College students, when writing essays in writing courses, are generally called upon to show that they have an ability to organize the essay according to an established pattern which includes an introduction, the body of the text, and a conclusion. This pattern of discourse, called "Essayist Literacy," is most favored by mainstream…

An ethnographic study of a freshman composition class at the Universidad Autonoma de Santa Domingo (Dominican Republic) examined classroom practices and behaviors of the professor and students as students learned to improve their native-language reading and writing skills. Differences from U.S. classrooms are discussed in terms of the needs of…