Written language occupies a uniquely important space in the university. The present investigation concentrates upon variation in the situations and language that characterize the different varieties of writing produced at the undergraduate level in the English department. The aim of such an investigation is to identify and characterize the…

In this multiple case study, I examine relationships among the essay genre, contextual influences, sociocultural resources, and choices made by four adult English learners enrolled in an English composition course at a community college. My primary objective is to provide an expanded view of the writing processes used by adult English learners.…

Any single artifact in a museum possesses the potential to serve as a starting point for the viewer to interpret its meaning, develop an idea, and then generate a written piece. In this article, the authors describe steps for using a photography exhibit collection as artifactual inquiry.

How might English classrooms be spaces where Muslim students are empowered to recognise and resist Islamophobia? This qualitative study draws on theories of critical consciousness and Islamophobia to show how Bassim, a Muslim student, makes sense of Islamophobic encounters through the poetic and analytic writing he creates in his public high…

Teaching stand-alone grammar lessons is not as beneficial as instructors think if they want their students to learn how to write. If teachers truly want their students to become better at writing grammatically correct papers they will provide practice in writing, lots of practice. It is only through the practice of writing can students improve…

Secondary English Language Arts teachers face classrooms with increasing linguistic and cultural diversity, yet privilege an approach to literacy associated with monolingual forms of English. Adherence to this ideological approach to teaching English reinforces conditions of White Supremacy. Simultaneously, the increasing presence of digital…

In currently dominant accounts, English as a school subject, its content and processes, are construed as an induction into a well-defined, already-established disciplinary discourse or set of discourses. In an attempt to challenge this version of English, I present some examples of autobiographical writing by secondary students and I tell the…

"Drawing Conclusions" explores the use of juxtaposed visual representations (JVRs) to help preservice teachers grapple with abstract concepts, theories, or complex controversies in education. Acting as both a learning tool and an intellectual spark, JVRs are two simple contrasted sketches that students produce on a divided sheet of…

This article serves as an invitation to see the way the teaching of biography-driven writing has been increasingly pushed out of the secondary English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum in favor of highly structured, formulaic, and impersonal writing, and how this is a setback for students in their preparation for college and career writing. The…

This article argues for expanded opportunities for metalinguistic dialogue and written response rounds in order to better understand students' needs. Encouraging students to reflect on their compositions can invite multiple stylistic approaches and inform a more participatory composition process. The writing explores theoretical underpinnings,…

How we argue for, create, and mobilize around writing and rhetoric majors will continue to shape our field's disciplinarity in crucial ways, including our recognition, resources, and relationships. The range of such majors and their institutional contexts, and the disparate field-level efforts to track and build consensus around them, generate…

English literature and Composition studies never mesh given their origins and foci. English literature is essentially British in most places outside of the United States. Composition is essentially North American. Literature explores written texts while Composition creates new texts. Composition studies has been a relatively new intellectual…

The teaching of writing is at the core of the secondary English teacher's work. There have long been contrasting ideas about the most effective approaches to supporting students as writers, and in recent years in England the evidence--from Ofsted, for example--would suggest that it is common for teachers to offer structures to scaffold students'…

This dissertation examines the effectiveness of a low-bridge, minimalist approach to addressing multiliteracies online at the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the 2016-17 academic year, 110 students from 41 English composition classes received feedback on multiliteracy projects they submitted to the Writing…

How can secondary English teachers assign and teach argumentative writing to foreground its significance for students and their life trajectories? This article compares three approaches -- formalist, structured process and conversational entry -- in the light of this aim. Through analysis of exemplar assignments, the comparison illustrates the…