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For the duration of the author's fifteen-year career, she has used authentic writing opportunities to engage students. She begins as their teammate, and invites each student to work with her on a poem. In working collaboratively, students realize the author is there not to downgrade their piece, to chastise mistakes or to belittle errors; she is there to guide, to polish, and to perfect. They are a team, working together to create the best piece of art they can. In this article, the author describes how her students at Arrowhead Union High School in Hartland, Wisconsin participated in a competition in honor of conservationist Rachel Carson and applied a collaborative approach to writing poetry about nature.

In professional writing, usability testing investigates how well users can find, understand, and use a document (Lannon). Usability testing involves gathering feedback from users, analyzing how successfully they used the document, and drawing on the test results to change or refine the design. From the authors' experiences as writers and teachers, they know the power of usability and user-centered design. Usability testing allows students to engage with a real audience. Not only do they envision this audience by writing a detailed persona, but they also meet them and engage in an iterative process with them, often learning about their misconceptions and stereotypes and gaining new insights about the audience. Usability testing also gives students direct and unvarnished feedback on their writing. Along the way, students move from thinking of their audience as a nebulous concept toward knowing readers as real people--and they understand more fully that writing is an act with real consequences.

In this article, the authors focus on the decision-making process that goes into professional writing and ways to emphasize ethical decision-making in writing classrooms. Professional writing has at its core an emphasis on action and audience. Certainly teachers want their students to write effectively--to serve their clients, organizations, and corporations well. However, they also maintain that professional writers have an obligation to act ethically and make responsible rhetorical choices. How do they translate these concepts to their students? Ethical principles won't become "real" for student writers unless they are faced with practical, concrete situations. To be truly curious about ethics, students need to face problems that are not easily solved; they need to be puzzled--to face what they might call ethical dilemmas. A "case" (what some might call a "scenario") is a structured writing situation in which students take on the role of author/professional. Good cases pose problems similar to those that professionals face in the "real world." Effective cases are full of gray areas--and room for discussion, debate, and decision-making. When cases are used in conjunction with writing assignments, they highlight the ethical complexities of genres that might otherwise appear simple, even formulaic. (Contains 1 figure.)

Being up front with students about Standard English as "the language of power" allows them to learn valuable lessons about Standard and non-Standard English dialects. In this article, the author describes an eighth-grade language unit that helps students understand the value of dialects and standardized English. The author concludes that the "language of power"--when to use it, as well as its limitations--is indeed a necessary and rich subject of study in English classes. (Contains 3 figures and 1 note.)

The essay is the most intimate of reading experiences, in which the reader is invited to eavesdrop as the writer works through a thought or excavates a memory. The writer can be explicit, in the first person, or just implicit, as the person behind the words, but he or she is absolutely, powerfully present. It's as if, for those few thousand words, people are invited deep inside someone's mind. This author's foray into contemporary essays began with Dave Barry. She stumbled across a collection of his essays, "Dave Barry Talks Back." Reading Barry's essays aloud and talking about them with students allowed her to see the power of using essays that were not found in textbooks. Students appreciated knowing that essays existed outside the world of school. Building on the Dave Barry experience, the author searched for essays that would emphasize for her high school students as well as the student teachers with whom she now works that there are a number of contemporary authors whose essays should be copied, read and reread, enjoyed, and analyzed. Such essays can be found in newspapers, magazines, essay collections, and online. In this article, the author focuses on two essays that have worked well in a variety of high school classrooms. These essays are also easily found, which she recognizes is one of the challenges of bringing essays into the classroom.

The author helps some kids make personal connections to what can seem irrelevant within the confines of classroom and curriculum. Interestingly, though, the most meaningful connections she has made with students have come not through quirky English teaching, but through her extracurricular interloping into the realm of social studies. The most intense and satisfying writing she assigns has evolved out of a 15-year interaction with one of this country's richest academic competitions, National History Day (NHD). One student's History Day research project proved so powerful, it resulted in her leading the author to a new extracurricular program called PeaceJam that links students (and the author!) with Nobel Peace Prize winners and inspires them to become agents of social change. The writing and research skills her History Day and PeaceJam students develop have changed their lives. Both programs create opportunities for authentic learning that have improved the author's teaching both in the classroom and outside the curriculum. Teachers who open their classrooms and curricula to meaningful competitions and organizations, whether local, national, or international, can inspire great learning.

"Fresh, fearless, more or less brilliant stuff"--if you want to get hired. That sums up the importance of authentic assessment in writing and the unwitting harm caused by typically vapid writing prompts and rubrics, and rigid use of the so-called writing process. The point of writing is to have something to say and to make a difference in saying it. Rarely, however, is "impact" the focus in writing instruction in English class. Rather, typical rubrics stress organization and mechanics; typical prompts are academic exercises of no genuine consequence; instruction typically makes the "process" formulaic rather than purposeful. The overwhelming majority of Americans will not write academic papers for a living. The writing tasks that are required of individuals in the real world are actually more like the context-bound precise and focused tasks where audience and purpose really matter. Reality therapy is the only way to escape the inherent egocentrism that makes "all" writers think that they said it all and said it well--when, in fact, the paper contains only a third of their thoughts, a third of the thoughts is not clear, and the paper's impact is far less than the writer believes has been achieved. By introducing a real purpose, a real audience--hence, "consequences"--individuals get the feed"back" they desperately need to become good writers. The author encourages individuals to be "serious" about their writing. "Serious" means committing oneself to never confusing effort with results; saying "But I worked so hard on this!" can never be the exclamation of a mature writer. On the other hand, they must resist the temptation to be dismissive of ad copy, joke-telling, or letters to Mom as not serious enough. The best writing--regardless of content--is "always" "fresh and fearless." But such writing is only possible when teachers teach from the start that the Purpose is to touch real Audiences and create some alteration of the world--whether students are writing jokes or the great American novel. Otherwise, why write? It is far too difficult to reduce it to a mere chore. (Contains 2 notes.)

Considering how to better assess student writing, middle school teachers Molly Fanning and Brigid Schmidt revolutionize their conception of themselves as teachers. They challenge all educators to become what Henry A. Giroux calls "transformative intellectuals" by identifying as writers, practicing collaborative inquiry, and sharing their work with peer audiences. (Contains 2 figures.)

This issue's column focuses on two practices that everyone has learned and utilized but possibly have forgotten. First, Michael offers a look into classroom management and what he needed to learn to be a more effective teacher. Second, Terry asks questions to remind himself and other writing teachers of the importance of helping students understand their audience in writing. It is their aim that a focus on these tried-and-true teaching practices will allow teachers time to reflect and possibly rethink and revise areas of their classroom.

Honoring students' home dialect is a complex task when preparing them to take state writing tests that require the use of Standard English. Working with students who had failed the test and were in danger of not receiving a diploma, Michelle Crotteau created a supportive learning environment in which students could develop linguistic and mechanical fluency. In the Writing Strategies class, students spoke and wrote about their interests, drew on their dialect (Appalachian English), and learned to recognize audience-appropriate situations for using their dialect and Standard English.

Suggests that educators need to accept that the young adult audience is unique and find a way to deal with it in order to create a literature from which teenagers can expect to gain a satisfying "sense of comradeship among equals." (SG)

Discusses how language arts skills are prerequisite for nearly every occupation. Considers the problem that many prerequisite skills remain hidden until the worker is actually on the job. Notes that for students, the link between school and work is unclear. Looks more in-depth at the language arts demands of police work. (SG)

Relates a student's experience writing a college application essay. Argues that switching topics should be redefined as global revision, a "pregnant pause" providing evidence of recursivity, and that adolescent writers who talk about their emerging texts are more likely to reconceptualize their written documents. (SR)

Gives seven responses from practicing English teachers concerning ways that they have implemented the writing of various kinds of letters by students into the English curriculum. Demonstrates the efficacy and success of such methods. (HB)

Describes a program called "Writing for the Public" that allows students to revise and rewrite documents such as memos, instructions, or brochures. Shows how one high school English teacher instituted the program in his senior class. Provides some student response to the program. (HB)

Defines technical writing, the importance of audience awareness, and the fog index. Analyzes examples of technical writing and tips on developing skills such as writing instructions and assembling a model. Offers assignments and projects as well as class activities. (PRA)

Asserts that role-playing peer-response groups provide effective feedback and help students develop a sense of the characteristics of a particular audience. Illustrates with a sample lesson (a college application essay) by outlining five steps of the process. Offers other uses of the role-playing peer-response groups method. (PRA)

Asserts that persuasive communication is an essential skill. Describes a class in which students learn to develop and deliver persuasive speeches. Note that they learn to focus their topics, understand different points of view, support beliefs with evidence, and deliver their speech in a persuasive way. (PRA)

Describes a flexible format for a literature unit which avoids the problems associated with a structure which is too rigid or allows too much latitude for students. Notes that the students produce some excellent thinking and writing. (MG)

Discusses the most satisfying part of teaching writing--helping students discover what they have to say and showing them how to say it. Notes that the basic skills of writing (audience awareness, organizing thoughts, and revising) are bigger than the rules of grammar and spelling and do not change from grade to grade. (RS)

Describes several assignments and activities that focus on writing for "real-world" purposes, including writing to pen pals, government agencies, and for children or the elderly. (MM)

Discusses aspects of one teacher's responses to students' writing that have survived over the years. Argues that students (1) should write for a teenage audience; (2) deserve written and oral responses from their peers; and (3) benefit from successes shared with their parents. Suggests that responses to writing begin with content, which makes grading more humane. (RS)

Describes a four week collaborative writing unit designed to develop students' sense of audience by producing a magazine to orient fifth grade students to junior high school. Discusses how students developed the idea, conducted interviews, wrote articles, used computers to produce the magazine, and distributed copies of their magazine. (RS)

Describes how a class of seventh graders learned to use diplomacy and effective interpersonal communication to let their teachers know how they feel. (PRA)

Discusses a role-playing scenario designed to introduce the concepts of audience and purpose to business and technical communication students. Notes that, although the scenario has reduced the frequency of the question "Did I miss anything important?" from absentee students, the scenario has not helped the instructor to understand why the students ask such a question. (RS)

Notes that when students write and exchange poetry and letters, they feel drawn by the responsiveness to their words of "real" audiences. Argues that students sharing letters and poetry give voice to ranges of experience, to name features of their worlds that might otherwise have remained unnamed. (RS)

Notes that the notion of authors consulting their audiences is an old one. Discusses how Homer, Ernest Hemingway, and James Joyce reworked their writing to suit the taste of their audiences. (RS)

Describes a prewriting activity in which students form questions about their classmates' research topics. Notes that this activity provides students with multiple questions concerning their topics, and conveys the message that they will be writing for a real audience of peers. (MM)

The article offers the author's insights on his lesson plans use for imaginary translation scenarios that help students increase their greater mastery over audience and diction. The author says that the Harry Potter books are modern-day descendents of the British school story that shows schoolchildren developing social skills and a sense of morality through peer interaction. He tells that editors and translators should adapt texts to be comprehensible to children of other cultures.

The author discusses the importance of helping students understand their authentic audience in nonfiction writing. He infers that a discussion of audience must begin with the teacher and the assignment that students have been given. He cites that once students have identified their audience, it is crucial that they begin to realize how their writing decisions will affect that audience. He also added that teachers must let students know the goal of their writing and examine their writing from their perspective as well as the perspective of their audience.