Composition Studies

A persistent challenge in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) pedagogy is helping students move beyond knowledge display (describing and reporting) to knowledge transformation (analysis and argument). Students often treat disciplinary sources as information to summarize rather than as evidence to recontextualize for argumentation, and struggle to connect abstract concepts with concrete details to build coherent claims. This paper investigates how successful first-year writers connect disciplinary knowledge, case evidence, and evaluative interpretation within analytical paragraphs in a case analysis assignment. Drawing on systemic functional linguistics (SFL), we integrate two complementary frameworks: the Onion model , which distinguishes between layers of description, analysis, and argument, and Hao's (2020) I know-I see-I conclude heuristic, which operationalizes movement between these layers at paragraph level. We qualitatively analyze 17 high-graded case analyses, coding paragraphs for reasoning positions, internal connexion (logical relations such as addition, comparison, consequence), and key lexicogrammatical resources (process types, projection, evaluative lexis). Our analysis illustrates that high-graded texts are characterized not only by the presence of the three reasoning positions, but by explicit bridging moves that transfer theory into case interpretation and by patterned use of logical relations to build cumulative, comparative, and consequential reasoning. We show how we translate SFL into practical classroom frameworks to support students' development of analytical writing. Teaching students how to write analytically and persuasively remains a challenge in university classrooms, especially for multilingual writers . In the first year, when students are beginning to encounter academic writing as a distinct form of communication, they are expected to do more than display knowledge (i.e., reporting on or summarizing what they have read); they are expected to transform knowledge by taking up disciplinary ideas, applying them to new contexts, and constructing arguments that This article is part of a special issue entitled: Systemic Semiotics published in Journal of English for Academic Purposes.

An intentional composition pedagogy of Stasis and Theory of Mind (SToM) is deeply social-epistemic, moving beyond the obdurate individualism of both postmodernity and traditional Stasis Theory to create something more reminiscent of Vygotsky's "social theory of mind." The idea of teaching composition with a hard link to SToM may well offend a few instructors, particularly those expressivists in the Romantic tradition whose creative vision for First Year Composition is deeply inward-looking, or the odd leftover current traditionalist whose formalist approach to college composition rarely goes beyond the textbook, the digital "learning environment" or the classroom door. The potential benefits of a SToM-based pedagogy go far beyond simply creating a more persuasive classroom composition. SToM can help student writers to clarify, understand and competently address others' seemingly "false" beliefs that arise from differences in social, cultural, political, and economic backgrounds and to develop critical adult negotiation skills in some of the issues they will face in the classroom and afterward.

An intentional composition pedagogy of Stasis and Theory of Mind (SToM) is deeply social-epistemic, moving beyond the obdurate individualism of both postmodernity and traditional Stasis Theory to create something more reminiscent of Vygotsky's "social theory of mind." The idea of teaching composition with a hard link to SToM may well offend a few instructors, particularly those expressivists in the Romantic tradition whose creative vision for First Year Composition is deeply inward-looking, or the odd leftover current traditionalist whose formalist approach to college composition rarely goes beyond the textbook, the digital "learning environment" or the classroom door. The potential benefits of a SToM-based pedagogy go far beyond simply creating a more persuasive classroom composition. SToM can help student writers to clarify, understand and competently address others' seemingly "false" beliefs that arise from differences in social, cultural, po...

This article argues that First-Year Composition (FYC) must be reimagined through the lens of queer literacy in order to challenge the heteronormative assumptions embedded in academic writing instruction. Drawing on theorists such as Jonathan Alexander, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Asao B. Inoue, the paper positions literacy as an embodied, affective, and ideological practice rather than a neutral skill. It traces the evolution of composition pedagogy—from expressivist and process-based approaches to cultural studies, genre theory, and translingualism—revealing how these frameworks, while transformative, have often neglected the role of sexuality, desire, and identity in writing.

Through this theoretical synthesis, the study introduces queer literacy as both a critical framework and a pedagogical practice that foregrounds hybridity, ambiguity, and negotiation. It demonstrates how classroom strategies such as conflicted practice, embodied writing, performative identity, and disruptive narrative can foster more inclusive and rhetorically aware learning environments. In doing so, the article also calls for a rethinking of assessment practices, advocating for labor-based and reflective models that value process, difference, and rhetorical agency over standardization.

This project contends that queering composition is not simply about incorporating LGBTQ+ content, but about transforming how writing itself is understood: as a site where identity, power, and discourse are continuously negotiated. By situating queer literacy within the broader trajectory of composition studies, the paper argues for a more honest, flexible, and socially responsive writing classroom that enables students to compose not only texts, but also themselves.

... Hillocks, George. Research on Written Composition: New Directions for Teaching. Urbana: NCTE/ERIC Clearinghouse, 1986. Jago, Carol. Papers, Papers, Papers: An English Teacher's Survival Guide. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2005. Knoblauch, CH, and Lil Brannon. ...

Resumo: No presente trabalho, realizei uma revisão crítica dos conceitos centrais relacionados à minha pesquisa, notadamente os de sistema composicional e planejamento composicional. Enfatizei uma expansão desses conceitos, refinando suas definições para uma aplicação mais musical e intuitiva. Introduzi o paradigma arquetípico como uma categoria ampla na qual se inserem os sistemas composicionais e os modelos ainda não explorados. Destaco dois desses modelos: 1) o proto-rizoma, inspirado no rizoma deleuziano, com uma perspectiva estruturalista; e 2) o sistema composicional desordenado, situado em uma fronteira conceitual, que é examinado por desafiar a essência determinística ou probabilística dos sistemas composicionais plenos. Mantendo o espectro estético aberto, este estudo busca contribuir para a evolução teórica e prática das metodologias que se concentram na aplicação de processos formais à composição, promovendo uma compreensão mais profunda e uma utilização mais fluida desses conceitos pelos compositores e compositoras.

The Sudden Crisis in Higher Education For over 100 years, universities have primarily measured critical thinking with the writing assignment. Whether in the humanities or social sciences, STEM fields or professional programs, colleges and universities have relied on written assignments as a proxy for many discrete cognitive functions that they feel constitute critical thinking. They presume that in order to complete an essay, students must reason, argue, evaluate information, synthesize sources, and interpret evidence. In other words, universities have presumed that when students write essays, they are thinking critically.

An exploratory study examined how gender might be connected with differences in how teachers of basic writing talk about their version of the course which David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky describe in their book "Facts, Counterfacts, and Artifact: Theory and Method for a Reading and Writing Course." Subjects, five male and five female composition instructors with varying degrees of experience in teaching the "Facts" curriculum based on the book, responded to a series of open-ended questions, including questions dealing with their teaching experiences, initial reactions to the course, changes they would like to make, definitions cf academic discourse, and the way their gender affected the way they teach or feel. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed to determine the degree to which the teachers' interpretations of the "Facts" course emphasizes one or the other of the two parts (intellectual practice or stylistic conventions) of academic discourse. Transcripts were also analyzed for any connection between teachers gender orientation (masculine, feminine, androgynous, and undifferentiated) and their various readings of the "Facts" course. Results indicated that while the course has a richness that allows interpretation, fewer than half the subjects saw an invitation to creative interpretation in the Bartholomae-Petrosky text. Results also indicated that the teachers who did perceive it that way were mostly female, were always people who had taught the course more than once, and were the most androgynous individuals in the group. (Seven notes are included and 11 refernces are attached.) (RS)

Even in a classroom that uses Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) methodology, strategic teaching of grammar, sometimes, finds a backseat, which may hinder acquisition of desirable language competence by the learners. Grammar should, therefore, ideally be taught following the basic principles of CLT methodology in a communicative language classroom. This paper seeks to find out if grammar can be taught effectively, using textual enhancement as a strategy, in a communicative classroom. The methodology adopted revolves round an experiment conducted on a homogeneous sample of fifty ESL learners of 12th standard class. The students are divided into two equal groups. One group is imparted textual enhancement based grammar instruction, while the other group is given a similar instruction on grammar for the same length of time, but without textual enhancement. Both the groups were then made to give an achievement test to measure their progress in comparison with each other. The group which received grammar instruction based on textual enhancement was found to show comparatively more progress than the other group. This leads us to the conclusion that textual enhancement as a strategy for communicative grammar teaching may yield desired outcome in an ESL classroom.

This booklet is one in a series of " hot topics " reports produced by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. These reports briefly address current educational concerns and issues as indicated by requests for information that come to the Laboratory from the Northwest region and beyond. Each booklet contains a discussion of research and literature pertinent to the issue, how Northwest schools and programs are addressing the issue, selected resources, and contact information. One objective of the series is to foster a sense of community and connection among educators. Another is to increase awareness of current education-related themes and concerns. Each booklet gives practitioners a glimpse of how fellow educators from around the Northwest are addressing issues, overcoming obstacles, and attaining success. The goal of the series is to give educators current, reliable, and useful information on topics that are important to them. This product meets a need both national...

Polyvocality, according to Bakhtin (1986), is integral to all human communication: our understanding of any text is informed by our knowledge of its history of use. Kristeva's work on intertextuality elaborates this picture by emphasising the relationships between texts at a single point in time . Between them, these two influential critics have highlighted the importance both of diachronic and of synchronic textual relationships in understanding language in use.

Adlington (Royal College of Music, England) argues that experimental music with democratic pretensions cannot but fail to realize its emancipatory potential. Chapter by chapter, Adlington pairs a composer with a different theorist of democracy: Elliot Carter with Tocqueville, John Cage and the New York School with Rancière, and freely improvised music with social movement literature. Each case underscores the inevitable betrayal of freedom that its practice and product had promised to disclose.

Toda lengua es su pasado y su presente. También está siempre en contacto con otras lenguas, lo cual genera transformaciones constantes. Languages are not homogeneous nor fixed cultural entities. However, al escribir tendemos a creer que el sentido se fija y queda inmóvil. Creemos que lo escrito es rígido y objetivado, pero olvidamos que la escritura es una práctica, que sus normas son múltiples y que, además, van transformándose. This book, then, deliberately combines languages —in this case English and Spanish— to discuss writing, translingualism, and writing centers. Buscando las palabras while writing permits the connection between a creative process with no limits and the variety of advantages found in translingualism. Its authors researched writing center philosophy and practice, and the politics of language, which add needed contributions to a transnational conversation. De esta manera, los investigadores que participan en el volumen y los tutores de los centros de escritura de la Florida International University y la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana escribieron en ambos idiomas, along with faculty from Colombia, Mexico, and the United States, with the purpose to learn one from another, en busca de nuevas perspectivas para eliminar barreras culturales y demostrar that we are all translingual in the end.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the issues related to the assessment of prisoner-students within the formal education system in the Kosovo Correctional Service. Respectively, done in Lipjan Correctional Center with male juveniles and female adult and juvenile prisoners and in Dubrava Correctional Center with male adult convicts through prison-teachers. To reach this purpose, three research questions were raised: 1. What are the assessment instruments and techniques used in formal schooling within Kosovo Prisons? 2. Is the Kosovo State Curriculum being respected while evaluating and assessing incarcerated students by prison teachers? 3. Are there any differences in prison education and common public-school evaluation practices in Kosovo? This research was done through qualitative data collection, a literature review and interviews as instruments of the research dedicated to prison teachers. The research results found that prisoner-students are being assessed according to the Kosovo State Curriculum requirements by prison teachers with the incarcerated adult and juvenile students through techniques and instruments similar to public school assessments done in the outside world. The findings showed the assessment criteria were presented to prisoner students at beginning of the academic year. Furthermore, the prison teachers were familiar with formative and summative assessment requirements derived from Kosova Curriculum Framework. The research verified the hypothesis that there are no issues in assessing the work of prisoner students, within prison education, compared to education in the common world.

espite recent declines in the number of people incarcerated in the United States, in 2020 there were over 2,000,000 Americans behind bars . While most individuals will return to their communities upon release , the majority will be rearrested within 5 years of returning home . Incarcerated individuals are disproportionally poor, male, unemployed, and from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds . They are also one of the most educationally disadvantaged populations in the U.S., with a majority of those incarcerated in state prisons having less than a high school education (

Despite being an international and powerful branch of the music and audiovisual industries, library music has limited symbolic capital. In conservatories, academies, and higher schools, the very idea of functional, commercially oriented music composition is consigned to oblivion, as if this practice did not exist. Music students in academic contexts are strongly encouraged to pursue what is classified as art, classical, or vanguard music. This article discusses the relationship between specific academic Portuguese music circles and the practice, teaching, and learning of library music. Our main question is: why, in the digital era, do the canons of music teaching still exclude practices such as library music? This research uses qualitative data collected from a group of respondents in the context of multi-method research. Respondents are music and musicology students, teachers and professionals in Portugal, all of whom have advanced practical and/or theoretical musical training.

Writing from the Rogerian perspective places emphasis upon the subject at hand and calls for close and critical analysis by the reader. The subject or problem is viewed within the audience's framework of values, not simply from the writer's assumptions or premises. The ethos of the writer is not the main focus of attention, nor is it the primary means of appeal. Finally, the goal of Rogerian rhetoric is to induce change in both the reader and writer. The basic assumption of Carl Rogers is that through discovery of each other's points of view, we are all encouraged to revise our image of the world.

The present study examined the use of heteroglossic resources in courtroom oral arguments in a high-profile political case, using the Engagement system within the Appraisal model developed by Martin and White (2005). The discursive analysis of legal teams representing Donald Trump and the United States revealed that both teams employed the dialogically expansive formulations of entertain and attribute more frequently than the contractive resources of disclaim and proclaim. However, within the contractive category, disclaiming resources (deny and counter) were used more often than proclaiming resources (concur, pronounce, and endorse). Comparing the two teams, the United States legal team, represented by Dreeben, utilised more contractive resources overall, emphasising authority and rejection of opposing arguments, while Trump's legal team, represented by Sauer, relied more on expansive resources to foster openness and flexibility. The frequent use of deny by both teams reflects their direct contestation of opposing claims, projecting confidence and control. Dreeben's strategic combination of deny and counter provided a dynamic edge by acknowledging Sauer's points before refuting them, subtly shifting the power dynamics in his favor. This study provides valuable insights into the strategic use of heteroglossic resources. Therefore, the study may contribute to understanding the rhetorical strategies used to incorporate multiple voices and perspectives in similar contexts, advancing knowledge in legal and linguistic studies.

usterity measures have affected many of us in education and non-profits. Corporate interests have influenced funding opportunities for nonprofits, textbook purchases, assessment issues, curricula, and labor and equity issues. Readers of the Community Literacy Journal will be drawn to different sections of this collection, as it is timely and brings together voices to show complex ways that global and national neoliberal formations impact local institutions. Part I begins with Chris W. Gallagher' s discussion of e-portfolios used for accreditation purposes in "Our Trojan Horse: Outcomes Assessment and the Resurrection of Competency-Based Education. " Gallagher makes the claim that e-portfolios are part of the neoliberal agenda toward competency-based education (CBE) and that by accepting outcomes assessment, compositionists have "unknowingly invited CBE" (23). Gallagher is critical of private foundations that fund CBE such as the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation, the Lumina Foundation, and Nellie Mae. One of the problems with CBE, as Gallagher states, is that "CBE today imagines writing not as a means of participating in social and civic contexts, but rather as a means of producing material to be evaluated" (29). This is contrasted with how Gallagher imagines writing classes with teachers as "expert shapers of educative experiences . . . who offer a kind and quality of experience-in courses and curricula, and in and through writing-that cannot be replicated or by-passed by vendors" (31). Gallagher ends by giving suggestions for Writing Program Administrators (WPAs) in assisting to get corporate interests out of education reform. Colleges should be places "where people gather to learn together" (32). Gallagher draws a harsh distinction between corporate interests and learning goals, but he does not define what "real" learning might look like or why the two ideas of learning and CBE are mutually exclusive. WPAs are often in a difficult position vying for funding, and may be wary of being called "complicit" in allowing CBE. But there are no quick fixes to educational reforms, and calling on educators and politicians to consider this is an important step.

This article looks back to the 1998 special issue of WPA themed on collaborative administration and contrasts patterns in the articles in that issue—written almost entirely by four-year-college and university WPAs—with the particular conditions of one TYC writing program to argue that collaboration is equally valuable and vital in TYC programs but for different reasons than at other types of institutions. The specific material conditions of TYC writing programs—including diversity of disciplinary expertise among the faculty, and complex power dynamics—create a setting in which WPAs must build deep and wide collaborative structures that are both strong and radically inclusive. This article concludes with a list of design principles to guide the ongoing work of creating sustainable collaborative TYC writing programs.

A n examination of the status and uses of writing portfolios in university writing programs at the close of the 20th century, Assessing the Portfolio was written out of the firsthand experiences of two writing program administrators (WPAs) who worked together in the mid-1980s at the University of Michigan just at the time that published their germinal piece on the demise of timed writing tests and the birth of university writing portfolios as exit measures at Stony Brook, ushering in a period of profound interest and attention to portfolios in the writing classroom. Pat Belanoff and Marcia Dickson's 1991 anthology Portfolios: Process and Product and Kathleen Blake Yancey's (1992) Portfolios in the Writing Classroom began a half decade or so of conferences and publications that has helped establish the portfolio as a mainstay in the writing classroom and as a viable option for large-scale assessment as well. Hamp-Lyons served as associate director of assessment for the English Composition Board (ECB) at Michigan from 1986 to 1990; Condon served as associate director of instruction from 1986 to 1994, then as director until 1996. When they began their work together at Michigan, writing instructors relied on notions of prompted, timed, single-shot writing assessment-an improvement on the multiple-choice tests they replaced. When they ended their day-to-day partnership in 1991 (only to begin their writing partnership for this book), Michigan students and teachers alike understood the full benefits of a writing portfolio because the uni-

Exploring the Language of Music Through the Ages
From the chants of ancient civilizations to the bold innovations of Modernism, music has always been humanity’s universal language. Each era tells its own story through melody, harmony, rhythm, texture, and the unique timbres of voices and instruments.
I’ve just completed a detailed compendium tracing the musical elements across history — not a “complete encyclopedia,” but a deep, engaging journey into how music evolved, shaped culture, and reflected the human spirit.
If you’ve ever wondered why Medieval chants sound so different from Romantic symphonies, or how instruments developed into the orchestra we know today, this work is for you.
Whether you’re a student, teacher, or lifelong lover of music, I invite you to explore and join the conversation about how these elements continue to resonate in our world today.
Music is more than sound — it is history, culture, and humanity expressed in harmony.
#MusicHistory #Education #Learning #Timbre #Melody #Harmony #Rhythm #Texture #Form

We want foremost to acknowledge and celebrate the late Carl Klaus, teacher and mentor to both of us. It was his idea for this collection, and many pieces here benefit from Carl's deep expertise in the essay. We also appreciate the encouragement of Jean Lloyd-Jones, an esteemed leader in Iowa politics and women's rights. Jean and Jix made a wonderful, formidable partnership. We want to acknowledge the patience of the contributors to this volume, who endured some false starts and delays on our part yet stuck with the project with great generosity. Thanks to Mike Palmquist, publisher, and the staff of the WAC Clearinghouse and the University Press of Colorado. We're grateful to Emily Kirkpatrick, Colin Mucray, and Lisa Avetesian for permission to reprint material previously published by NCTE; to James McCoy, director of the University of Iowa Press; to Steve Semken, publisher and founder of Ice Cube Press; and to William Sewell, David Masiel, and John Boe, editors over the years at the wonderful journal Writing on the Edge. Elizabeth Stuckey-French supported us in bringing Ned's draft work to its final form. We wish Ned were here for its publication. We appreciate the patience and insights of our spouses, Becky Bradway and Kate Carroll de Gutes, each themselves nonfiction writers. Finally, we want to acknowledge the English Department of the University of Iowa for having played such an important role in our educations-and the educations of so many of this book's contributors. From the 1970s, when creative nonfiction was a dim glowing ember in American universities, Iowa has blown insistent breath on the genre, lighting and warming its readers and writers.

Overview of the past, present, and future activities, challenges, and opportunities of CWSP.  Panel profiling the 2024 Exemplary Writing Across the Curriculum program award winners. Award jointly sponsored by the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum and the WAC Clearinghouse.

This paper discusses the “Language Use” pattern of ISL by the deaf community. This paper aims to understand the vitality of sign language within the community and to foresee whether ISL is likely to be maintained in coming future. As proposed by Boehm (1997:67), “The choices people make in regard to language use reflect trend towards either language maintenance and language shift. To some extent, this reveals the vitality of the language. Fase et al. (1992:6) says that, “It has been commonly found that when the mother tongue of the minority language remains dominant in communication within the ethnic group, it can be said that mother tongue has been maintained.” This survey also deals with the major issue faced by the deaf community in this speech dominant society, which is huge “communication gap” with the majority speaking people of our society.

This  paper  explores  the  evolving  landscape  of  English  Language  Teaching  (ELT)  in  rural India,  emphasizing the  critical  need  for  proficiency  in  English  as  a  means  of  social  and economic  advancement.  With  rural  areas  contributing  significantly  less  to  the  GDP  despite their  large  population,  enhancing  English  literacy  is  essential  for  human  development.  The papertraces  the  historical  roots  of  ELT  methodologies,  from  the  Grammar-Translation Method to contemporary approaches like Communicative Language Teaching and task-based learning.  It  highlights  the  transformative  potential  of  integrating  modern  technology, including e-learning platforms and digital tools, to create engaging and inclusive educational experiences.  The  significance  of  cultural  relevance  in  teaching  through  literature  and community  engagement  is  also  discussed.  The  research  aims  to  provide  educators, policymakers, and scholars with insights into effective strategies for fostering communicative competence  in  students.  Ultimately,  the  study  advocates  for  a  holistic  approach  that prioritizes  collaboration,  lifelong  learning,  and  cultural  sensitivity  inELT,  aiming  to  equip learners with the language skills necessary for navigating a globalized world while fostering mutual respect and understanding.

Even in a classroom that uses Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) methodology, strategic teaching of grammar, sometimes, finds a backseat, which may hinder acquisition of desirable language competence by the learners. Grammar should, therefore, ideally be taught following the basic principles of CLT methodology in a communicative language classroom. This paper seeks to find out if grammar can be taught effectively, using textual enhancement as a strategy, in a communicative classroom. The methodology adopted revolves round an experiment conducted on a homogeneous sample of fifty ESL learners of 12th standard class. The students are divided into two equal groups. One group is imparted textual enhancement based grammar instruction, while the other group is given a similar instruction on grammar for the same length of time, but without textual enhancement. Both the groups were then made to give an achievement test to measure their progress in comparison with each other. The group which received grammar instruction based on textual enhancement was found to show comparatively more progress than the other group. This leads us to the conclusion that textual enhancement as a strategy for communicative grammar teaching may yield desired outcome in an ESL classroom.

In Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay, Campbell and Latimer claim they "have found that students can use the [five-paragraph] formula to say very little in a very organized way" (95), and our experience as teachers and scholars in English education and composition studies confirms the same observation. We've examined writing assignments inviting students to explain three transportation modes for traveling to school, to describe a coffee mug in terms of shape, color, and texture, or to list the steps of turning up the TV or making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. To what end, one reasonably wonders. And though these assignments undoubtedly seem extreme, they are nonetheless real examples and not much different from the following only slightly more complex variations: describe three differences between the film and written versions of To Kill a Mockingbird, give three reasons why open adoption promotes social justice, or analyze three scenes that prove alienation is a theme in Divergent. Why does the five-paragraph essay persist? According to Campbell and Latimer, the answer lies in several deeply ingrained myths about writing pedagogy, including one myth that T/W readers have certainly heard: Five-paragraph essays provide a scaffold that helps to "prepare students for college writing" (8). Brannon et al. argue that these myths about five-paragraph essays are powerful, pervasive, and even "seductive" ( ), and they are particularly well represented in the not researched, but seemingly commonsensical claims of Byrung-In Seo and Kerri Smith, whose essays appear in the "In My Opinion" section of English Journal-a highly respected venue. In an attempt to debunk these myths and others like them, Campbell and Latimer cite relevant studies (see

In Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay, Campbell and Latimer claim they "have found that students can use the [five-paragraph] formula to say very little in a very organized way" (95), and our experience as teachers and scholars in English education and composition studies confirms the same observation. We've examined writing assignments inviting students to explain three transportation modes for traveling to school, to describe a coffee mug in terms of shape, color, and texture, or to list the steps of turning up the TV or making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. To what end, one reasonably wonders. And though these assignments undoubtedly seem extreme, they are nonetheless real examples and not much different from the following only slightly more complex variations: describe three differences between the film and written versions of To Kill a Mockingbird, give three reasons why open adoption promotes social justice, or analyze three scenes that prove alienation is a theme in Divergent. Why does the five-paragraph essay persist? According to Campbell and Latimer, the answer lies in several deeply ingrained myths about writing pedagogy, including one myth that T/W readers have certainly heard: Five-paragraph essays provide a scaffold that helps to "prepare students for college writing" (8). Brannon et al. argue that these myths about five-paragraph essays are powerful, pervasive, and even "seductive" ( ), and they are particularly well represented in the not researched, but seemingly commonsensical claims of Byrung-In Seo and Kerri Smith, whose essays appear in the "In My Opinion" section of English Journal-a highly respected venue. In an attempt to debunk these myths and others like them, Campbell and Latimer cite relevant studies (see

In this paper, I theorize how Bakhtin's dialogism -a sociocultural approach that views learning not as an individual cognitive achievement, but as a social practice informed by the complexity of human interaction -reconciles academic discourse and storytelling in a compelling way. As a literacy approach, storytelling is widely considered as an effective way to bridge the gaps between meeting the demands of the Standards-based classroom and fulfilling the needs of English Language Learners. However, under the current paradigm of education theorizing, personal testimonies were often dismissed as an invalid form of academic knowledge. Conceptualizing cultural discourse as dialogic utterance -premised upon the mutually conditioning of understanding and responses -Bakhtin's theory of discourse incorporates the vision of inclusion and diversity as a resource for learning and signals storytelling as a template to explore conflicting interests and complex interaction within contemporary life. His pedagogical approach to communication and literacy results in a new form of academic discourse that can be used to bridge the cultural-linguistic divide within the standards-based classroom.

The perceived credibility of a message can affect the exchange of ideas within fields and across professions. This chapter examines rhetorical factors and underlying cognitive processes that influence an audience's credibility expectations. The chapter also presents an approach for researching such expectations in order to create messages that an audience considers credible.

English 299 is a two-unit credit/no credit elective, capped at fifteen students per section, intended to help first year composition students become more effective editors of their own writing. The class provides a hands-on environment to help students with sentence-level editing since the writing center on campus traditionally focuses on more global concerns. Incoming California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI) students who are deemed by the California State University system as needing additional support to satisfy their first year writing requirement (so-called "Early Start" students, explained further below) are placed in English 299 and given priority enrollment in the first year composition (FYC) course of their choice. The class follows a coaching model that helps students develop confidence as editors of their own work and demystifies the writing process.

Recently, I participated in a conference workshop on issues in teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. One of the attendees remarked that, because she taught Advanced Writing, she had no need to think about second-language writers. This notion, that second-language writers are easy to identify and do not exist outside of segregated sections of ESOL courses, stems from what the authors of this collection refer to as composition's tacit policy of English Only (1). The policy, which champions standard, academic English above all others, keeps instructors from following the best pedagogical practices for second-language writers. The lack of scholarship and teacher training in language diversity doesn't help, with scholars having a tendency to align themselves on one side of the conversation-either TESOL instructors focusing on ESOL issues or composition instructors focusing on dialects. Given these concerns, Bruce Horner, Min-Zhan Lu, and Paul Kei Matsuda's collection is an important contribution to the field. Issues in language diversity are rarely given attention in the first-year composition classroom, but these essays reveal the benefits of this topic to all composition classes. The collection features eighteen essays, divided equally between two sections. The first, "Struggling with 'English Only' in Composition," discusses the evolution of language and provides background on how English Only policies have manifested in the college composition classroom. Part 1 has essays from scholars such as John Trimbur, Gail E. Hawisher, Cynthia L. Selfe, and Paul Kei Matsuda. The second section, "Responses to Struggling with 'English Only' in Composition" offers calls to action for increasing linguistic diversity and a discussion of the real challenges presented by attending to these issues. This section begins with Shirley Wilson Logan's discussion of language and ownership and ends with a reflection by Victor Villanueva. Throughout the collection, the authors continually prove the need for language awareness in the classroom. The problem, Horner asserts in the book's introduction, is that instructors falsely assume that their students are native speakers of English (1). By exposing attitudes promoting monolingualism, the book makes clear the need to study, teach, and assess language in all of its variations. In the first essay of the collection, "Linguistic Memory and the Uneasy Settlement of U.S. English," Trimbur notes the United States' tendency to forget its heritage as a linguistically diverse nation. He provides a historical overview of the evolution of language in the US, including dialects, pidgins, and creoles born out of the travel and expansion of settlers. For example, African American slaves used a type of plantation creole as a form of secrecy,

T he teaching of basic writing occupies a peculiar position in composition studies. It is the specialty of some of the leading figures in composition studies and, simultaneously, the province of teachers and students placed at the bottom of the academic institutional hierarchy. The emergence of basic writing as an academic field in the early 1970s has been cited as crucial historically in the development of composition. John Trimbur, noting that "many of the teaching and research projects we now take for granted began in the wake of open admissions and educational opportunity programs in the late sixties and early seventies," attributes "a number of remarkable innovations in the study and teaching of writing" to basic writing (14). James Slevin identifies the period as the time of composition's "rise," a "writing movement" addressing "broad questions about the aims of education and the shape of various educational institutions" and having as its focus "the revitalizing of the teaching of writing" (12). Ira Shor likewise describes this time as one when teachers faced "a creative and exciting frontier of cultural democracy" (Critical Teaching 269). Thimbur, Slevin, and Shor all identify the lessons and insights of teaching from this period in political terms: a "movement" for "cultural democracy" that explicitly called into question the social and political role of educational institutions and the politics of representing students, or prospective students, and their writing in particular ways-as "literate" or "illiterate," "college material" or "remedial," "skilled" or "unskilled." It is significant, however, that all three writers identify such lessons and insights as at risk of being lost or forgotten. We need, Trimbur notes, to "relearn" the insights of open admissions (14-15). Slevin worries that the Bruce Homer is an associate professor of English at Drake University, where he teaches courses in writing, literacy studies, and song criticism. Some of his essays have appeared in English Education, Rhetoric Review, and the Journal of Advanced Composition. This essay is part of a booklength project with Min-Zhan Lu on Basic Writing. CCC 47.2/May 1996 199 National Council of Teachers of English is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to College Composition and Communication www.jstor.org ® CCC 47/May 1996 training of writing teachers typically does not include investigation of the history of writing instruction and its role in socializing those new student populations historically called "remedial" (14). Shor offers his own account of teaching in Open Admissions "as a means to resist the erasure of memory" (Critical Teaching 269). In this essay, I explore why and how such insights of basic writing got lost to such an extent that they now need to be "relearned," in order that they not be "re-lost." I analyze a dominant discourse on basic writing whose meanings and forms are central to such works as Mina Shaughnessy's Errors and Expectations, the Journal of Basic Writing, the 1987 Sourcebook for Basic Writing Teachers and various bibliographies on basic writing. I refer to this discourse as Basic Writing to highlight both its institutional power and its selective representation of the wealth of practices and projects in teaching basic writing. I argue that Basic Writing represents a response to another, powerful public discourse on higher education and those students deemed underprepared for college. I map the formation of that discourse by analyzing the key terms and assumptions operating in a range of public debate on open admissions in general and at the City University of New York (CUNY) in particular, the institution most closely associated with texts shaping much of Basic Writing discourse. I argue that public discourse on higher education and open admissions perpetuates the denial of the academy as part of the material, political, social, and historical worlds. The success of Basic Writing in legitimizing the institutional place of basic writing courses and students cannot be separated from the ways in which it works within the framework of public discourse on higher education and Open Admissions, particularly its silence about the concrete material, political, institutional, social historical realities confronting basic writing teachers, students, and courses. The costs of such a strategy, however, have been the erasure of the sort of critical insights that first propelled practices and projects in basic writing and the near permanent institutional marginalization of basic writing courses, teachers, and students. This exploration should interest not just basic writing teachers but all those involved in the teaching of college writing. Not only has the emergence of Basic Writing contributed significantly to the field of composition studies, but basic writing students, teachers, and courses represent composition's problems of academic institutional status writ large. Like college composition generally, basic writing has long been perceived as marginal at best: expendable, temporary, properly the responsibility of the high schools, and therefore a "drain" on English departments specifically and colleges and universities in general. Basic Writing's efforts to work within and against the public discourse on higher education dramatically highlight the ideological and material constraints with which all teaching of

This research aimed to develop an interactive e-book integrating traditional games, such as Cublak-Cublak Suwung and Truth or Dare cards, with structured scaffolding to support English language learning. The researchers implemented scaffolding through step-by-step exercises that progressively guided students in understanding texts. While many studies have explored digital media in language learning, research on interactive e-books incorporating traditional games and scaffolding remains limited. Addressing this gap, this study employed a Research and Development (R&D) approach consisting of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. Using a mixed-methods design, quantitative data from 15 seventh-grade students was collected through Likert-scale questionnaires, and qualitative data was collected from interviews with an English teacher, observations, and student questionnaires. The e-book was validated by two experts in design and content, with validation scores of 4.33 from the media expert and 4.23 from the content expert, while students rated it 4.22, confirming its high validity. Additionally, student feedback indicated a strong interest in using the e-book for English learning, with an average score of 4.35. This innovative approach supports more engaging, culturally relevant English learning, making it a valuable resource for classrooms and supplementary learning, particularly among Indonesian learners.