Fifth grade teacher Molly Toussant realized with chagrin that she habitually mouthed her precepts about teaching writing in the same rote way she had recited the Apostles' Creed in Sunday school, and that her students had no idea why they had to write "like every day." So she wrote this explication in which she shows, with many examples, how her…

This issue's column focuses on two practices that everyone has learned and utilized but possibly have forgotten. First, Michael offers a look into classroom management and what he needed to learn to be a more effective teacher. Second, Terry asks questions to remind himself and other writing teachers of the importance of helping students…

Notes that the notion of authors consulting their audiences is an old one. Discusses how Homer, Ernest Hemingway, and James Joyce reworked their writing to suit the taste of their audiences. (RS)

Since its unveiling in 2003, professors and college students have flocked to the virtual world of Second Life. Professors use Second Life to hold distance-education classes, saying that communication among students becomes livelier when they assume digital personae. Anthropologists and sociologists see the virtual world as a laboratory for…

"Frame alignment"--the conscious process of creating correspondence between one's own "frame" (ways of making meaning out circumstances) and someone else's--is a necessary condition for participation in organized social movements. Frame alignment processes may offer a generative and useful alternative to the reductive…

Proposes that writing pedagogies focused on models of audience analysis stultify invention and in doing so compromise the epistemic dimension of the writing they influence. Claims that classical audience analysis assumes a determinism that the separation of reader and writer denies. (HB)

Presents a comparative analysis of two pieces of computer-based interactive multimedia whose words are similar but visual structures different. Argues that the visual aspects of these texts are "idea" and "assertion," doing the work of "content" and "information." Suggests that educators need to expand or…

Presents a comparative analysis of two pieces of computer-based interactive multimedia whose words are similar but visual structures different. Argues that the visual aspects of these texts are "idea" and "assertion," doing the work of "content" and "information." Suggests that educators need to expand or…

Through reading and reflecting on the words of Atwell, Rief, Moffett, and Graves, Maltese began to think like a teacher-researcher, and questioned her writing workshop practices. Once she began to consider audience as a motivating factor, writing became more meaningful for her students, encompassing a wide range of possibilities. Working from a…

Biographical writing is highly imaginative writing and always has been. The task of the biographer is to weave a riveting story from the fabric of the subject's life. For example, a single pivotal incident in the lives of Percy Bysshe Shelley, the English poet, and Mary Godwin, author of "Frankenstein", at the grave of Mary's mother,…

A speechwriter who prepares a text for public address should first consider whether he or she is going to deliver the speech personally and should be careful to select a topic which the potential audience will not strongly oppose. From the introduction of a speech to its conclusion, a speechwriter should have definite goals, present an appropriate…

Most people dread sitting down to write, but the job becomes easier when certain writing strategies are followed. Most bad writing results from a lack of planning, not a lack of writing skills. Before determining the main point of a piece of writing, the writer should determine the purpose and audience. First, determine what needs to be achieved…

Discusses written procedures that explain library tasks and describes methods for writing them clearly and coherently. The use of appropriate terminology and vocabulary is discussed; the value of illustrations, typography, and format to enhance the visual effect is explained; the intended audience is considered; and examples are given. (seven…

Argues for the teaching of "visible features of written texts," or document design, in composition classes. Concludes that educators must teach students how to see their own texts through the eyes of the readers they hope to attract, converse with, and persuade. (SC)

Offers a self-critique of the authors' earlier work "Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience in Composition Theory and Pedagogy." Proposes an alternative to the agonistic approach to establishing the new at the expense of exposing the faults of the old. Aims to learn from the cultural, disciplinary, and institutional forces at…