In attempts to find appropriate and authentic materials for students who are developing their academic writing skills, instructors often turn to works written by professional academics. However, genres such as published research articles and textbooks in specific disciplines may not be the most suitable models for what first year composition…

Many students conceive of learning institutions as factories and of writing as the delivery of a predictable product. An excerpt from a typical student theme reflects the fact that much student writing is hardly more than an assemblage of cliches. Teachers can show students the stereotyped nature of typical student writing by constructing a…

Describes a writing assignment in which students study and imitate the language of a minority author. Discusses how the assignment helps negotiate conflicts when students resist multicultural literature, as their creative responses mediate between themselves and works they might otherwise find foreign and antagonistic. (SR)