Investigates the issues and procedures of assessment in English and considers what advice the Association of Departments of English can usefully offer to departments and chairs engaged with the problem of developing assessment initiatives, especially initiatives focused on the documentation of student learning. Discusses comments from the field in…

Follows up on a Williamson and Fitz-Gibbon article (1990) focusing on the impact of a performance indicator project, COMBSE (Confidential Measurement Based Self-Evaluation), on secondary school English departments. This article describes COMBSE's metamorphosis into another system, ALIS (A Level Information System), that has transcended the…

Discusses the results of the Modern Language Association's 1990 survey of doctorate-granting departments in English and other languages regarding doctoral study. (HB)

Provides a retrospective update of a 1974 profile of the English Department at St. Louis's Forest Park Community College. Describes the campus, English department, internal governance, courses taught, professional activities, and departmental spirit in relationship to its 1974 profile. (SC)

Tells what has happened the last two years at the University of Louisville's English department. Presents a brief explanation of why the University of Louisville's English department decided to redefine their mission--moving all professorial faculty into first-year composition. Offers some general comments about what the author has learned as a…

Reviews Tallahassee Community College's transition from a traditional hierarchical administrative structure to consensus governing, whereby decisions are made through meetings with all faculty members. Reviews specific aspects of this transition, including the role of faculty and the faculty chair, the handling of day-to-day departmental policies…

Although most programs in technical communication reside in English departments where the focus is on writing, rhetoric, and exposition, the graduate certificate program in interactive multimedia at Mercer University is being developed for the Technical Communication Department within the School of Engineering. As a result, many of the…

The department of English at West Chester University, Pennsylvania provides a laboratory for examining the situation of composition in a department that has documented its dedication to a unified study of English based on attention to reading and writing. The department adopted a "Statement of Coherence" that signals a dialectic: the…

Writing in Western culture requires mastery of both rhetorical theory and the expressive writing often promoted in composition studies, however great the conflict between them might be. The tension between these two poles can even be a source of excitement and motivation. Landmark composition studies such as those of James Britton and Janet Emig…

Views the teaching of a traditional English curriculum and the development of extramural cultural programs as potentially equal contributions to the discipline of English and describes a wide assortment of extramural offerings provided by the English department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. (AEA)

Describes a "writer's hotline" telephone program operated at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, in which English faculty address community members' writing problems. Benefits have included increased publicity for the department, improved relationships with the community, and gains in expertise in handling questions of English usage. (DF)

Describes two college programs for writing across the curriculum that involve faculty workshops. The workshops are primarily designed to dispel misconceptions faculty have about writing and to teach them more critical methods of writing evaluation and grading. Includes an appendix with a workshop exercise for spotting plagiarism. (HTH)

Presents six narratives from teachers including: "VCE English at Lilydale High School" (Valerie Mayer); "Should 'I' Be Their Teacher" (Mark Matcott); "Teaching Poetry to Year 7 English Students" (Janet Lyons); "Creative Art Therapy and Mandalas" (Demi Flessa); "Would the 'Real' Teacher Please Stand…

Argues that few modern English departments promote communal scholarship and that collegial interaction focuses more on contemporary literary culture than on shared scholarship. Describes a collaborative publication project in which 10 professors wrote a book introducing undergraduate English majors to literary studies. (RS)

Presents one composition instructor's personal memoir regarding the horrific treatment he was exposed to as a marginalized member of a college English department. Considers the kind of atmosphere and collegiality to which successful college English departments should aspire. (HB)