Despite his considerable influence on the development of ESP and all our professional lives, almost nothing has been written about John Swales' distinctive prose style. Based on a 340,000 word corpus comprising 14 single-authored papers and most chapters from his three main books, this paper sets out to identify the main features of this style.…

Effective uses of technology in social studies methods courses is an under-researched field. This study focused on the development of WebQuests to engage teacher candidate's exploration of the Internet as an authentic medium for inquiry in social studies education. Analysis of appropriateness of tasks in the WebQuests, depth of ideas and audience…

A great deal of research has now established that written texts embody interactions between writers and readers, but few studies have examined the ways that small acts of reformulation and exemplification help contribute to this. Abstraction, theorisation and interpretation need to be woven into a text which makes sense to a particular community…

This article offers a case study of a graduate class in communication research methods with a service-learning approach. Students were engaged in evaluating the public information campaign of a nonprofit organization exposing human rights abuses in US prisons. They gained hands-on experience in the use of a variety of basic research methods and…

Despite considerable research on teaching and learning in higher education, the relationship between university teachers' and students' understandings of the same teaching-learning events has not been a focus. This exploratory qualitative study used individual interviews to investigate the role of conceptions of teaching, learning and knowledge in…

Suggests five alternatives for plays to be run during the Christmas season, rather than the usual "A Christmas Carol" or "The Nutcracker." (PA)

This article presents a public speaking assignment that takes the study of rhetoric seriously. First, it shifts the approach from the common typology of informative, persuasive, and ceremonial speeches toward forensic, deliberative, and epideictic rhetoric. Second, this assignment takes rhetoric seriously by generating the understanding that all…

In this article, the authors comment on two key issues that emanate from Anders Ericcson and his colleagues' manuscript: (1) the audiences that the authors address; and (2) the implications of their work for policy. The authors argue that in the imperfect world of limited resources, domain-specific abilities in combination with psychosocial…

Considering how to better assess student writing, middle school teachers Molly Fanning and Brigid Schmidt revolutionize their conception of themselves as teachers. They challenge all educators to become what Henry A. Giroux calls "transformative intellectuals" by identifying as writers, practicing collaborative inquiry, and sharing their work with…

This essay draws upon the work of Northrop Frye to show that stories enacting the American Dream contain elements associated with romance, and briefly traces how Ronald Reagan and conservatives utilized the romance of the American Dream to the point that many Americans associated it exclusively with conservatism. The essay then details how Barack…

Discusses two senses of the word "community" (natural and elective) and how they influence writing. (MG)

This article addresses an under-researched area of graduate studies: the role of writing groups in developing the research and publication potential of university graduates. Drawing on focus group discussions with participants from a pilot program conducted in the Arts Faculty at Monash University in Australia, the authors investigate the outcomes…

In her work as a literary consultant--first in private practice and now at Georgetown University--this author has worked with many scholars who would like to adapt their research for a trade audience. Many shared a set of core beliefs about how the rules of publishing change when one writes for a larger, more general audience in order to publish…

Forum theater is an interactive theater method in which audience members become active performers, taking advantage of the opportunity to explore multicultural dimensions of teaching in a "safe space" and receiving feedback from colleagues. Forum theater methods derive from Theater of the Oppressed, an interactive approach founded by the Brazilian…

Argues that sports readers are no longer satisfied with statistics and scores. Finds that people want in-depth coverage of sports, as well as sports-related human interest stories. Cautions that if sports writers and editors do not modernize, they will be seen by readers as unnecessary, and could possibly be eliminated. (PA)