Describes a five-meeting cycle which enables a high school English department to cooperate in making constructive curriculum changes. (DD)

Argues that composition is at risk of losing its "disciplinarity." Grounds this argument in Jacques Derrida's notion that whatever counts as the condition for achieving certain identity becomes the very condition of its failure. Argues that in a Derridean reading, composition will cease to be as it is now known. (RS)

Offers advice about interviewing at the Modern Language Association (MLA) convention: practice or rehearse issues; allow enthusiasm about teaching to show; model good teaching practices in the interview; and listen thoughtfully and resist the temptation to talk too much. (RS)

Discusses how English departments, which employ a substantial number of teaching assistants and adjuncts, will make progress toward solving some of their problems by recognizing that students can major in English and the humanities as they have been traditionally conceived and find professionally and financially rewarding employment. Suggests that…

Suggests it is commonplace among rhetoric and composition faculty to expect those who assume discipline-related administrative positions to become vulnerable at tenure time. Looks closely at the problem of gaining tenure in English departments when one is not a literary specialist. Suggests several possible approaches to establishing a successful…

Suggest junior English department faculty may be setting themselves up for failure by identifying more with the values of the computers and writing community than those of their home institutions. Argues that junior faculty should not consider seeking value for work unless it impacts pedagogy, service, or publication. Cites various guidelines for…

Reviews the growth of business and technical communication courses as college courses in universities. Documents the move to "professional" communication in English departments. Explains why technical communication dominates "professional" communication. Argues that faculty who teach business communication in business schools…

Considers how in most small undergraduate English departments the people in a department are its curricular future. Suggests that a department would do well to examine itself as a sociological community. Describes how the catalyst for change in Dickinson College's English department was the increasing pressure from the college's faculty personnel…

Describes the Modern Language Association (MLA) teacher education project. Hopes that the departments participating in the project would develop different exemplary programs appropriate to their departmental and institutional missions, faculty commitments, student needs, and state and local requirements concerning the preparation of secondary…

Studies informally the writing centers at three Cleveland area universities. Concludes that writing centers should not be promoted as remedial centers, that attendance should be voluntary, and that there should be at least a small professional staff. Argues that the "damaged path" between the English department and the writing center can…

Provides a working definition for assessment as it relates to higher education. Contrasts what assessment should be with what it should not be. Gives several suggestions for administrators just beginning assessment activities. (HB)

Recounts the process and narrates the steps taken by the English department at Ursinus College, Pennsylvania, in its major renovation of its outdated English curriculum. Describes the working conditions of the department and the newly devised curriculum. (HB)

Identifies 10 challenges facing public-research universities in the next century and reflects on their consequences for English departments. Discusses how this set of challenges affects English departments and how the issues to be faced in the next decade take their shape from these challenges. (CR)

Considers how deans look at departmental budgets. Presents 10 ways in which to think about English department funding that will enable department heads to build coalitions with the dean including: (1) keeping count; (2) reorganizing; (3) managing and capitalizing; (4) innovating; (5) investing; (6) generating; (7) connecting; (8) setting…

Focuses on a survey of 10 questions that the author gave to all tenured and tenure-track faculty members in English at the University of Louisville. Notes that the questions focused on the perceived positive and negative results of a major cultural change (faculty teaching first-year composition) for the department, the composition program, the…