Forty years ago, Nancy Sommers identified dissonance and the ways in which writers respond to incongruities between "intention and execution" as a core competency of revision. While still a challenge for student writers, dissonance now takes different forms, particularly for advanced student writers who embrace theories of revision but…

This essay brings to light new evidence about the relationship between revision and reflective writing in the first-year writing classroom. Based on a robust study of student work, we illuminate a variety of complex relationships between the writing knowledge that students articulate in their reflections--including how they narrate their course…

In this Symposium focused on MOOCs, this journal carries forward a tradition of attending to the technologies associated with composing and the teaching of composing. In the May 1983 issue of "College Composition and Communication," for example, most of the articles focus on composing and include a mix of inquiries, from Jack Selzer's on the…

Our pedagogical histories lean on textbooks, institutional records, and the words of famous teachers. Students rarely appear in situ. Here, the voices of two very different Progressive Era students cast spotlights on the shadows of long-ago classroom practices--offering a liveliness that is difficult to recover, but worth seeking. (Contains 5…

This article compares essays written in response to the ACT Essay prompt and a locally developed prompt used for placement. The two writing situations differ by time and genre: the ACT Essay is timed and argumentative; the locally developed is untimed and explanatory. The article analyzes the differences in student performance and predictive…

Offers a heuristic for writers to appraise the relative value of information in texts as an aid to revising. Uses the example of noun strings versus prepositional phrases. (SR)

Examines research on using word processors for writing and writing instruction. Argues that research can mislead and discourage teachers from using computers in their classrooms. Asserts that word processing encourages students to have fun while guiding them through the revision process. (MM)

Explores the use of topical structure analysis as a way to understand some textual cues that may prompt revision and as a way to describe the effects of revision. Describes the methodology, results, and implications of a study of some of the textual causes and effects of revision. (HTH)

Describes a method of teaching writing that asks students to locate a proper epigraph for their completed essays. Discusses the function of epigraphs, especially as poetic expression. Shows how some students revised their work according to the content of their epigraphs. (HB)

Provides a rationale for and description of daily student journal writing, peer evaluation, and revision, which provide students with necessary writing practice without overloading the instructor. (HTH)

Looks at three articles that demonstrate how current research and theory on composition is insisting that the rhetorical concerns of "audience" and "purpose" are integral to the processes of writing. Discusses how these articles narrow the pedagogical gap between writing process theory and rhetorical concerns. (HTH)

Advocates teaching the paraphrase from the dramatistic perspective in order to teach students the "active," dramatic nature of meaning, and the different ways they can describe meanings. Illustrates how the paraphraser selects and combines elements, creating a complete context for the original text. (MM)

Discusses what computers (word processors) can do for the writer. Examines the physical and psychological constraints experienced by writers and explains how word processors can help in overcoming them. (FL)

Describes an experiment at Montana State University in which 12 professors and four freshman composition students were trained to use the university's central computer as a word processor. Concludes that the computer can be a powerful revision aid for writing students. (FL)

Describes classroom experiments, using invisible writing which produces a carbon copy while preventing scanning during the composing process, to examine how different writing tasks differ in their cognitive demands and how the need for scanning may indicate the cognitive difficulty of the task. (HTH)