This article shares the story of one student writer that shows how the challenges of writing from sources are tied to issues of voice and authority. Keith was a student in the author's first college writing class in the fall of 2002. As he undertook a transition from high school to college writer, the author was transitioning from high school to…

As a professor of English at Diablo Valley College in northern California where she teaches a variety of writing and literature courses, the author finds her students' essays so often lack not only shape and drama, but the ring of emotional truth as well. Their "life" stories are lifeless and their "true" stories sound somehow…

Suggests an approach to writing introductory paragraphs that is really a tool for revision. Describes how students can discover their own truths concerning why they are writing a particular essay. Notes that, once these truths are found, meaningful revision (and introductory paragraph writing) can occur. (RS)

Argues that college writing instructors have an ethical obligation to help students to critically examine the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of writing in school so that the students understand how they have come to view writing and revision as punishment. (TB)

Describes a procedure that encourages both earnest participation in the reviewing process (the production of detailed responses) and revision that actually takes student responses into consideration. Concludes that by requiring students to tell the teacher what they chose to leave alone and what they chose to change, the teacher is able to get…

Makes observations about how professional poets compose. Argues for the use of primary trait scoring and an interactive teaching method to guide students through revision while treating each poem as a unique piece of writing. Demonstrates how primary trait scoring and individual conferences assisted a student in revising his poems. (RS)

This article presents a systematic method for examining and evaluating written commentary. When used by writing instructors in authentic responding contexts, these reflective models can help instructors better understand their commenting practices in light of current response theories, establish clearer goals for making written commentary, and…

Notes that finding a way to integrate grading and responding in a manner that promotes learning through revision is one major challenge for composition instructors. Argues that instructors must find a way to shape their classrooms shifting the emphasis from "getting it right the first time," to learning to see writing as an activity that evolves…

Presents six suggestions from teachers for class activities and assignments, including Q (Questioning) Cards, career-oriented research papers, a strategy for revising papers, videos in literature courses, students as critiquers, and a practical purpose for research papers. (SR)

Grading essays and research papers can be the most trying part of any writing instructor's job. Fitting corrections, suggestions, and notes between double-spaced lines of text and into margins often creates a legibility problem, which only worsens when grading stacks of papers to meet deadlines. This essay describes electronic grading, a method…

Suggests that students do a better job of revising their essays when more than one student has suggested possibilities for revision. Contains tips on training students in the process of peer reviewing. (TB)

Suggests ways to help students move beyond rewriting to revising, including situational analysis and peer evaluation. Provides a worksheet on generating ideas, guidelines for evaluation, questions for peer evaluation, and a sample research article assignment. (MM)

Recognizing that students shudder at revision and see it as a perfunctory task to satisfy only their teachers, the author offers an approach that motivates students to revise thoughtfully without increasing teachers' reading workload. Quite simply, good writing requires less time to read than poor writing. The Numbers Approach to grading can free…

Points out that revising one's writing on hard copy after using the word processor for composing (1) reduces both computer and writing anxiety, (2) provides greater opportunity for decentering, and (3) is more comfortable to revise on hard copy than to revise onscreen. (EL)

Offers 11 classroom tips from teachers for a variety of activities, including fictional movie reviews, haiku writing, questions to develop student journals, handouts, rewriting stories, and a "dirty trick" to get better research topics. (SR)