This report outlines the impact of the University of Vermont's writing-across-the-curriculum program on the development of the English major. Included in the report are: (1) a summary of the faculty writing project, with a list of premises and practices; (2) descriptions of four books published collaboratively by members of the English department…

The phenomenon of the graduate assistant grew out of the turn of the century need for larger teaching staffs. A debate was formed that still influences the way teachers are prepared for today's freshman composition courses. This debate arose from philosophical and methodological differences in English departments, which at that time emphasized a…

At present, the composition program at San Diego State is located in two departments. The Academic Skills Center offers pre-baccalaureate courses for basic writers and developmental ESL writers. The Department of English and Comparative Literature offers most of the required general education two-semester sequence, advanced composition courses,…

A 1987 survey of college English departments revealed that only 74 (38%) of the 194 colleges surveyed offered students the opportunity to specialize in some aspect of writing in addition to literature. A 1992 survey showed that 69% of departments had begun to offer this specialization. Respondents outlined possibilities for organizing and…

Part-time college instructors with children are not perceived as professionals, and therefore they often do not advance to full-time status. Their inability to move out of the area limits their possibilities for full-time work and colleges often exploit this. Of the part-time women interviewed by members of a panel at the Conference on College…

When the ideology of individualism is used in composition studies to create a hero image for the writer/teacher, the effect is to exclude from the "hero status" people who do not fit the requirements of the ideology. However beautiful and powerful a story it may be, for instance, Mike Rose's "Lives on the Boundary" puts forth…

As English departments face the 90s and beyond, the pressure will only rise to define and justify the role of the English professor in the academy. Three current debates suggest the indeterminate future of English departments, which now represent a multi-faceted discipline. First, the canon debate must be resolved; second, the teaching role of the…

Explores national trends in community college English departments. (RB)

Submitting scholarly manuscripts and journal articles to university presses and professional journals can result in a lengthy period of frustration for the author. One possible solution is a code of ethics and practices to which publishers subscribe, although authors would have little or no control over it, and a certain amount of self-policing…

Composition researchers are poised to offer new answers to the three questions which are at the heart of ideological definition: what exists; what is good; and what is possible? Researchers must consider the impact of computer-assisted composition programs (often called "style checkers") as well as the basic word processor. Style…

Based on the premise that an English teacher needs to be a scholar, this paper outlines the benefits of rhetorical theory for the teacher, and suggests an approach for teaching theory to part- and full-time composition faculty. The major benefits, for the teacher, of learning rhetorical theory include: (1) becoming more professional; (2) improving…

As composition teachers, we need to learn to stop evaluating the student writer's values and assumptions, and rather evaluate what he does working from those assumptions. (JH)

The Department of English at Wayne State University is planning to introduce a doctoral program directed to the processes involved in the composition of expository prose. Students admitted to the program will be trained primarily in linguistics and cognitive psychology, though they will also work in communication theory and rhetorical analysis.…

Departments of English and English education need to integrate concepts of career education that are based on the theory that people are constantly in the process of developing ideas about themselves in relation to their careers. Although institutions of higher education have been slow to implement career education, in recent years English…