What occurs when we address writing outcomes from the perspective of the student and the student’s world?

Reviews four books: Writing with Elbow, by Pat Belanoff, Marcia Dickson, Sheryl I. Fontaine, and Charles Moran; Opening Spaces: Critical Pedagogy and Resistance Theory in Composition, by Joe Marshall Hardin; Standing in the Shadow of Giants: Plagiarists, Authors, Collaborators, by Rebecca Moore Howard; The Politics of Writing in the Two–Year College, edited by Barry Alford and Keith Kroll.

English Teachers’ the Unofficial Guide: Researching the Philosophies of English Teachers; B. Marshall. Attending to the Margins: Writing, Researching, and Teaching on the Front Lines; M. H. Kells & V. Balester. Mutuality in the Rhetoric and Composition Classroom; D. L. Wallace & H. R. Ewald. Talkin’ That Talk: Language, Culture and Education in African America; G. Smitherman. Writing Simple Poems: Pattern Poetry for Language Acquisition; V. L. Holmes & M. R. Moulton.

Reviews three books: Class Politics: The Movement for the Students’ Right to Their Own Language, by Stephen Parks; (Re)Visioning Composition Textbooks: Conflicts of Culture, Ideology, and Pedagogy, edited by Xin Liu Gale and Fredric G. Gale; Exploring Literature: Writing and Thinking about Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay, by Frank Madden.

Reviews two books: Ourselves as Students, comp. and ed. by The Broad Minds Collective; Cross-Talk in Comp Theory: A Reader, ed. by Victor Villanueva, Jr.

Contends that developmental writing students’ self confidence improves when they understand their learning styles. Outlines how the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is used to pinpoint students’ learning styles and how to help students work "their way."