The purpose of this study was to evaluate online dictionaries from faculty prospective. The study tried to obtain in depth information about various forms of dictionaries the faculty used; degree of awareness and accessing online dictionaries; types of online dictionaries accessed; basic features of information provided; major benefits gained…

This essay argues that a trend in histories of literary and writing studies is to bifurcate the origins of the fields and so engage in those modernist narrative fallacies described by Jean-Francois Lyotard. Such works limit our understanding of past practices and the longstanding connections between disciplinarity and labor. (Contains 2 notes.)

Over the last decade, and in the context of the fiscal crisis in the nation in general and in higher education in particular, a debate has raged over the value of humanities research. Various commentators have argued that unlike nonhumanities disciplines, fields such as English studies and other humanistic disciplines bring very little into their…

University websites serve as sharing information with students whether prospective or enrolled. Often, before entering their departments, students visit them to have an idea as to what it would be like to be a part of that university and/or department. In that sense, websites help students in deciding whether the university matches their…

This ethnographic study of two classrooms examines to what extent, if at all, the introduction of multimodal and Digital Video composing as a literacy tool early in two teachers' careers had a transformative effect on their teaching and their students' learning. During long term participant observation in the classes of two English…

This dissertation examines how nomenclature and the act of naming shapes disciplinary identities for scholars and teachers of rhetoric and composition. The discipline is named differently by many of its members, sometimes called "composition studies," "writing studies," "composition and rhetoric," "rhetorical…

Graduate teaching assistants are common fixtures on college campuses, and their roles encompass a wide range of duties, including supervising labs, working alongside mentors, and teaching a variety of beginner courses to students. It is common practice in the field of composition and rhetoric, for example, to employ second year master's students…

Everyone benefits when teachers share their "best practice" ideas with one another; novice and seasoned teachers alike are delighted to add successful lessons to their repertoire. Besides giving teachers something tried and true to work with, successful lesson plans help teachers reflect upon what makes an approach to language teaching effective…

In this article, the author describes her induction years in high school teaching, reporting the frustration in lacking a suitably matched mentor, and her determination to attend to her own professional growth. Her story reveals characteristics common among "stayers," those who continue beyond their induction years and thrive for a long time as…

This paper describes an instance of continuing professional development and explores the contribution it might make to the ongoing international dialogue of professional development. It reviews the way features of the current debate on effective teaching, teacher learning and continuing professional development overlap and feed into each other and…

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing, usually housed within the English Department, has become a progressively more popular field of study among students and budget conscious administrators. But for all its popularity, it is a field that has been left generally unexamined by scholars. While there have been numerous scholarly studies…

The degree specification project is a simple, yet pragmatic process of crystallizing the "identity" of the degrees offered in each discipline. In other words, what should students expect to have in the way of skills, knowledge, and abilities once they complete a degree in a specific discipline? Faculty first articulate three to five…

In the last 15 years, writing center scholars have increasingly called for more evidence to validate writing centers' practices. Work by Paula Gillespie (2002), Neal Lerner (2009), and Isabelle Thompson et al. (2009) underscore this need. Missing from these discussions, however, is a thorough understanding of the past and current research…

Using the case of a secondary English department in Ontario, Canada, this article examines the constraints that academic departments face in transforming themselves from communities of practice into learning communities. This distinction between a community of practice and a learning community has taken on heightened importance as increasing…

This article examines an established course on Popular Culture which is framed within the general educational model in an English-medium university. The article is organized into three parts: the underlining educational rationale for general educational courses, the course description, and the students' perspectives of their learning experience.…