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2011

  1. Remembering Basic Composition: The Emergence of Multimodality in Basic Writing Studies
    Abstract

    Henry, Hilst and Fox argue for expanding basic writing to include multimodal communications and digital literacies alongside print-based literacies. After defining key terms related to multimodal composition, the authors describe teaching and learning strategies related to visual and oral/aural communication modalities.

  2. Teaching Style in Basic Writing through Remediating Photo Essays
    Abstract

    Basic writing students' photo essays demonstrate that the multimodal composition process affords opportunities to participate in engaging conversations about writing. The authors argue that the incorporation of multimodal assignments in the basic writing classroom promotes both digital and print literacies while fostering awareness of students' own writing processes.

  3. Video Unbound: Have You Vlogged Lately? Infusing Video Technology in the Composition Classroom
    Abstract

    Booth and Spina-Caza argue that because video is so widely used as a communication tool, it should be incorporated into the composition classroom. Guidelines for teaching and writing with video are presented along with suggested resources for basic writing instructors.

  4. The Word on Hope and Dread: Multimodal Composition and Developmental Writing
    Abstract

    Shapiro describes challenges instructors confront when designing multimodal basic writing coursework while commenting on benefits afforded to students. Drawing on her teaching experiences in basic writing and Upward Bound classes, she offers sample assignments and provides a framework for creating curricula based on multimodal, academic and home literacies. Book Review: Shimmering Literacies

  5. Redefining the Writing Center with Ecocomposition
    Abstract

    Writing centers are like organisms, performing in and living in an educational environment: evolving, altering, adapting. Given this organic quality, a key way to understand how writing centers handle the teaching of writing is to examine them through the lens of ecocomposition. Focusing on the organic nature of writing, ecocompositionists borrow the concept of ecology as a central metaphor, seeing writers and their environments as dynamically intertwined. Student writers, then, are part of a web of connections. Woven into the theory of ecocomposition are perceptions and ideas that explain the work of writing centers today. This paper applies to centers each of ecocompostion’s pivotal concepts—interrelationship, place, and voice—in order to provide new insight into the nature of centers as they help students and to show that centers are not colonialists, they are not outsiders, and they are very capable of adding to Composition Studies.

  6. The Technology Coach: Implementing Instructional Technology in Kean University’s ESL Program
    Abstract

    Faculty involved in implementing a grant to incorporate technology into post-secondary ESL teaching and learning describe the coaching model they used to do this. The authors explain how they drew from principles of literacy coaching to develop and implement their model; describe their experiences in working with coachees; discuss technology plans, including instructional software and lessons; and reflect on the successes and challenges experienced by the faculty and students. The profile includes applications for faculty professional development in higher education, with implications that are especially meaningful for programs predominantly staffed by part-time and adjunct faculty.

  7. Utilizing Strategic Assessment to Support FYC Curricular Revision at Murray State University
    Abstract

    The first-year composition requirement at Murray State University was revised in 2008 from a 6-credit-hour, two-semester sequence to a 4-credit-hour, one-semester course. The revision overtly emphasizes critical reading, writing, and inquiry, while addressing the realities of the institution’s resources for teaching first-year composition. This profile describes the reasons behind the revision and the process of its implementation, contextualizing the change within the background of the university and burgeoning writing program. The methods and results of an assessment of the revised course in comparison to the previous course sequence are outlined in depth, along with how the assessment guides the instruction, administration, and future assessment of writing at the university.

December 2010

  1. Guest Editors' Introduction: Technical Communication and the Law
    Abstract

    This special issue features articles that address legal issues as they relate to technical communication research, pedagogy, and practice. The articles will assist instructors who wish to engage classes in activities that allow students to understand, analyze, and respond to legal dilemmas related to workplace activities. The articles will also highlight contemporary subjects for research inquiry in technical communication, including the relationship between technical communication and civic engagement, which often depends on the study of legal processes. It is our hope that this special issue will generate interest in the intersection of technical communication and the law and that it will provide readers of TCQ with a valuable and unique foundation for teaching and research in this area.

    doi:10.1080/10572252.2011.527820
  2. Student and Teacher Perceptions of Plagiarism in Academic Writing
    Abstract

    Writing is no easy task in any discipline and at any stage in a student’s course of university study. In addition, it brings with it the important concern of plagiarism. Obtaining student and teacher perceptions of the strategies students use to produce their assignments has been valuable in identifying and dealing with plagiarism. This article reports on a survey carried out at one English-medium university in Lebanon of 358 Arabic student views by discipline and year and 31 teacher views on the strategies students use to “improve” their written assignments. Results show that although students are aware of the prevalence of plagiarism in all disciplines and in all years of study, they perceive more incidences in the professional disciplines, at advanced levels, and in student use of strategies that give help to and gain help from their peers. Teachers indicated higher student use of all strategies and a greater extent of plagiarism than did the students. Recommendations in line with recent research emphasizing more positive methods are made for raising student awareness of ethical writing strategies, establishing common ground on what constitutes plagiarism, and implementing pedagogical practices and institutional policies that educate rather than penalize.

    doi:10.1558/wap.v2i2.251
  3. Addressing Pedagogy on Textual Borrowing
    Abstract

    Over the past few decades, researchers interested in composition and second-language (L2) writing have increasingly begun to examine issues related to intentional and unintentional plagiarism, factors influencing plagiarism such as culture and language proficiency, and L2 writers’ textual borrowing practices. However, less attention has been paid to the instructional issues surrounding plagiarism. This article aims to add to the research on pedagogy specific to writing from sources by reporting on a survey conducted with 113 writing instructors working at universities, colleges, and intensive English language institutes in the Western United States. These instructors evaluated existing resources for teaching how to avoid plagiarism and shared ideas about the types of instructional materials they use or would like to use. Additionally, the article examines a case of one writing instructor utilizing resources related to textual borrowing when teaching a unit on summarizing as part of an academic writing course for L2 writers, and explores the decisions made in the process of implementing various resources in the class. Based on the results of the survey and the case study, recommendations are made for writing instructors and materials developers, along with suggestions for future research.

    doi:10.1558/wap.v2i2.223
  4. Not (Entirely) in Their Own Words
    Abstract

    Professionals routinely ask colleagues for feedback on drafts of their written work, and the feedback they receive frequently includes suggestions for changes in wording. By convention, professionals are free to appropriate these suggestions without citation; the suggested words or phrases become, in effect, the author’s own in a transaction this essay terms a textual gift. In contrast, guidelines and policies on plagiarism for student writers are typically phrased in ways that would appear to forbid students from accepting textual gifts or to require that they use citation in doing so – both of which interfere with teaching students how to solicit and make use of feedback in a professional manner. Centered on a case from the author’s own experience, this essay explores the complexities of textual gifts in academic settings through a look at the language of institutional policies, handbooks on writing, and online guides to citation practices, as well as existing scholarship on plagiarism. The essay argues that new scholarship is needed to guide both instructors and institutions, and maps out some potential avenues for this work.

    doi:10.1558/wap.v2i2.163
  5. Preventing Plagiarism
    Abstract

    In the academy, approaches to handling plagiarism vary widely. Some – for example, the approaches of programs that use turnitin.com or similar software – favor detection and punishment. Others view instances of plagiarism as teaching moments, while still others argue that a culture-wide change in values is required for plagiarism to diminish. Our discussion examines these different perspectives, tracing them to their disciplinary or structural homes, before suggesting a practical pedagogy of plagiarism instruction that reconciles the differing approaches.

    doi:10.1558/wap.v2i2.281
  6. Proactively Addressing Plagiarism and Other Academic Honesty Issues with Second-Language Writers
    Abstract

    In response to difficulties in dealing with plagiarism and academic honesty, faculty and staff in a university-based American intensive English program (IEP) took specific measures to help international students understand these issues. The host institution’s policy on academic honesty, which was too difficult and nuanced for second language writers to understand, was replaced with a new policy written in simple language, making concepts and penalties easier to understand. Program-wide measures were implemented in stages to build summarizing and paraphrasing skills for students at all proficiency levels and to support their development as academic writers, and changes were made to the curriculum, incorporating writing from sources at an earlier stage, in scaffolded assignments. Teaching emphasis was shifted from after-the-fact punishment of plagiarism to proactively teaching about concepts of academic honesty and writing from sources. To assist with this, plagiarism detection services were repurposed and used as teaching tools for students instead of policing tools for instructors.

    doi:10.1558/wap.v2i2.293
  7. Situating Ourselves: The Development of Doctoral Programs in Rhetoric and Composition
    Abstract

    The discipline of rhetoric and composition is often defined by binaries: rhetoric/composition, teaching/practice. Our doctoral programs, however, occupy space at both ends of the spectrum through the simultaneous emphasis on composition pedagogy and rhetorical theory. The changing curricula in doctoral programs offer a unique lens through which to interpret some of the forces that have shaped rhetoric and composition as it has developed in the past fifty years. Examining the curricula highlights how our disciplinary identity has been shaped, at least in part, by our various institutional locations.

    doi:10.1080/07350198.2011.530114
  8. Call for papers-Tutorials and Teaching Cases
    doi:10.1109/tpc.2010.2093915
  9. Response: Do We Really Know What the Problems Are? A Messy Conversation about Pedagogical Questions and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
    Abstract

    Preview this article: Response: Do We Really Know What the Problems Are? A Messy Conversation about Pedagogical Questions and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/tetyc/38/2/teachingenglishinthetwo-yearcollege13319-1.gif

    doi:10.58680/tetyc201013319
  10. How Do We See What We See? Pedagogical Lacunae and Their Pitfalls in the Classroom
    Abstract

    This article considers pedagogical aporias in teaching students to perform critical analyses of nontraditional “texts,” such as advertisements and shopping mall display windows.

    doi:10.58680/tetyc201013318
  11. Reviews
    Abstract

    Reviewed are: Teaching Writing Online: How and Why by Scott Warnock, Reviewed by David J. Cranmer Teaching Writing Online: How and Why by Scott Warnock, Reviewed by Amy Cummins Generation 1.5 in College Composition: Teaching Academic Writing to U.S.-Educated Learners of ESL , edited by Mark Roberge, Meryl Siegal, and Linda Harklau, Reviewed by Todd Ruecker Learning from Language: Symmetry, Asymmetry, and Literary Humanism by Walter H. Beale, Reviewed by Eric Bateman

    doi:10.58680/tetyc201013324
  12. What Our Graduates Write: Making Program Assessment Both Authentic and Persuasive
    Abstract

    This article argues for and models an approach to writing program assessment that relies on study of the writing practices of program graduates as a way to inform revisions in curriculum and teaching practices. The article also examines how conducting such assessments can help nondisciplinary publics understand the nature of composition studies.

    doi:10.58680/ccc201013211

November 2010

  1. Starting with Self: Teaching Autoethnography to Foster Critically Caring Literacies
    Abstract

    This article illustrates the application of critical literacy (Freire &amp; Macedo, 1987; Gutierrez, 2008; Morrell, 2007) pedagogies that draw from young people’s funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, &amp; Gonzalez, 1992) to actively nurture personally, authentically, and culturally caring relationships (Howard, 2002; Noddings, 1992; Valenzuela, 1999) that reflect a concern for students’ lives. Specifically, it discusses the impact of students performing autoethnographies (Alexander, 2005; Carey-Webb, 2001) “cultural narratives that build toward critical social analysis” as a means toward increasing critical self-reflection and building compassionaterelationships between youth of color with fractured collective identities. Such approaches, as I argue, can tap into youth confusion and anger in order to engage them as critical readers, writers, and oral communicators. The findings suggest that autoethnographies increased students’ knowledge of self and, upon recognizing one another’s all-too-familiar struggles, the classroom climate became more conducive to constructing a critical common identity among youth of color. In this way, the article has implications for building classroom relationships that make for more effective pedagogies engaging dispossessed, working-class children of color with culturally relevant critical literacy teaching practices.

    doi:10.58680/rte201012745
  2. No Longer on the Margins: Researching the Hybrid Literate Identities of Black and Latina Preservice Teachers
    Abstract

    In this article, the author takes a close look at the discursive ways that Black and Latina preservice teachers reconcile tensions between their racial and linguistic identities and the construction of teacher identities in the current context of preservice teacher education in the United States.Through the study of language as representative of teacher identities, the author presents a critical discourse analysis of the language and literacy practices of Black and Latina preserviceteachers “all nonstandard language and dialect speakers” across diverse contexts within and beyond the university and school setting. This examination of their literacy and language practices elucidated a move beyond marginalization and inferiority toward agency and linguistic hybridity.

    doi:10.58680/rte201012742
  3. Challenging Ethnocentric Literacy Practices: (Re)Positioning Home Literacies in a Head Start Classroom
    Abstract

    In what ways can teachers incorporate young people’s home and community literacy practices into classrooms when such practices vastly differ from the teachers’ literacy experiences? How can teacher education curriculum and teaching influence teachers’ pedagogical practices? How can children’s roles be pedagogically reframed and become meaningful strengths in classrooms? Grounded in these interrelated research questions, this article documents some of the influences of Freirean culture circle as an approach to inservice teacher education on the ways in which two Head Start teachers and a teacher educator negotiated and navigated within and across home and school literacy practices, co-creating a curriculum based on generative themes and making early education meaningful to children from multiple backgrounds. Further, it proposes that conducting extensive ethnographic studies is not a prerequisite to creating pedagogical spaces that honor children’s home literacy practices and cultural legacies. Findings indicate that as teachers seek to build on young children’s language and literacy strengths, it is pedagogically beneficial to engage in documenting glimpses of home literacy practices within and across contexts while simultaneously challenging and (re)positioning ethnocentric definitions of literacy by engaging young children as authentic curriculum designers.

    doi:10.58680/rte201012744
  4. Annotated Bibliography of Research in the Teaching of English: An Introduction
    Abstract

    Richard Beach, Martine Braaksma, Beth Brendler, Deborah Dillon, Jessie Dockter, Stacy Ernst, Amy Frederick, Lee Galda, Lori Helman, Tanja Janssen, Karen Jorgensen, Richa Kapoor, Lauren Liang, Bic Ngo, David O’Brien, and Cassie Scharber This annual bibliography is available online only and now contains content tags to make it more easily searchable.

    doi:10.58680/rte201012746
  5. Opinion: Self-Disclosure as a Strategic Teaching Tool: What I Do—and Don’t—Tell My Students
    Abstract

    Self-disclosure should be not given some special status in student writing or in teaching. Nor should it be employed simply because it is an alternative to more traditional academic discourses. Instead, self-disclosure should be evaluated with the same rigor and respect that we bring to those other discourses, and should be employed only when it is an equally good or better rhetorical choice.

    doi:10.58680/ce201012426

October 2010

  1. Using Facebook to Teach Rhetorical Analysis
    Abstract

    This article describes an assignment that involves students in an exploration of the rhetorical practices common in Facebook, making use of rhetorical savvy that they have—but generally are not aware of—to teach the often-challenging skill of rhetorical analysis. The class discusses articles about Facebook use and redefines traditional Aristotelian rhetorical concepts in the context of the visually rich and collage-like texts that are Facebook profiles. Students take their cues from an anthropologist's analysis of identity representation on dorm doors to explore rhetorical practices of exaggeration also discernable in Facebook profiles. Students and teacher note features from Facebook pages that suggest tendencies to be popular versus being an individual or signs of addiction to the networking tool. This assignment that brings academic analysis to bear on non-academic literacy practices like the construction of Facebook profiles encourages students to reflect critically on daily activities that involve more complex rhetorical skills than they might otherwise notice. In addition to making students' often-tacit rhetorical knowledge explicit, breaking down the usual division between school and non-school rhetorics in this exploration of Facebook helps to educate teachers about their students' digital literacy practices.

    doi:10.1215/15314200-2010-007
  2. Amateur Hour
    Abstract

    This essay explores the challenges of teaching a large introductory lecture class in the humanities.

    doi:10.1215/15314200-2010-002
  3. Interpretive Discourse and other Models from Communication Studies: Expanding the Values of Technical Communication
    Abstract

    This article argues that in spite of some attempts to expand the diversity of approaches in Technical Communication, the field remains rooted in an expedient, managerial, techno-rational discourse, where discourse is understood as the values that guide research, practice, and teaching. The article draws on approaches from Communication Studies, specifically discursive analysis and metaphor analysis, to ground this claim and to demonstrate what possible alternative discourses might be possible. The article then argues that moving toward an “interpretive” discourse will expand the values of Technical Communication, but in a way that both retains existing assumptions but also includes a new focus on the “complete person.” Interpretive discourse is theorized using Habermas' communicative rationality and User Experience Design and the article concludes with some implications about moving Technical Communication toward discursive diversity. Ultimately, the goal of the article is to encourage researchers, teachers, and professionals to embrace this discursive diversity that complicates our historical means-ends rationality.

    doi:10.2190/tw.40.4.d
  4. Book Reviews: Composition &amp; Copyright: Perspectives on Teaching, Text-Making, and Fair Use
    doi:10.2190/tw.40.4.h
  5. A Multi-perspective Genre Analysis of the Barrister’s Opinion: Writing Context, Generic Structure, and Textualization
    Abstract

    In teaching and researching English for Law, considerable effort has been put into the fine-grained description of legal genres and accounts of associated legal literacy practices. Much of this work has been carried out in the academic context, focusing especially on genres encountered by undergraduate law students. The range of genres which must be taught in professional legal writing and drafting courses is comparatively underresearched in the applied linguistics literature. This article explores one such underresearched genre, the barrister’s opinion. The article reports the findings of a genre analysis (Bhatia, 1993; Swales, 1990), drawing on the written opinions of five Hong Kong barristers, individual interviews with the barristers, and data from background information questionnaires.The study adopts a multi-perspective approach to genre analysis, drawing on the accounts of specialist informants to explain the genre as socially situated rhetorical action. Thus, the genre is analyzed in terms of its intertextual and interdiscursive writing context, generic move structure, and lexico-grammatical textualization. It is suggested that the findings may usefully be applied to the teaching of legal writing and drafting in a variety of contexts.

    doi:10.1177/0741088310377272

September 2010

  1. Toward an Accessible Pedagogy: Dis/ability, Multimodality, and Universal Design in the Technical Communication Classroom
    Abstract

    Abstract This article explores the challenges and opportunities that the rising numbers of students with disabilities and the changing definition of disability pose to technical communication teachers and researchers. Specifically, in a teacher-researcher study that combines methods from disability studies, I report on the effectiveness of multimodal and universal design approaches to more comprehensively address disability and accessibility in the classroom and to revise traditional impairment-specific approaches to disability in technical communication. Notes 1. CitationCharlton (1998), in Nothing About Us Without Us, recalls hearing this slogan in South Africa in 1993 from two separate leaders of Disabled People of South Africa, Michael Masutha and William Rowland, and he writes, “The slogan's power derives from its location of the source of many types of (disability) oppression and its simultaneous opposition to such oppression in the context of control and voice” (p. 3). 2. Other principles include guidelines for equitable use, varieties of perceptible information, and appropriate size and space for approach and use. See http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/about_ud/udprincipleshtmlformat.html for quoted guidelines. 3. CAPTCHA is an acronym for completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart. It is a challenge-response test that usually visually distorts and warps letters, assuming that a human can decode the letters but a computer cannot. 4. For details on the similarities and differences between usability and accessibility, see CitationThatcher et al. (2006), pp. 26–28. Chapter 1, “Understanding Web Accessibility,” is useful for students to read and discuss during this segment of the class. 5. Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance by CitationThatcher et al. (2006) is also a useful resource for students to consult, particularly Chapter 1.

    doi:10.1080/10572252.2010.502090
  2. Call for papers-Tutorials and Teaching Cases
    doi:10.1109/tpc.2010.2064810
  3. Towards a Pedagogy of Relational Space and Trust: Analyzing Distributed Collaboration Using Discourse and Speech Act Analysis
    Abstract

    Distributed work is an increasingly common phenomenon in a number of technical and professional settings, and the complexity of this work requires high degrees of knowledge sharing and integration that move beyond assembly-line approaches to collaboration. Since participants in distributed-work settings rely almost exclusively on written and spoken language to mediate their collaborative relationships, professional communication faculty need educational approaches that empower students with language practices designed specifically to support effective teaming in these complex environments. To address this need, we employ discourse analysis and Speech Act Theory to identify these language practices in a case study of two cohorts of distributed, interdisciplinary, and cross-cultural student teams. The findings show correlations between language practices and successful collaboration. These correlations have significant implications for teaching and practice.

    doi:10.1109/tpc.2010.2052857
  4. Reviews
    Abstract

    Reviewed are: Against Schooling: For an Education That Matters by Stanley Aronowitz, Reviewed by Keith Kroll Save the World on Your Own Time by Stanley Fish, Reviewed by Dianna Rockwell Shank Teaching the Novel across the Curriculum: A Handbook for Educators, edited by Colin C. Irvine, Reviewed by Jeff Sommers Strange Terrain: A Poetry Handbook for the Reluctant Reader, by Alice B. Fogel The Poetry Toolkit: The Essential Guide to Studying Poetry, by Rhian Williams, Reviewed by James D. Sullivan Beyond Words: Reading and Writing in the Visual Age, by John Ruszkiewicz, Daniel Anderson, and Christy Friend, Reviewed by Douglas Yates

    doi:10.58680/tetyc201011734
  5. Variations in Assessment, Variations in Philosophy: Unintended Consequences of Heterogeneous Portfolios
    Abstract

    Teacher-assessors face particular challenges when working with portfolios containing both revised and timed student writing.

    doi:10.58680/tetyc201011723
  6. An English Teacher’s Manifesto, or Writing My Way into Labor Activism

August 2010

  1. A Concordance-based Study of the Use of Reporting Verbs as Rhetorical Devices in Academic Papers
    Abstract

    This research examines the use of concordancing to create materials for teaching about the role of reporting verbs in academic papers. The appropriate use of reporting verbs is crucial both in establishing the writer’s own claims and situating these claims within previously published research. The paper uses a sample of articles from Science, a leading journal in the scientific community, to create two small corpora. Based on the frequency ranking of 27 examples of reporting verbs, a sample of 540 sentences was chosen for more careful analysis. For each reporting verb in this sample, a randomized sample of sentences was drawn. In addition, a third corpus was created from student papers to compare the student use of reporting verbs to that of published writers. Each sentence in the randomized sample was coded into six possible categories that were based on syntactic form and rhetorical purpose. An analysis of these categories is presented in the second part of this paper. The results of this research were used to design a database of sentences that could be used to create teaching materials for an academic writing course and also be accessed through the Internet (Bloch, 2009).

    doi:10.17239/jowr-2010.02.02.7
  2. The Potential of Purpose-Built Corpora in the Analysis of Student Academic Writing in English
    Abstract

    The trend towards using English as an academic lingua franca has undoubtedly increased the awareness of a need for specific EAP writing instruction and inroads into researching student writing have been made. However, systematic improvements for a theory-informed teaching practice still require more detailed knowledge of the current state of student academic writing, which also takes into account local practices and requirements. Extended genre analysis provides such a means of researching student writing in specific settings. This is an innovative methodology which expands on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) genre analysis (cf. Bhatia, 1993, 2004; Swales, 1990, 2004) to systematically integrate corpus linguistic tools into the analysis and to take into account the special status of student genres. A special advantage of this methodology is that it can be applied easily and successfully to small-scale purpose-built corpora.This paper presents an application of extended genre analysis to a corpus of 55 student paper conclusions produced by non-native speakers in the initial phase of their studies. Findings suggest systematic differences in structure between student and expert genres, as well as a more complex set of differences in lexico-grammar, and especially the use of formulaic language, between research articles and non-native student papers. The implications of these findings as well as of the proposed methodology of corpus-based genre analysis for teaching practice are also discussed.

    doi:10.17239/jowr-2010.02.02.6
  3. Navigating Tensions in the Process of Change: An English Educator’s Dilemma Management in the Revision and Implementation of a Diversity-Infused Methods Course
    Abstract

    In response to growing concerns among faculty regarding the lack of attention to the bilingual student population in our pre-service teacher education program, the authors engaged in a shared self-study of the process of revising and implementing a secondary English methods course with explicit attention to the special needs of bilingual/bicultural learners. The paper describes how the second author, an English educator, with support from the first author, a mentor/colleague in bilingual education, identified and negotiated tensions and dilemmas that arose in a process of curricular transformation toward culturally and linguistically responsive teacher education practice. The study highlights several points of disjuncture, or critical turning points, experienced by the English educator and the ways in which she navigated the contradictions that resulted at these points of disjuncture through conversation with her mentor. Our documentation and articulation of this process may assist content area teacher educators in negotiating new knowledge and creating strategies for managing the dilemmas in practice that arise in the design and implementation of revised course curricula aimed at supporting culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

    doi:10.58680/rte201011648
  4. Of Literary Import: A Case of Cross-National Similarities in the Secondary English Curriculum in the United States and Canada
    Abstract

    This study compares and contrasts the selection and distribution of literary texts in the English programs of two diverse secondary schools, one in Massachusetts, USA, the other in Ontario, Canada. Analysis of the departments’ curriculum documents, state/provincial curriculum policies, and teacher interviews indicated that at both schools, Eurocentric and Anglo-centric literature dominated the curriculum of advanced courses. Analysis further demonstrated that texts of U.S. origin permeated the curriculum of advanced courses at both the U.S. and Canadian schools. A number of reasons for the similarities in the selection and distribution of literary texts across the two schools are considered, as well as the practical, cultural, and political implications of these curricular patterns. I argue in conclusion for a literature curriculum that reflects the historical and contemporary conditions of the transnational communities to which students belong. Educational stakeholders in local schools, policy makers, and teacher educators may contribute to the development and implementation of such a curriculum.

    doi:10.58680/rte201011647
  5. MicroReviews :: Web Conferencing Tools: Making Online Interactions Multimodal
    Abstract

    The Microreview feature is intended to present a series of condensed reviews of online work by an invited scholar. By providing an informed perspective chosen by the reviewer, readers can not only find out about this type of online work, but begin to understand how the online work may be relevant to their own scholarly and teaching practices.

July 2010

  1. The Coaching and Mentoring Process: The Obvious Knowledge and Skill Set for Organizational Communication Professors
    Abstract

    This article explores the uses of coaching and mentoring as they apply to organizational communication professors. The authors contend that these professors already are proficient at coaching and mentoring and the coaching and mentoring processes are routinely undertaken as part of their standard university teaching responsibilities. As coaches, these faculty members assist their students in improving student communication abilities through observation, discussion, and follow-up. As mentors, these faculty members enter into a developmental relationship with students that extend beyond the classroom. A greater knowledge of coaching and mentoring will enhance instructional efforts and benefit students in multiple ways.

    doi:10.2190/tw.40.3.g
  2. An Application of Robert Gagné's Nine Events of Instruction to the Teaching of Website Localization
    Abstract

    Website localization is an important part of international technical communication. However, at present, few technical communication programs offer courses in localization. This article provides an overview of a course devised to familiarize students with ideas and approaches related to website localization. The course was based upon Robert Gagné's nine events of instruction—an approach that allowed students to move from the learning of abstract ideas to the application of knowledge to the website localization process.

    doi:10.2190/tw.40.3.f
  3. Professional Communication Education in a Global Context: A Collaboration Between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico, and Universidad de Quintana Roo, Mexico
    Abstract

    This article describes a beginning research partnership between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and two Mexican universities, the Universidad de Quintana Roo (UQROO) and Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, that has developed and implemented an environment merging the pedagogies of English as a foreign language (EFL) and writing across the curriculum (WAC). The article presents a theoretical background for this partnership based on the research on globally networked learning environments (GNLEs) and then focuses on the early stages of the project as the research teams define their objectives, research methods, and teaching approaches.

    doi:10.1177/1050651910363269
  4. Globally Networked Learning Environments in Professional Communication: Challenging Normalized Ways of Learning, Teaching, and Knowing
    Abstract

    Even a cursory glance at the daily news will provide ample testimony to the importance for professional communication of the contributions to this special issue of Journal of Business and Technical Communication (JBTC). Indeed, as recent events have made abundantly clear, the most pressing challenges and crises we face—be these economic or environmental crises or social justice issues—are global. And yet, despite their global nature and their far-reaching consequences for local communities, much deliberation and decision making about these issues has been shifted to global economic

    doi:10.1177/1050651910363266

June 2010

  1. Positioning Programs in Professional and Technical Communication: Guest Editor's Introduction
    Abstract

    Programs in technical and professional communication are continually challenged by issues of location and dislocation. Historic changes and interdisciplinary initiatives are in progress at colleges and universities worldwide. The five articles of this special issue will offer a portrait of the multiple ways that technical communication programs are positioning themselves to do innovative teaching and research.

    doi:10.1080/10572252.2010.481526
  2. Writing in a Multiliterate Flat World, Part I
    Abstract

    Writing courses increasingly incorporate Internet and online learning activities as part of the syllabus and teaching materials. How does this change our teaching practices, and which free and collaborative online tools can be most appropriately applied in online and blended writing courses? This is the first part of a two-part article focused on freely available Web 2.0 tools and how they can promote collaboration in the context of social networking. Part I places writing in the context of new views of literacy due in part to revolutionary changes since the turn of the century in how content finds its way to the Internet. Web 2.0 and cloud computing have made it possible for writers to publish not only prose but a range of other media online without having to pass through traditional gate-keepers, and tools and mechanisms have evolved for networking communities of like-minded writers online. Among the many impacts of this development is the possibility now for student writers to write purposefully for worldwide audiences. Part I examines the production side of this dynamic, while Part II (to appear in the first issue of this journal in 2011) explains how the Internet resolves the marketing side of the role once played by traditional publishing and how writers and audiences can navigate the seemingly chaotic preponderance of content available online to find one another’s material and carry on conversations about it, thus providing truly authentic motivation for their writing.

    doi:10.1558/wap.v2i1.117
  3. A Refocused Approach to Writing Instruction
    Abstract

    This article describes an approach to writing instruction that involves a combination of the genre approach and the process writing approach. The stages of the writing process that students often do not take time for, namely brainstorming, organizing ideas and drafting, are done as much as possible in the classroom. In preparation for this, students are introduced to models of the type of texts they will have to write, so that they can become familiar with the features that are typical of that text type (genre). These features form the basis of a checklist that will serve as a form for teacher feedback, which is given to the students at various stages of the writing process up to final revision. In addition, certain points are focused on in peer feedback. Throughout the entire process, students are encouraged to become aware of their progress through written reflection. We have found that such an approach, overseen and monitored by the teacher, leads students to writing more focused texts that conform to the genres to which they belong. For the purposes of this article, the text type of argumentative (opinion) essay was used as an example.

    doi:10.1558/wap.v2i1.103
  4. Chained and Confused
    Abstract

    This study focuses on how teachers enrolled in a graduate level, online English Education course perceived formulaic or thesis-driven student writing, commonly associated with the traditional “five-paragraph essay.” One goal of this course, “Writing, Reading, and Teaching Creative Nonfiction,” was to engage teachers in reflecting about the uses of this “new” genre in their own classrooms. Living in several states, the participants included one science teacher, four Special Education teachers, and ten middle and secondary Language Arts teachers. We analyzed 12 separate prompts posted to the discussion board over a six-week period. Also, participants were required to post one “thread” into each discussion board, with follow-up comments to threads from at least two other participants. Approximately 75 out of a total of 800 coded comments dealt with formulaic writing. The following patterns of participants’ perceptions emerged from these comments: (1) student benefits of formulaic writing; (2) a hierarchical sequence for teaching writing; (3) obligations to teach formulaic writing; (4) resistance to formulaic writing; (5) the constraints of formulaic writing on students; and (6) the constraints of formulaic writing on teachers. Based on this study, we recommend that teachers engage in writing themselves which includes risk taking, modeling writing and significant revision for their students, and sharing models of writing; ensure that their students write in many forms and genres, including, but not limited to, the five-paragraph essay; develop realistic views of the expectations and obligations they face daily; and internalize effective writing practices. In the process of exploring the genre of creative nonfiction, teachers also had to grapple with old debates, as almost all of this study’s participants changed their views, discovering that the chains they had felt actually were not as tight as they had originally believed.

    doi:10.1558/wap.v2i1.39
  5. Writing in Late Immersion Biology and History Classes in Hong Kong
    Abstract

    Previous research has shown that late immersion education in Hong Kong is not achieving the dual curriculum goals of content and second language learning which a late immersion curriculum can expect. This article presents a case study of writing in four late English immersion classes in Hong Kong, two in Biology and two in History, examining whether and how some of the teaching and learning processes with respect to writing support content and language learning. The study analyzed 285 samples of student writing using a writing analysis framework that reflects features of both content and language learning. The writing analysis, along with contextual data from teacher and student interviews and a teacher questionnaire, indicate that students demonstrate little content and language learning in their writing. The data suggest that the writing pedagogy adopted may partly explain the unsatisfactory learning outcomes. A major reason for adoption of the pedagogy seems to lie in the teachers’ and students’ views of the role of copying and memorization in writing and in learning, views which are characteristic of the Chinese educational context. Implications for writing teacher education within an immersion curriculum where the immersion language is from a different educational culture are discussed. Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3

    doi:10.1558/wap.v2i1.13
  6. Reflections on Teaching Discourse Functions Using a Science Thesis
    Abstract

    The control of discourse functions, such as defining, contrasting, intensifying, and hedging among others, is an important skill in effective academic writing. Unlike the case with a typical writing textbook, where examples of discourse functions are invented or drawn for a variety of sources, the present work is based on an analysis of discourse functions from a single exemplary Doctoral thesis. The presentation demonstrates how a useful set of materials can be garnered from just one rich source. Additionally, it provides readers with descriptions and examples of eleven discourse functions identified through the analysis and discusses how this material has been implemented in the author’s advanced graduate writing class.

    doi:10.1558/wap.v1i2.263