Motivated by a fear that she may have plagiarized, the author considers the possibility that plagiarism might be understood as a transgression against reading as well as against writing. Drawing on Philip Eubanks's work in "Metaphor and Writing," the article proposes that one reason for composition studies' ambivalent relationship to…

The Young Writers Program (YWP) is the latest writing workshop to be developed for the classroom. It challenges students to choose a topic and write a novel-length piece based on that topic, without worrying about spelling or grammar. While the foundation of this philosophy is solid, the support and structure of the Young Writers Program website…

Identifying English Education courses focused on young adult literature as apposite sites for exploring teacher conceptions of youth and the texts aimed for youths' consumptions, this article addresses the multiple sources of tension--and pedagogical potential--of teaching a young adult literature course centrally framed around controversial…

The article examines high school students' writing composition practices in multimodal instructional environments. We use Rosenblatt's transactional theory to look across the findings of 2 studies that blend traditional and digital modes of instruction in order to explore how modal switching can support students' reading and writing. We also…

This paper studies and suggests the need for writing instruction by which students can experience writing as a creative process in exploring and communicating meaning. The prewriting activities generate ideas which can encourage a free flow of thoughts and help students discover both what they want to say and how to say it on paper. Through the…

This article outlines suggestions for the use of self-reflective journaling as an assessment method in dance technique classes. The use of self-reflection makes assessment a part of the learning process, not an imposed evaluation of a student's final product, particularly when it is related to personal goal setting. The article provides practical…

There is growing concern among many regarding plagiarism within student writing. This has promoted investigation into both the factors that predict plagiarism and potential methods of reducing plagiarism. Consequently, we developed and evaluated an intervention to enhance good practice within academic writing through the use of the plagiarism…

This study examines the writing of 30 engineering students, faculty response, students' reading of the response, subsequent revision, and faculty evaluation to ask what factors contribute to constructive conversation about writing. It affirms previous research that suggests engineering faculty do not provide the facilitative commentary widely…

Adolescents with learning disabilities need explicit supports to improve their written expression, but those structures and supports are best utilized in an environment that promotes authentic writing resembling the writing students will produce in adult life and work. Classroom blogs may offer special educators an authentic context for writing…

Describes a successful workshop approach to teaching writing which uses elementary school students' own papers to teach ways to refine writing skills. (DD)

Discusses back-to-basics emphasis on writing skills and describes thematic approach of a five-week session for high school seniors with little writing experience. Student pre- and posttest essays are appended. (KC)

Describes the Six-Trait Writing Model, developed to aid in student writing and the analyses of K-12 compositions. Defines these six traits as: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. Discusses how student writing is scored according to these traits, how teachers can implement the model, and presents research…

This booklet is one of a series of teacher-written curriculum publications launched by the Bay Area Writing Project, each focusing on a different aspect of the teaching of composition. Introductory sections discuss writing fluency and the goals and procedures of a high school writing workshop for noncollege preparatory students. The work of three…

Imitation can be a useful method of teaching students to write well. Imitations may be "loose" or "close." Loose imitation aims for faint resemblance; it requires a perception of a particular model that looks at its most conspicuous features, such as tone, arrangement of ideas, and the general character of the diction. Close imitation aims at…

The five approaches to the teaching of writing presented in this article represent different assumptions and different views of writing; it is suggested that the teacher may select one or more of these theories as appropriate for use by individual students. (JD)