Currently, many college and university English departments are reviewing the purpose of their departments. Are they still departments of literature? A writing program is best served by staying in an English department, with the caveat that the department move towards a cultural studies curriculum--the writing program within an English cultural…

Five universities in New York State (SUNY--State University of New York at Stony Brook, Syracuse, Cornell, Binghamton, and New York Universities--are involved in a 3-year project to better prepare graduate students to become teachers. The State University of New York, Stony Brook, English Department is providing graduate teaching assistants with…

Administering a writing program has never been easy, and the issue of political correctness has added a new dimension to this difficult task. At the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), a controversy began when a cluster of statues, presented to the school by the graduating class, was attacked as being sexist and racist. According to the…

This study was conducted at the University of Missouri, to examine the use of portfolio assessment in the classroom. Surveys were administered to composition teachers in the Department of English who regularly use portfolios for student grading. Generally, portfolio assessment means that students work on a set of papers during the semester and…

Ways that colleges and universities provide opportunities for students to improve their writing are discussed in two essays and program descriptions. In "Reinventing the Rhetorical Tradition: Finding Ways to Revalue Writing," Patrick Hartwell and Greg Waters briefly describe activities at colleges that center around the rhetorical…

Through the use of theater games, the literary and theatrical aspects of drama can be brought closer together in the classroom. (JH)

The home mission of the University English department is the teaching of reading and writing, and its foreign mission is the "converting" to a higher literacy of those outside the English department, especially those who teach English in the high schools and other subjects at the college level. Potential high school English teachers'…

Little attention has been paid in composition journals and professional conferences to the practical problems associated with a writing program director's efforts to introduce an innovative composition curriculum within a traditional English department. A collaborative, problem solving approach to curriculum change is a practical way to proceed…

Discusses what is wrong with graduate schools in English, including lack of creativity, the irrelevance of much of the training for the doctoral degree, the attention paid to obscure points of literary scholarship, and the emphasis on publishing instead of good teaching. Notes the similarity to criticisms made 45 years ago. (EL)

A speech given a annual meeting of Conference on College Composition and Communication, National Council of Teachers of English (Seattle, Washington, March 19-21, 1970). (Editor/RD)

Explores the state of college English instruction and suggests several solutions to the problems of the nineties, including erasing the division between literature and composition teachers and developing closer working relations between educational institutions. (AEA)

In response to burgeoning nontraditional student enrollments in freshman composition at the University of New Orleans, the entire English faculty has begun to teach all levels of composition courses. Benefits from this development have included student appreciation, an improvement in faculty morale, and a tightening of academic standards. (DF)

Reviews a study of community college English programs examining levels of faculty education, academic rank, teaching experience, scholarly activities, curricula, teaching practices in developmental and college-level writing courses, institutional environment, and classification data. Indicates that faculty spend most of their careers teaching…

Describes the art of effective English departmental administration in a difficult time of budget constraints, calls for accountability, and intellectual turbulence. Considers the effect on departmental management of sustained scholarly interest in oppositional stances, powerlessness, and marginality. (HB)

Describes how the task of leading an English department has changed over the past 25 years. Considers the delicate yet essential task of the department head to provide leadership and vision for an entire department. Relates the general problems of English departments and specific problems in graduate education with diversity and difference gone…