The doctorate in Fine Art has had a troubled history in the UK. Although there are growing numbers of doctorates being undertaken and over forty institutions which offer doctoral study, there is still little understanding of this research culture. There is a developing literature, but it remains curiously focused on research methods and protocols…

Concordancing in the classroom is fairly a new approach that has emerged with the use of corpora in language learning. In a concordance, language is presented in an authentic context; learners are able to examine a key word in the context of a string of sentences which can exemplify the use of that particular word. This exploratory study examined…

Through interpretive case studies, I report how, in an advanced Japanese literacy course, two Canadian university students from different enthnolinguistic backgrounds engaged in composing in Japanese quite different ways. The multiple sources of data, including the viewpoints they expressed in interviews and questionnaires, were examined…

Critical thinking is a highly valued outcome of university study, although its nature is difficult to define. Most students are not directly taught critical thinking, but are expected to display it in at least some of their assignments. We do not know much about student perceptions of their development as critical thinkers in their degree…

Kurt Cobain's "Journals," in the expressive quality of their form and content, cause one to wonder just why the journal has fallen out of fashion in contemporary composition. Certainly, earlier compositionists in our field saw the journal as a crucial tool for learning to write. And critical theorists (e.g., Maurice Blanchot) find the journal…

This article challenges the rebirth narrative traditionally attributed to Composition Studies and the date 1963. By revisiting specific media-oriented moments excluded from that narrative, the article discovers important moments ignored by Composition Studies regarding technological innovation and rhetorical production. The article argues that the…

This essay argues for sustainability--a course of action and a mindset that meets the needs of the present while being conscious of, and not compromising the needs of, the future--as a robust focus teaching first-year composition. The essay describes a course designed to respond to calls by composition scholars to reimagine pedagogical designs for…

This article presents the implementation of Katja von Garnier's film Bandits into a composition course that focuses on writing strategies. It offers specific exercises geared toward the intermediate to intermediate high-writer on the ACTFL scale with an emphasis on the main characters in Bandits and female criminals in general. In providing…

For some time now the Internet has been part of our daily lives and has affected the way academic writing is taught and the way students study. This article reflects on how the Internet affects the teaching of composition, and assesses the relationship of professors of writing and literature to the electronic revolution taking place. The author…

The introduction of the SAT Reasoning Test™ with a writing section in March 2005 and the concomitant elimination of the SAT® Subject Test in Writing after January 2005 have led many colleges and institutions to ask for guidance in using the new SAT Reasoning Test writing section scores for college placement and admissions. Standard-setting…

Physics as a subject for school students requires an understanding and ability to move between different modes of representation for the concepts under review. However, the inability of students to have a multimodal understanding of the concepts is seen as restricting their understandings of the concepts. The aim of this study was to explore the…

In 1987, the National Commission on Excellence in Educational Administration concluded that educational leadership preparation programs in the United States were marked by a "lack of collaboration between school districts and universities and lack of modern content." Echoing this concern, scholars have argued for a programmatic change…

The Internet has changed the ways that students think, learn, and write. Students have large amounts of information, largely anonymous and without clear copyright information, literally at their fingertips. Without sufficient guidance, the inappropriate use of this information seems inevitable. Plagiarism among college students is rising, due to…

As a special topics course in composition, ENEX 495: "Women, Writing, and Rhetoric" is a program elective for graduate students in the English department, English majors, Gender and Women's Studies students, and a writing-intensive elective for non-majors at The University of Montana, a doctoral granting institution located in the Rocky…

Drawing on students' literacy autobiographies, this article critiques the premise that academic discourse and working-class identity are not only static but also in complete opposition. The author argues for a more performative theory of class, a theory that would, she explains, recognize that academic discourse creates social class distinctions…