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Considers why the traditional research paper seems to have been part of the English curriculum forever. Provides a glimpse at what teachers in the past have done to alter its teaching and final format and provides a background against which English teachers may want to reevaluate and reinspire their own teaching of the research paper. (SG)

Describes three strands of knowledge which help students produce better research papers: (1) the four moves employed by authors of journal articles; (2) the strategies employed in writers of localized news stories; and (3) a checklist for localized field research. (NH)

Describes how the author used sequenced assignments (and a range of other strategies) to engage students in genuine inquiry; to remove as much of the fear as possible from the research process; and to put the emphasis on process, not on product. (SR)

Discusses how to grade papers online. Proposes that students whose papers are graded online internalize information more readily than students whose papers are not. Concludes that through meeting on the Internet, many students sense a narrowing culture gap between teachers and students. (PM)

Examines Internet sources cited by students in research papers for a literature class. Finds that 42% cited Web sites were confirmed student papers; 88% were very short; and 75% did not connect when typed as shown in bibliographies. Offers guidelines for acceptable online research to help students locate good quality Web sites. (SR)

Describes a workshop used with classes doing Web research for their English papers in a computer lab. Shows how this is a good opportunity for students to learn to find, evaluate, and save Web sources, how to read critically and annotate the sources, and how to weave them into working drafts and avoid plagiarism. (SR)

Describes an AIDS-centered curriculum for a composition class in a New York City community college. Describes selecting a text, assignments, attending a conference, guest speakers, and the research paper. Notes that the subject of AIDS not only provokes reflective writing and much class discussion but also compels writers to express and sometimes change profound ideas about living and dying. (SR)

Presents three teachers' ideas of successful teaching experiences. Discusses ideas about successful whole-group discussions; a revision technique for research papers; and "searching for sentences" or "headlines are a hit." (SG)

Offers 11 classroom tips from teachers for a variety of activities, including fictional movie reviews, haiku writing, questions to develop student journals, handouts, rewriting stories, and a "dirty trick" to get better research topics. (SR)

Offers four brief descriptions of research and class assignments that incorporate use of the World Wide Web, including resume writing and the Web; team research projects; "hunts" for local Web sites to introduce the World Wide Web; and using the Web to get updates or confirm accuracy. (SR)

Attempts to define what "college-level" writing is. Argues that acknowledging the full range of complexities related to "college-level" writing is a necessary first step toward engaging in productive dialogue about it. Suggests that educators change the term "college-level writer" to "college-level reader, writer, and thinker." (SG)

Notes that beyond the challenges of technology and time, online teaching also elicits unexpected introspection about the role as instructors, the changing relationships with colleagues, and the evolving perceptions about the students. Outlines five achievements and challenges associated with online first-year composition. (SG)

Describes three approaches with which grammar may be welcomed back into the composition classroom. Considers how the teaching of grammar is making a comeback, with scholars acknowledging that the objections raised by process theories were valid but also investigating how to use grammar in writing classrooms, how to answer old process objections, and how to help student writers. (SG)

Explores the possibilities of the paperless classroom achieved through e-mail strategies and the use of Blackboard, an e-learning software platform. Claims that the system can be an efficient method for storing and evaluating papers and communicating with students. Concludes that the system allows the author to create a permanent electronic paper trail and to strive for effectiveness and efficiency in his evaluations and comments to students. (PM)

Suggests that students can become motivated and engaged to improve their writing through guided interactions that target their affective, social, and cognitive capabilities. Presents fictional case scenarios developed from first- and second-year college students' comments about their writing to help students assess their perspectives on writing, assess their interaction with writing instructors, and develop self-efficacy of the writing process. (SG)

Argues that students are more motivated and develop more effective skills if challenged with assignments that ask for the depth of thinking required of academic disciplines and careers. Encourages composition teachers to experiment with assignments that challenge assumptions about first-year students' capabilities. (SG)

Presents five educators' suggestions for improving instructional and educational experiences. Discusses issues such as confronting academic reading and writing; presents an activity called "reverse time capsule essay." Describes a technical writing class writing resumes and addresses "dressing for success." Comments on students helping to write tests. (SG)

Notes that finding a way to integrate grading and responding in a manner that promotes learning through revision is one major challenge for composition instructors. Argues that instructors must find a way to shape their classrooms shifting the emphasis from "getting it right the first time," to learning to see writing as an activity that evolves and improves through revision. (SC)

Argues that literature by Caribbean women writers of the 20th century offers two-year college students models for surmounting obstacles, resisting oppression, and holding life in fragile equilibrium. Discusses various Caribbean women authors and the influences upon them. Describes numerous ways that specific Caribbean works could be used in the two-year-college curriculum. (SR)

Discusses two intriguing ways of explaining error in student writing--the work of Michel Foucault and the work of Roland Barthes. Describes in-class activities and essay assignments that use these perspectives to help students to reach improved understanding of error in writing. (SR)

Argues that postmodern language theory offers useful insights into long-standing writing problems encountered by writing instructors. Discusses a postmodern view of language, how language shapes reality, the contributions of Jacques Derrida, and deconstruction and composition. Applies these ideas to two pedagogical ideologies, and suggests some innovative classroom practices. (SR)

Argues that student self-assessment and reflection need to be central components of writing instruction and that the response sequence between teacher and student should routinely include them. Offers examples of this sequence with two students, and presents nine specific classroom strategies that put self-assessment and reflection at the center of the writing process. (SR)

Discusses the tremendous barriers to success in college that Navajo students face. Discusses five major forms: financial difficulty, family obligations, prescriptive attitudes toward Standard American English, instructor/faculty ethnocentrism, and ambivalence toward Western education. Discusses ways faculty can work to mitigate these barriers as well as those faced by all minority culture students. (SR)

Discusses how to teach a first-year composition course, expository writing, required of most students at Rensselaer Polytechnic. Considers how to motivate students and help them to see connections between writing and their technical work. Offers various techniques for getting the students to write comfortably. (PA)

Recounts a veteran instructor's experiences with teaching new subjects, American literature and poetry writing, after many years away from graduate school. Muses about the reality of teaching undergraduates. Considers teaching as a rhetorical act and finds that learning is more likely to occur when teachers approach teaching as a rhetorical act rather than an enactment of theory. (PA)

Suggests, in the context of the author's publishing failures and successes, ways to cope with the fact that judgment and rejection are part of academic publishing. (SR)