Discusses one teacher's approach to "advanced" English instruction. Reflects on such topics as the undigested transmission of the canon and the problems of the "common sense" style of teaching. Includes comments by two students who participated in the course being described. (HB)

Explains the new conception of literary genre as it is being devised in the fields of literary studies, linguistics, and rhetoric. Suggests how this new conception has affected the thinking of teachers on writing and writing instruction. (HB)

Describes the author's experiences teaching a contextualized (content-driven) English curriculum in a vocational school, surmising that if students write about things that truly interest them (their trade areas), then writing instruction will be contextual and therefore meaningful and effective. Discusses difficulties and rewards, the variety of…

Examines complexities of the supposedly simple idea of literacy in the discourse of vocational education within the changing discourse of vocational and workplace education. Looks at two workplace educational initiatives: Secretary of Labor's Committee for Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS); and the Northwest Workplace Basics Curriculum Management…

Argues that the prohibition against the comma splice has no logical basis whatsoever, and offers numerous examples. Maintains that English teachers should relax prohibitions against comma splices, accept that usage is flexible, and allow students a freedom which more confident writers take for granted. (SR)

Describes how a veteran writer and English teacher who only recently began writing poetry encourages others to invigorate their teaching by taking up a new writing genre. Details the lessons he has learned from poetry and passed on to his own students. Outlines six problems he encountered and presents solutions for each. (SG)

Describes an assignment designed to assist senior English students in rediscovering their genuine selves. Invites students to create an imaginative piece that involves experimentation and intellectual risk. Encourages students to mix genres, devise new structures, collaborate, and incorporate other art forms in which they have some expertise.…

Describes a session at the Spring 1997 National Council of Teachers of English convention to honor Donald Murray's life and work. Summarizes several presentations, and offers excerpts from written testimonials capturing the essence of Murray's writing and teaching and explaining his irreplaceable personal and professional role. (SR)

Examines both the early and recent periods of the history as it has been written for both English education and first-year composition. Argues that those accounts show consistently converging trajectories of disciplinary practice in both areas. Proposes that writing teacher educators should actively consider reconfiguring their shared discipline…

Each Fall, the nation's newspapers are filled with laments over the decline in the writing skills of college students. What makes this trend especially depressing is that a good many of the complaints are leveled by those who should know better--writing teachers. Today's students, "don't know how to--or even care to--express their views," churn…

A comparison between composition and literature is presented in Harriet Malinowitz's "Business, Pleasure, and the Personal Essay". The importance of praising and analyzing various interpretations of a text to English studies is emphasized.

The migration of online educational needs to tools like Google applications, coupled with the realization that today's twenty-first-century students are digital natives who have lived their entire lives exposed to current technology, forces educators to find ways to use technology to enhance traditional curriculum. In this article, the author…

Teachers teach literature to help students expand and develop their image-making powers, "to imagine, conceive, fancy, picture," to think. To get students involved in literature, especially poetry, Robert Frost's poem, "The Witch of Coos," is particularly useful because it is so immediately accessible. In order to help engage…

Notes that there are two common definitions of writing style, one monistic and one dualistic, both of which make style unteachable. Reviews these two concepts and then offers an alternative definition of style that unites the advantages of each. (FL)

Argues that the study of literature has been stripped of its usefulness and purely theoretical while the study of rhetoric has been stripped of theory and reduced to practical, applied stylistics. (SRT)