Offers an analysis of the work submitted for publication to "College English." (RL)

Since expository writing is inherently creative and innovative, and since readers respond to it both morally and aesthetically, it deserves the respect of the English teaching profession. (DD)

Argues that composition teachers should assign essay topics on writing because, by writing about writing, students can synthesize and master the material covered in class. (SR)

Interviews practicing scientist and essayist Stephen Jay Gould about his essay writing. (SR)

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of reflection in academic essays. Forty essays, all previously deemed to be of merit quality, were analysed in terms of three elements of reflection--how the educational issue is conceptualized; what the issue means for practice; and how practice might be changed to resolve the problematic. Each…

I argue that examining two collections of essays designed for the preparation of new writing teachers and published twenty years apart provides some important clues to what has occurred to composition studies in the interval. Building on the framework I established in two previous CCC articles, I argue that composition studies has become a less…

Students, especially first-year students, often have not developed the organizational skills necessary to keep track of all of their papers, exams, and grades in the same way that instructors, through their gradebooks, can immediately recite any information about a student's performance in the course. About five years ago, the author created a…

Part I of this essay traces the evolution of my understanding of the exploratory essay as a discursive form and a genre for teaching writing. Part II explores my motivations for advocating a polarized definition of the essay and then concludes with a call to expand the purview of composition beyond first-year courses.

The stories composition teachers tell their students about "what an essay is" are significant because they affect the work teachers do in the classroom. Questions about these stories, the cultural narratives the stories reflect, and implications for students can be answered through an examination of contemporary writing texts and texts…

This study investigated the effects of the use of piles on the reliability and level of theme grades; and the effects of the number of grading categories on the reliability and level of theme grades, awarded to undergraduate English compositions. (CS)

How students at Oregon State University use a new self-service media production laboratory to produce media instead of print term papers. (HB)

Describes one teacher's presentation of the essay via the photograph; once students realized the parallels between planning a photograph and preparing to write, they not only wrote better, they saved time. (KS)

Evaluates the control that form exerts over freedom" in an essay devoted to literary criticism. (Author/RD)

Several strands of research in applied linguistics have increasingly focused their attention on the application of genre theory to the classroom. In advanced academics, the genres of disciplinary communities serve gate-keeping functions that students must negotiate in order to succeed in their academic endeavors. Often without explicit…

The authors examined the effects of writing about the benefits of an interpersonal transgression on forgiveness. Participants (N = 304) were randomly assigned to one of three 20-min writing tasks in which they wrote about either (a) traumatic features of the most recent interpersonal transgression they had suffered, (b) personal benefits resulting…