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 author's experiences during the 1970s while he was a graduate student; at that time, he knew almost nothing about community colleges. Presents a profile of the author's institution, Westchester Community College in New York, and the faculty search process that the college now uses. (PA)

Explores issues, problems, and procedures involved in large English departments which use portfolio assessment and where part-timers and full-timers need to collaborate in this process. Offers recommendations involving the relationship of part-time and full-time teachers in such programs. (SR)

Examines the restructuring of first-year composition at Iowa State University. Discusses the exodus of tenure-track faculty from first-year composition in the late 1970's and early 1980's; why upper administration is now mandating tenure-track faculty's return; why the department of English is cooperating; and potential risks in cooperating or not…

Despite what institutions and departments are doing to make adjunct instructors feel valued and a part of the college community, there are always two groups: the full-time faculty and the adjuncts. To feel valued, what an adjunct instructor might need more than a mentor, a name tag, or even a raise in pay, is to be considered a professional equal…

An internship program, created by the English Department at Saint Cloud (Minnesota) State University, is designed to respond to the current need for an improvement in the workplace literacy of many American workers. The internship and concurrent colloquium provide a crucial link between theory and practice, enabling learners to reflect critically…

New fields of English study are developing their own canons, their own majors, and their own departments: Black studies, Caribbean studies, women's studies. Yes, all scholars in English read Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Zora Neale Hurston, and Derek Walcott, but do they read them alike? Are the places of these works in the literary tradition the…

Ideological tensions at the heart of conflicting philosophies concerning the role of English department studies in higher education generate such questions as: "Should courses in literature be required?" and "Is the ultimate goal of the English major a good job or a good karma?" The answers to these questions are important, as…

While tenure-track faculty begin their careers with some sense of what they will teach, what they will earn, and how they will be promoted, lecturers are not allowed such assurances. In the early days, lecturers in the English Department at the University of Nevada Reno (UNR) taught basic composition courses, four per semester unless they were…

College composition instructors have the opportunity to take a step toward meeting the needs of a pluralistic society by defining a developmental writing curriculum that incorporates the same strategies that characterize the mainstream writing classroom. The "cognitive deficiency model" that characterizes most instruction in…

This book is a journal kept over 15 months from January 1987 to March 1988 by a tenured member of the English Department at Ohio State University (OSU). The book is an attempt to convey the quality and texture of life at OSU, with its ups, downs, and level places; its satisfactions, frustrations, and routines; its successes, disappointments, and…

Creative writers have moved into the mainstream of English departments without understanding or reviewing their own history, and without reconceptualizing graduate and undergraduate creative writing programs. Such a history can be constructed from sources in three areas: institutional history, creative writing history, and rhetorical history. An…

Intended for elementary and secondary school English teachers, this thematic journal issue offers practical suggestions and strategies to help educators improve their professional image, both in the classroom and in the larger sphere of the community. The titles and authors of the eight articles are as follows: (1) "Raising Your…

As a follow-up to the successful book "Eight Approaches to Teaching Composition," this collection of 13 original essays presents the major research and scholarship in the related fields that are shaping the theory and practice of composition studies. Each chapter defines a special area of study, assesses its published literature from the…

The English department faculty training program at Purdue University-Calumet, Indiana, designed a program that would provide their entire staff with the skills necessary to use computer-assisted instruction and word processing to teach all levels of writing. Phase one of the program was a semester-long class designed for regular faculty, beginner…