The search for a common model of instruction in first-year composition began in the 1960s when composition first began to separate from literature in college English departments. Because writing is essentially a methods course with no standard curriculum as one might find in physics or economics, common model has been elusive. A sign that…

This paper investigates the development of writing initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, an area where prior to 1989, writing in universities played a very minor role. Using data gathered from eight institutions that currently have writing programs of some sort, I identify three typical paths writing initiatives…

This article addresses the issue of basic writing, demonstrating how one university's basic writing program acts as a steward of writing. The assumption that basic writers only consume resources rather than contribute to academic excellence is rejected. What links the author responses to this issue is a publication of student writing entitled…

In this article, the author argues that compartmentalization in the way that writing education tends to be discussed and therefore understood in the professional discourse of rhetoric and composition should be critically examined and transcended if the field is going to lead the development of undergraduate writing majors. Any new major should be…

As Composition Studies has grown as a discipline over the last quarter century, the field has wrestled with defining and naming disciplinary expertise and professional positions. At first glance, issues of naming may not appear worthy of debate, and so whether an individual writing center director identifies as a writing program administrator…

This paper is conceived as an extended reflection on what has passed for a materialist epistemology--which may be one way to understand cultural work--in English Studies. Rather than providing any final answers to the questions of what the praxis says about the theory, the paper first examines the origin of the humanistic literary text and then…

Questions whether literary study complements or enriches the teaching of writing. (HOD)

Describes how college instructors might make the move toward building community and fostering collaboration rather than working in isolation. Provides an autobiographical account of how two English teachers began such a journey. (HB)

Argues that composition cannot be taught apart from reading, that reading means only the reading of great writing, and that the teaching of reading and writing is best handled by people who have studied literature and created some themselves. Offers suggestions for the improvement of the undergraduate English curriculum. (FL)

Suggests that the ideal relationship between the writing center and an English department's writing program is almost symbiotic, each benefiting the other and both forwarding writing as a powerful tool for writing. Describes the writing centers at Montana State University and University of Nevada, Reno. (RS)

Presents a monologue by a writing laboratory director aimed at English department chairs in order to familiarize the "boss" with the writing laboratory, to explain what the laboratory can offer the English department, and to describe how the laboratory works with students. (RS)

Urges the Association of Departments of English (ADE) to issue position statements on promotion and tenure, on teaching composition, and on becoming more active politically. (AEA)

Describes "academentia," the delusion that disciplines are intellectually powerful as a result of their specialization. Prescribes "neighborliness"--intellectual and practical work done from the perspective of critical consciousness--as the antidote to academentia. Suggests that writing projects have great potential as…

Describes the distinction between the National Endowment for the Arts, which funds artists, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds those who talk about art. Examines the similar distinction in alliances between writers and scholars in English departments, focusing on their effects on writing programs. (MM)

Considers the role of the visiting writer in encouraging and supplying useful writing advice to student writers. Proposes some principles for the art of writing that writers offer composition students, especially related to the art of writing over its craft. (HB)