A study examined faculty attitudes toward writing across the curriculum. In a pilot study, 80 full-time faculty at Elizabethtown College responded to the 35-question survey (for a response rate of 67%). Although Elizabethtown College had recently approved a new core curriculum that called for more writing across the curriculum, the administration…

A study determined how including significant amounts of writing in varied forms for different audiences throughout a four-year baccalaureate program in nursing affected professional practice. Subjects were graduating seniors and practicing nurses from a writing intensive baccalaureate program (College A) and graduating seniors and nurses from a…

In his book, "Inventions: Writing, Textuality, and Understanding," Gerald L. Bruns interprets the hermeneutics of Hans Georg Gadamer. Hermeneutics is the art of interpretation. One principle of hermeneutics is that understanding always proceeds from an initializing moment of confusion, strangeness, darkness, or concealment. Concealment's…

To come closer to the full "face to face" expression of writing consistent with the intention of the holistic movement, a study investigated the writing attitudes of first year writing students. Subjects, 70 students in the developmental writing group, 77 in the middle ability group, and 68 in the advanced writing group enrolled in…

The proposition can be offered that the notion of "the plant" should be the paradigmatic metaphor for modern conceptions of the composing process. Various forms of the metaphor are found in classical and eighteenth century writings alike. A modern shift in focus from writing product to process has brought to the fore the dynamic…

A composition researcher collected stories from students with writing anxiety, using qualitative research tools of interview and interpretation. In literary theory it is not unusual to speak of anxiety of influence when referring to the torment of proving one is equal to a revered author. The critic Harold Bloom presented it as his theory of the…

This paper synopsizes the central findings of a 2-year empirical study into how the new rhetorical situations presented by hypertext affect the writing process and thus impact upon literacy and education. It theorizes a conceptual model based on these findings. New technologies are transforming literacy in general and writing in particular.…

Composition teachers and researchers recognize the difficulty young writers, especially females, face as they enter postsecondary education and attempt to learn the language of the academy. Addressing academic audiences "takes confidence and authority, qualities that are often challenged in women because of their historical exclusion from and…

Realizing that non-traditional students must cope with a campus that remains primarily oriented toward the 18-year-old just out of high school, the college teacher must make sure that both traditional and non-traditional students feel comfortable together in the classroom. College English teachers can help non-traditional students by letting them…

Few empirical studies have focused on how composition students draw on classroom interactions to develop as writers. For instance, when students disagree fundamentally in their interpretations of what they have read, how are the range of voices reflected in their subsequent writing? The student-led format for discussions proves conducive to…

Collaborative writing is a "messy" process which reveals much about the ways students struggle to write alone as well as with others. Two sections of an undergraduate college writing class were assigned a collaborative essay, to be written in small groups. In many groups, students could not negotiate or communicate with each other. The process…

There are several variables at work in any piece of writing and some combinations of these variables can cause serious problems for some students. The first area where two of these variables occur is in the notion of what a college education is. The subject matter to be learned is one variable in what education means, and the second variable is…

The net effect of the early experiences of writing "compositions" which involved either describing the circumstances of a student's life or recounting the kinds of events encapsulated in that proverbially hack title, "What I Did on My Summer Vacation," has been a tendency for older teachers to devalue nonfiction as an object of…

This paper examines a program that teaches writing skills to students in an administration-preparation program. The program is broadly aimed at strengthening writing instruction and raising the level of writing competency among students in all departmental programs. The examination focuses on gaining a better understanding of the faculty's views…

A study examined the writing practices, attitudes, and beliefs about the importance of writing at work of "basic" writers and "strong" writers. Subjects were graduates of Francis Marion College for the years 1984 to 1989. Questionnaires were returned by 119 of the 182 basic writers (identified through placement in remedial…