In prison, a man has the opportunity to learn something that is lacking in the world outside: respect. He respects those who respect him, because he has learned the value of respect. Another important opportunity is the chance to get on the education ladder and to earn some self-respect. The author was assessed as "illiterate" when he was jailed…

Theories of authorship and models of the author have been influential in shaping various approaches to composition theory and pedagogy. While discussions of the role of the author and authorship in composition studies have been going on for some time, tensions between the theoretical (author as social construct) and practical (author as agent)…

Most students avoid the reflective nature the writing process requires. Their resistance to meta-cognition, thinking about one's thinking, often means they are incapable of capitalizing on their strengths or improving upon their weaknesses. The author believes students who are familiar with writers' lives and habits will be that much more…

This article addresses the silences and anxieties provoked by the gendering of English Studies as a subject taught by men to women. I reflect on my own experience as a female student and lecturer within a subject that has been "professionalized" by males. The geographical and social context within which I teach--the South Wales Valleys,…

Naturalism was first proposed and formulated by French novelist Emile Zola, and it was introduced to America by American novelist Frank Norris. It is a new and harsher realism. It is a theory in literature emphasizing scientific observation of life without idealism or avoidance of the ugly. American literature naturalists dismissed the validity of…

This article presents an interview with Libba Bray, author of "Going Bovine," the winner of the Michael L. Printz Award as the year's most distinguished title for teens. Since the publication of "A Great and Terrible Beauty" in 2003, Bray has captured the imaginations and loyalties of a host of teen readers. This initial entry in a trilogy--which…

This article presents an interview with Phillip Hoose, National Book Award winner for young people's literature for his book "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice," a true story of a teen who refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Hoose is no stranger to the world of literary honors. His…

Mere days before the announcement of the new children's book ambassador, speculation was still running wild. However, when the Library of Congress introduced Katherine Paterson as the new kids' book ambassador on January 5, the choice was greeted with unrivaled enthusiasm. A two-time winner of the Newbery Medal (for "Bridge to…

2010 marks the fifth year the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) has selected an honor list of international books. Once again, titles on the list crisscross the globe. They have been published in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, India, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. This…

Some of the students in this author's developmental writing class are, to their own surprise, brilliant storytellers. They simply trust the tale, not the teller. If they tell a ghost story, they do not pretend, for instance, to believe in ghosts or zombies or duppies; they actually do. And so when they write faithfully, the reader sees what they…

Political science as a discipline lacks any convention on the order in which authors should be listed in co-authored publications. As a result, the order of authors' surnames currently provides no information to other scholars, hiring and promotion committees, and other reviewers about the relative contributions of each collaborator. This lack of…

For years, like many U.S. poets, the author felt he knew the work of Pablo Neruda--and taught bits and pieces of his story and his poems in various locations. The author drew on the poems he'd come to love years ago in "Residence on Earth," "The Heights of Machu Picchu," and his "Elemental Odes," along with snippets…

Back when the author was the school librarian at Little Elementary School in Arlington, Texas, she started writing and publishing books for children. She had completed her master's and PhD in Library Science from Texas Woman's University while working full time, and when she finally finished, she had such well-honed time management skills that she…

According to a number of authors, character is dead. On their view, the evidence is in, and all of our attempts to inculcate character in our students have not only failed, but are in fact destined to fail for various reasons. They base their conclusions in part on a number of experimental results that have been obtained since the 1920s,…

Submission patterns of articles accepted for publication in "Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development" from 1990 to 2009 are reviewed. Trends are analyzed in article content (i.e., type, issue, statistical procedures) and author demographic characteristics (e.g., sex, nation of domicile, professional title, departmental…