When I first began teaching at Bridgewater State College, I was appalled that at-risk students had to take a not-for-credit course, Fundamental Skills (FS 101), prior to enrolling in Writing I. Asking working class students to pay for a three-credit course that would not help them graduate seemed unconscionable to me, and I was happy to tell anyone who would listen. And it was in this way that I

Here I am, teaching a class entitled Writing and the Teaching of Writing, telling my students why authentic questions are generally more productive than exam questions. I have just explained that, while authentic questions suggest that the teacher values the social construction of knowledge and genuinely cares about what students think, exam questions can limit discussion by forcing students to

Noting that "grammar instruction is unquestionably unfashionable," Laura Micciche (CCC 2004, p. 716) advocates a vision of grammar as a rhetorical tool to advance critical pedagogy. We should also, however, reconsider the way we teach the usage aspect of grammar. Usage is rhetorical too, as suggested by Larry Beason’s aptly-titled “Ethos and Error” (CCC 2001). To have the credibility necessary to

My colleague Lee Torda has enthusiastically espoused book clubs, and, feeling that the social-theoretic perspective undergirding this activity was sound, I asked my own FYC students to participate in these clubs. What happened this semester, however, has suggested that a purely social-theoretic perspective is inadequate in explaining the power of book clubs; I believe that Donald Davidson’s notion

Contradictions abound in the literature on conferencing. Many researchers and practitioners, for instance, discuss the importance of getting students to talk more and teachers to talk less. A study by Walker and Elias (RTE 1987), however, suggests that who does how much talking is not necessarily relevant. Looking at five conferences judged to be successful by both student and teacher and

Michael Moore's discussion of Julie Jung's approach to revision makes mention of the old cliche, and the way it seems to lurch into student writing. This reminds me of Bartholomae's classic, "Inventing the University," where the commonplace, as Bartholomae puts it, is taken to task as a sign of one's relation to the naive codes of everyday life. I have problems with Bartholomae's formulation,

We often speak of the importance of self-sponsored writing, and we encourage new instructors to have students write for audiences other than the teacher. After looking at the curricula of several well-known writing programs, however, my sense is that we do not always follow through on this approach as much as we would like—and I know that I can be guilty of this too. Two recent successes have