Scoring methods used in the annual contest of duplicated publications in the school press field, i.e., any school publication the copy for which has been prepared by hand on a typewriter, or similar device, and reproduced directly from the original by a mimeograph or other duplication device, are discussed in this booklet. The sections of the…

The battle over whether literature or composition should dominate English instruction is the consequence of a perception that composition instructors who do not use literature as their primary source material have nothing substantial to offer in its place. A survey of 19 colleges and universities in New York revealed that institutions with a…

Facing the problem of a wide discrepancy in grading standards for student essays, the English department at a Texas community college developed a standardized method of grading students' expository and persuasive essays. The department established a committee of 10 full-time instructors whose objective was to standardize grading for all required…

The purposes of the Basic Writing Skills Assessment Project, begun in the spring of 1977, were to provide a review and assessment of the existing English proficiency program and to develop a data base on which generalizations might be made about the status of writing skills at Plymouth State College. This report was written on the basis of…

Teachers in all disciplines must demand good writing from students if they want their writing to improve. When good writing is demanded only in English classes, students develop a double standard for their writing. To make teachers in other departments aware of their responsibility for the quality of student writing, English teachers can take the…

This document consists of six separate items: (1) a description of graduate courses in English education at Youngstown State University; (2) an outline for a summer workshop on the teaching of writing; (3) the welcoming letter sent to workshop participants, which includes the list of required readings; (4) a summary of workshop participants'…

This paper asserts that an English department that wishes to involve other departments in helping to improve students' writing skills must proceed through four distinct phases: (1) preparation of a rationale for involving other departments in the teaching of writing; (2) administration of a writing-attitude inventory to colleagues in other…

Discusses responsibilities of the two-year college English department chairperson with regard to developing curriculum offerings to meet student and community needs, recruiting and hiring faculty, developing a sound basic writing program, working to achieve low faculty workloads, encouraging faculty development, and working to achieve public…

Several problems of college English departments--the increasing proportion of part time students, the need to provide literacy for all college students, and the unemployability of the department's graduate students--are described. A trend toward hiring community college faculty members to help solve these problems is described. (RM)

Experience using a freshman writing magazine in basic Rhetoric classes at other colleges prompted the creation of a similar one at DeKalb College in Georgia. Building a coalition of supportive colleagues; composing a statement of purpose; and sending letters with the pertinent information to freshmen writers, colleagues, and high school English…

Current needs in English-as-a-mother-tongue teaching, especially in England and Wales, are surveyed. It is argued that the feeling of stagnation among students in many university English departments results at least partly from the failure to respond to new ideas about the teaching of English language and literature. (JL)

To determine if there are significant differences between the first-semester freshman composition grading standards of public two-year and four-year institutions in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, a composition instrument was mailed to 120 freshman composition directors from two-year and four-year member institutions. The…

English department members at Augustana College decided to make writing a college-wide concern. They began by attempting to change the perceptions of the faculty, including that of the English department, which consisted of members trained entirely in literature rather than in composition. The approach to the rest of the faculty began with an…

Addressing the issue of testing and evaluation in English at the university level, this paper focuses on the development and use of the English Placement Test developed by the California State University system. The discussion of this testing program is placed within a framework of four testing principles: testing is an essential part of learning…

Writing teachers at the University of Oregon have established working relations in three different ways with teachers outside their department. First, they have set up sections of a required composition course to be taught in conjunction with courses in other disciplines; workshops to develop skills in handling students' writing are conducted for…