The writing teacher's foremost job is leading students to see the valuable ideas they have to express. Writing is a way to share those ideas with the world rather than a way to be wrong, Anderson asserts. Teachers and parents too often focus on errors in student writing. This focus gives students the impression that writing well is about avoiding…

There is a conceptual world surrounding writing in schools, and we are conditioned to a particular language about composition and literacy. This study seeks to interrogate the terms composition and literacy at the level of the classroom: to ask what is meant when it is invoked and what it means to the teachers who teach it. The central question of…

The study reported in this paper explores issues of motivation and learners' identity in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing classroom in Vietnam from the perspectives of the learners. It was conducted with thirty English-major students at a university in central Vietnam. While relevant literature appears to place much emphasis on…

This paper investigates the approaches taken to essay writing by five Asian international students at an Australian university. Analysis of their in-depth interviews reveals links between their perceptions of learning, their perceptions of essay writing, their motivation for completing the task, and their awareness of the structural conventions of…

Interest in social construction has coincided with a widespread movement to situate the composing process in a social-cognitive paradigm. Because social and emotional themes overlap, writing specialists assume that the emotional components of writing have been taken care of. However, by being absorbed into social themes, the emotional experience…

Relates the story of how the author connected for the first time, in the 11th grade, with writing, awakening in her something she did not know she had. (SR)

Includes an interview with writer Lydia Davis. Discusses her definition of story, her use of endings, and her language choice. Provides an excerpt of her translation of Marcel Proust's "Swann's Way." (PM)

Presents an appreciation in honor and praise of language arts educator Donald H. Graves. Describes the rewards, now compounding through the generations, of his gentle encouragement and his continual modeling as a learner himself, teaching students and classroom teachers to value all they know and all they can do through writing compassionately and…

Examines the question of whether writers have to stick to literal facts of a story. Contends that the type of memoir a writer produces is determined in part by that writer's sensibility, as well as by how that writer views the genre. Concludes that the emotional truths of memoirs are often better served by how they are remembered than by how they…

Considers what poets themselves have to say about poetry. Discusses how they write poems, why they write poems, and what poetry is good for. (RS)

Offers a poet's reflections on writing and his schooling. (PRA)

Describes the encounters with children experienced by a writer of children's books when she makes school visits. Reflects on how authors' visits to schools positively affect children's interest in reading and writing. (SR)

Presents an interview with author Margaret Atwood about teaching writing, her experience of writing, and Canadian literature. (SR)

Discusses the somatic mind, a permeable materiality in which mind and body resolve into a single entity which is (re)formed by the constantly shifting boundaries of discursive and corporeal intertextualities. Addresses its importance in composition studies. Critiques the poststructuralist disregard of corporeality. (CR)

Suggests that, although the benefits of word processing are widely acknowledged, writing is still perceived as a difficult activity. Considers the degree to which particular features of word processing might constitute new and significant impediments to individual writers. Discusses this issue with writers who expressed concerns that their…