writing Instruction in the Managed University "exposes the poor working conditions of contingent composition faculty and explores practical alternatives to the unfair labor practices that are all too common on campuses today.
Editors Marc Bousquet, Tony Scott, and Leo Parascondola bring together diverse perspectives from pragmatism to historical materialism to provide a perceptive and engaging examination of the nature, extent, and economics of the managed labor problem in composition instruction--a field in which as much as ninety-three percent of all classes are taught by graduate students, adjuncts, and other "disposable" teachers. These instructors enjoy few benefits, meager wages, little or no participation in departmental governance, and none of the rewards and protections that encourage innovation and research. And it is from this disenfranchised position that literacy workers are expected to provide some of the core instruction in nearly everyone's higher education experience.
Twenty-six contributors explore a range of real-world solutions to managerial domination of the composition workplace, from traditional academic unionism to ensemble movement activism and the pragmatic rhetoric, accommodations, and resistances practiced by teachers in their daily lives.
Contributors are Leann Bertoncini, Marc Bousquet, Christopher Carter, Christopher Ferry, David Downing, Amanda Godley, Robin Truth Goodman, Bill Hendricks, Walter Jacobsohn, Ruth Kiefson, Paul Lauter, Donald Lazere, Eric Marshall, Randy Martin, Richard Ohmann, Leo Parascondola, Steve Parks, Gary Rhoades, Eileen Schell, Tony Scott, William Thelin, JenniferSeibel Trainor, Donna Strickland, William Vaughn, Ray Watkins, and Katherine Wills.

A collection of twenty-four essays assessing and challenging the current state of writing instruction, "Composition Studies in the New Millennium: Rereading the Past, Rewriting the Future "emerges from presentations given at the national Writing Program Administrators conference held at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 2001. Like its acclaimed and widely-used predecessor, "Composition in the Twenty-First Century: Crisis and Change, "this timely collection by leading scholars in composition studies responds to concerns about the evolution and future of this field of study.
Charting new directions, the contributors grapple with seven distinct questions: What do we mean by composition studies2;past, present, and future? What do and should we teach when we teach composition? Where will composition be taught, and who will teach it? What theories and philosophies will undergird our research paradigms, and what will those paradigms be? How will new technologies change composition studies? What languages will our students write, and what will they write about? What political and social issues have shaped composition studies in the past and will shape this field in the future?
In addressing these queries, the essayists approach composition studies from perspectives ranging from rhetorical to cultural, political to economic, administrative to technological; and they do so with a style and organization appropriate for composition instructors, scholars, and administrators at all levels, from teaching assistants to college presidents. The result is an invaluable vision of the future of composition studies in the new millennium.

"Where Writing Begins: A Postmodern Reconstruction" is an innovative approach to the postmodern dilemma in rhetoric and composition that" "offers a positive and postmodern pedagogy that redefines and revalues writing and the teaching of writing through reconstructive, postmodern thought. The result is a fresh understanding of both the field of composition and writing instruction.
Drawing on the rich potential of "beginning" as a philosophical concept, Michael Carter asks the simple question: Where does writing begin? His findings take readers first to a new view of what it means to begin, and then to a new understanding of writing and teaching writing based on the redefined beginning. Challenging conventional notions that posit "beginning" as a chronological and temporal concept, he instead advocates an ontological and philosophical approach, in which "beginning" embodies both deconstruction and reconstruction--and the very possibility of newness.
Adding to a growing body of rhetorical scholarship in postmodern reconstruction, "Where Writing Begins "illustrates that writing must be understood within the framework of deconstruction and reconstruction. Writing, then, may be newly defined and valued as beginning. Weaving together conceptual, structural, and methodological patterns, Carter's study is also a journey through the history of philosophy and rhetoric that will leave readers feeling refreshed and teachers eager to return to their classes.

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"To understand the ways students learn to write, we must go beyond the small and all too often marginalized component of the curriculum that treats writing explicitly and look at the broader, though largely tacit traditions students encounter in the whole curriculum," explains David R. Russell, in the introduction to this singular study. The updated edition provides a comprehensive history of writing instruction outside general composition courses in American secondary and higher education, from the founding public secondary schools and research universities in the 1870s, through the spread of the writing-across-the-curriculum movement in the 1980s, through the WAC efforts in contemporary curriculums.

"Reading & Writing for Academic Success" was designed to present high-level academic content-based instruction to students who are preparing to participate in the academic community. The material is appropriate for classes where critiquing and integrating authentic text to reflect, react, write, and revise is stressed.
This text reinforces some study skills -- annotation as a bridge to summary writing, an understanding of various genres, presentation skills, and techniques for reading for fluency. "Reading & Writing for Academic Success "teaches
reading and writing as inter-related for academic purposes
the need for quality supporting information and credibility of evidence, both in reading and writing
critical-thinking skills
the need for a relevant coherent theme to develop interest and expertise.

Wallace Stegner founded the acclaimed Stanford Writing Program—a program whose alumni include such literary luminaries as Larry McMurtry, Robert Stone, and Raymond Carver. Here Lynn Stegner brings together eight of Stegner's previously uncollected essays—including four never-before-published pieces—on writing fiction and teaching creative writing. In this unique collection he addresses every aspect of fiction writing—from the writer's vision to his or her audience, from the use of symbolism to swear words, from the mystery of the creative process to the recognizable truth it seeks finally to reveal. His insights will benefit anyone interested in writing fiction or exploring ideas about fiction's role in the broader culture.

Moving student writing beyond academic discourse and into larger public spheres is a difficult task, but Christian R. Weisser's study challenges composition instructors to do just that. This highly accessible book does what no other study has attempted to do: place the most current, cutting-edge theories and pedagogies in rhetoric and composition in their intellectual and historical contexts, while at the same time offering a unique, practical theory and pedagogy of public writing for use both inside and outside of the classroom.

By positing a theory of the public for composition studies, one which envisions the public sphere as a highly contested, historically textured, multilayered, and sometimes contradictory site, Weisser offers a new approach to the roles that compositionists might assume in their attempts to initiate progressive political and social change.

After first providing a historical context that situates composition's recent interest in public writing, Weisser next examines recent theories in composition studies that consider writing an act of social engagement before outlining a more complex theory of the public based on the work of Jurgen Habermas. The resulting re-envisioning of the public sphere expands current conversations in rhetoric and composition concerning the public.

Weisser concludes with a holistic vision that places greater political and social import on addressing public issues and conversations in the composition classroom and that elucidates the role of the public intellectual as it relates specifically to compositionists in postmodern society.

While some students need more writing instruction than others, "The Politics of Remediation" reveals how that need also pertains to the institutions themselves. Mary Soliday argues that universities may need remedial English to alleviate their own crises in admissions standards, enrollment, mission, and curriculum, and English departments may use remedial programs to mediate their crises in enrollment, electives, and relationships to the liberal arts and professional schools.
Following a brief history of remedial English and the political uses of remediation at CCNY before, during, and after the open admissions policy, Soliday questions the ways in which students' need for remedial writing instruction has become widely associated with the need to acculturate minorities to the university. In disentangling identity politics from remediation, she challenges a powerful assumption of post-structuralist work: that a politics of language use is equivalent to the politics of access to institutions.

Drawing on the theoretical work of Jacques Lacan, Marshall W. Alcorn Jr. formulates a systematic explanation of the function and value of desire in writing instruction.
Alcorn argues that in changing the subject matter of writing instruction in order to change student opinions, composition instructors have come to adopt an insufficiently complex understanding of subjectivity. This oversimplification hinders attempts to foster cultural change. Alcorn proposes an alternative mode of instruction that makes effective use of students' knowledge and desire. The resulting freedom in expression--personal as well as political--engenders the recognition, circulation, and elaboration of desire necessary for both human communication and effective politics.
Responding to James Berlin's reconception of praxis in the classroom, Theresa Ebert's espousal of disciplined instructions, and Lester Faigley's introduction of a postmodern theory of subjectivity, Alcorn follows both Lacan and Slavoj Zižek in insisting desire be given free voice and serious recognition. In composition as in politics, desire is the ground of agency. Competing expressions of desire should generate a dialectic in social-epistemic discourse that encourages enlightenment over cynicism and social development over authoritarian demands.
With clarity and personal voice, Alcorn explains how discourse is rooted in primitive psychological functions of desire and responds to complex cultural needs. In its theoretical scope this book describes a new pedagogy that links thought to emotion and the personal to the social.

This concise guide offers Wolf's writing techniques from his Free River Press workshops across the country. Rooted in the oral tradition, Wolf's methods include storytelling, visualization, spontaneous prose composition, and sketching. Besides strategies for individual writers, the book will include group activities, exercises and samples by workshop participants.

This new collection of essays bring together the best of Elbow's writing since the publication of Embracing Contraries in 1987. The volume includes sections on voice, the experience of writing, teaching and evaluation. Implicit throughout is Elbow's commitment to humanizing the profession, and his continued emphasis on the importance of binary thinking and nonadversarial argument. The result is a compendium of a master teacher's thoughts on the relation between good pedagogy and good writing; it is sure to be of interest to all professional teachers of writing, and will be a valuable book for use in graduate composition courses.

Lucille M. Schultz's "The Young Composers: Composition"'"s Beginnings in Nineteenth-Century Schools" is the first full-length history of school-based writing instruction. Schultz demonstrates that writing instruction in nineteenth-century American schools is much more important in the overall history of writing instruction than we have previously assumed. Drawing on primary materials that have not been considered in previous histories of writing instruction--little-known textbooks and student writing that includes prize-winning essays, journal entries, letters, and articles written for school newspapers--Schultz shows that in nineteenth-century American schools, the voices of the British rhetoricians that dominated college writing instruction were attenuated by the voice of the Swiss education reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Partly through the influence of Pestalozzi's thought, writing instruction for children in schools became child-centered, not just a replica or imitation of writing instruction in the colleges. It was also in these nineteenth-century American schools that personal or experience-based writing began and where the democratization of writing was institutionalized. These schools prefigured some of our contemporary composition practices: free writing, peer editing, and the use of illustrations as writing prompts. It was in these schools, in fact, where composition instruction as we know it today began, Schultz argues. This book features a chapter on the agency of textbook iconography, which includes illustrations from nineteenth-century composition books as well as a cultural analysis of those illustrations. Schultz also includes a lengthy bibliography ofnineteenth-century composition textbooks and student and school newspapers.

While taking students through the writing process, this book also teaches attention to form, format, and accuracy. The Instructor's Manual provides chapter summaries and teaching suggestions for the Student's Book.

The International Story features a generous selection of thought-provoking classic and contemporary short stories from many different countries. Unique to this text is the integration of literary works with detailed guidelines for reading and writing and for crafting an interpretive essay.

The essays in this book, stemming from a national conference of the same name, focus on the single subject required of nearly all college students - composition. Despite its pervasiveness and its significance, composition has on unstable status within the curriculum. Writing programs and writing faculty are besieged by academic, political, and financial concerns that have not been well understood or addressed. At many institutions, composition functions paradoxically as both the gateway to academic success and as the gatekeeper, reducing access to academic work and opportunity for those with limited facility in English. Although writing programs are expected to provide services that range from instruction in correct grammar to assisting - or resisting - political correctness, expanding programs and shrinking faculty get caught in the crossfire. The bottom line becomes the firing line as forces outside the classroom determine funding and seek to define what composition should do. In search of that definition, the contributors ask and answer a series of specific and salient questions: What implications - intellectual, political, and institutional - will forces outside the classroom have on the quality and delivery of composition in the twenty-first century? How will faculty and administrators identify and address these issues? What policies and practices ought we propose for the century to come? This book features sixteen position papers by distinguished scholars and researchers in composition and rhetoric; most of the papers are followed by invited responses by other notable compositionists. In all, twenty-five contributors approach composition from a wide variety of contemporaryperspectives: rhetorical, historical, social, cultural, political, intellectual, economic, structural, administrative, and developmental. They propose solutions applicable to pedagogy, research, graduate training of composition teachers, academic administration, and public and social policy. In a very real sense, then, this is the only book to offer a map to the future of composition.

What can teachers in British and American inner-city schools learn from each other about literacy training? To explore this question, Sarah Warshauer Freedman and her British colleagues set up a writing exchange that matched classes from four middle and high schools in the San Francisco Bay area with their London equivalents.

"Exchanging Writing, Exchanging Cultures" offers concrete lessons to school reformers, policymakers, and classroom teachers about the value and effectiveness of different approaches to teaching writing. Freedman goes beyond the specific subject matter of this study, looking anew at Vygotsky's and Bakhtin's theories of social interaction and addressing the larger questions of the relationship between culture and education.

This CD-Rom is designed to help Vietnamese living overseas to aquire or improve reading or writing skills in their mother tongue.

Bailey brings together a new edition of his successful book, Plain English Approach to Business Writing, with a fresh version of his text on business speaking. Bailey creates a complete and accessible handbook for the reference market and includes new information on writing with computers, computer graphics, layout and typography, as well as updated references and examples.

Educators, academics, or business persons will find this book convenient and irreplaceable--a must to have on hand, whether writing for the first time or after years of experience. Arthur Asa Berger's guidelines and suggestions are suitable for all types of written work. . . . The entire book is a good example of practicing what you preach in that he writes with style, economy, and purpose. Read and apply Berger's writing skill techniques to enhance the effectiveness of your next writing project. --Canadian Home Economics Journal When academics speak of their writing, they are almost always referring to their books and articles. Yet, in their scholarly career, more time and effort will be spent on business correspondence--memos, letters, reports, proposals--than the items that appear on a vita. And, in most cases, no training is ever provided about how to effectively produce and present these kinds of documents. Arthur Asa Berger's brief, practical guide does just that, taking the reader through the most common kinds of business correspondence that a university professor is required to produce and offering useful advice to make these communications as effective as possible. He covers important genres such as letters of recommendation, tenure, letters, and grant proposals. In the second half of the book, Berger offers general suggestions on effective writing--brainstorming and collaborating, persuasion, outlining and revising, designing documents, avoiding writer's block, and using computers, among other topics. Just as the quality of your published pieces affects your career, so can the quality of your correspondence help or hinder academic success. Improving Writing Skills demystifies and guides you through this process.

Richard A. ("Red") Watson has published fiction, general nonfiction, and scholarly books. His essay "On the Zeedijk," about Descartes in Holland and first published in The Georgia Review, was the lead essay in The Pushcart Prize XV, 1990–1991: Best of the Small Presses. Red knows writing. He also knows academe and has written Writing Philosophy as a kind of survival manual for undergraduates, graduate students, and junior faculty members in philosophy. Also helpful to those in the humanities and the social sciences, the book is a guide to the professional writing and publishing that are essential to an active participation in the conversation and discussion that constitute these professional fields. To the extent that publication is the crucial factor in tenure decisions, it will help the beginning scholar meet tenure criteria. Despite the importance of the oral tradition in philosophy and the influence of the dialogue, many philosophical points are so intricate and complex that they can be advanced, followed, and criticized only if they are written as stepwise arguments for study and contemplation at length and at leisure. Watson provides a set of basic principles and a plan for writing argumentative papers of 1,500 to 15,000 words (3 to 30 printed pages) and books containing a sequence of sustained arguments of 70,000 to 150,000 words (200 to 300 printed pages). Because the first book of most professional philosophers is a revised dissertation, Watson presents a plan for writing that dissertation in such a way that its chapters will serve as publishable articles and the dissertation itself will need very little rewriting as a book. His discussion of the principles of reason, clarity, and argument ranges from such topics as dangling participles and the proper usage of ellipses to matters of categorization and univocity.