Ecocomposition is a way of looking at literacy using concepts from ecology. It is a postprocess theory of writing instruction that tries to account for factors beyond hierarchically defined goals within social settings;however,it does not dismiss these goals. Rather,it incorporates them within an ecological view that extends the range of factors affecting the writing process beyond the social to include aspects such as "place" and "nature." Its main motto,then,is "Writing Takes Place".
Computers and writing is a sub-field of college English studies about how computers and digital technologies affect literacy and the writing process. The range of inquiry in this field is broad including discussions on ethics when using computers in writing programs,how discourse can be produced through technologies,software development,and computer-aided literacy instruction. Some topics include hypertext theory,visual rhetoric,multimedia authoring,distance learning,digital rhetoric,usability studies,the patterns of online communities,how various media change reading and writing practices,textual conventions,and genres. Other topics examine social or critical issues in computer technology and literacy,such as the issues of the "digital divide",equitable access to computer-writing resources,and critical technological literacies. Many studies by scientists have shown that writing on computer is better than writing in a book
The Conference on College Composition and Communication is a national professional association of college and university writing instructors in the United States. The CCCC formed in 1949 as an organization within the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). CCCC is the largest organization dedicated to writing research,theory,and teaching worldwide.
Second language writing is the study of writing performed by non-native speakers/writers of a language as a second or foreign language. According to Oxford University,second language writing is the expression of one's actions and what one wants to say in writing in a language other than one's native language. Learning a new language and writing in it is the most challenging thing. Learning a new language first requires an understanding of the writing system and the grammar of the language. Because grammar is the basis of writing. Learning the grammar of a language is the only way to write in that language. The extent to which non-native speakers write in formal or specialized domains,and the requirements for grammatical accuracy and compositional coherence,will vary according to the specific context. The process of second language writing has been an area of research in applied linguistics and second language acquisition theory since the middle of the 20th century. The focus has been mainly on second-language writing in academic settings. In the last few years,there has been a great deal of interest in and research on informal writing. These informal writings include writing in online contexts. In terms of instructional practices,the focus of second language writing instruction has traditionally been on achieving grammatical accuracy. However,this changed under the influence of compositional studies,which focused on conceptual and structural properties. Another development in the teaching of second language writing is the increasing use of models and the emphasis on the properties of particular writing genres. Recent research has analyzed how second-language writing differs from native-language writing,emphasizing the cultural factors that influence second-language writers. In general,second language acquisition research has transitioned from a primary focus on cognitive factors to a sociocultural perspective in which writing is viewed not only as an acquired language skill and cognitive ability but also,more broadly,as a socially situated communicative act involving a target audience. Recently,particular attention has been paid to the integration of written texts with other media (multimodality) and to the mixing of languages in online media.
Stephen Brookfield is a scholar in adult education who has held positions at the University of British Columbia,Columbia University,Harvard University and the University of Saint Thomas. He is currently Distinguished Scholar at Antioch University,Adjunct Professor at Columbia University,and Emeritus Professor at the University of St. Thomas.
English-language Learner is a term used in some English-speaking countries such as the United States and Canada to describe a person who is learning the English language and has a native language that is not English. Some educational advocates,especially in the United States,classify these students as non-native English speakers or emergent bilinguals. Various other terms are also used to refer to students who are not proficient in English,such as English as a second language (ESL),English as an additional language (EAL),limited English proficient (LEP),culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD),non-native English speaker,bilingual students,heritage language,emergent bilingual,and language-minority students. The legal term that is used in federal legislation is 'limited English proficient'. The instruction and assessment of students,their cultural background,and the attitudes of classroom teachers towards ELLs have all been found to be factors in the achievement of these students. Several methods have been suggested to effectively teach ELLs,including integrating their home cultures into the classroom,involving them in language-appropriate content-area instruction early on,and integrating literature into their learning programs.
Lives on the Boundary,written by American scholar Mike Rose,is a 1989 work of non-fiction that explores the challenges and successes associated with literacy at the margins of America’s education system. Much of the work is autobiographical and explores Rose’s own challenges both learning and teaching reading and writing. The narrative base helps the reader form a personal connection to Rose,his colleagues,and his students. This book ultimately gives a voice to those marginalized by America's education system.
George Hillocks Jr. was an emeritus professor in the Department of Education,with a joint appointment in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. He received in 2011 the James R. Squire Award of the National Council of Teachers of English for having "a transforming influence and [making] a lasting intellectual contribution to the profession." He also received many other major awards. His teaching career included the preparation of English teachers in the Master of Arts in Teaching program,and the mentoring of Ph.D. students in the doctoral program,at the University of Chicago. After retiring from the University he continued to present seminars and workshops for writing teachers across the US. His primary research interests centered on the teaching of writing,literature,and language in middle and high school English classes,and on large-scale writing assessment. When not teaching and writing,he was an accomplished bagpipe player,performing frequently for Chicago audiences and in international competitions.
Contract grading is a form of grading which results from cooperation between an instructor and their student(s),and entails completion of a contracted number of assignments of specified quality that correspond to specific letter grades. These contracts often contain the following two characteristics:First,there are no finite amount of,say,"A" grades given in the class. Any student who completes the work that corresponds to a "B" grade will receive a "B". The second characteristic is that instructors and students know exactly what is expected from them to receive a certain letter grade. Contract grading may be contrasted with other grading methods such as grading on a curve or percentile systems. These curve and percentile systems include the Common Curve,Missouri Curve,and The Gaussian Curve. Grading on these curves creates an expectation that the number of "A"s and "B"s should correspond to the number of "D"s and "F"s,with the majority of students receiving a "C". In the 2010s,contract grading was discussed and promoted as a method to respond to racism within academia and,more specifically,writing in academia. Asao Inoue,a large contributor to this topic,wrote in his book Labor-Based Grading Contracts:Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom,"Designing fair and meaningful grading practices is about cultivating with our students an ecology,a place where every student,no matter where they come from or how they speak or write,can have access to the entire range of final course grades possible."
Charles Bazerman is an American educator and scholar. He was born and raised in New York. He has contributed significantly to the establishment of writing as a research field,as evidenced by the collection of essays written by international scholars in Writing as A Human Activity:Implications and Applications of the Work of Charles Bazerman. Best known for his work on genre studies and the rhetoric of science,he is a Professor of Education at the University of California,Santa Barbara,where he also served as Chair of the Program in Education for eight years. He served as Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication,delivering the 2009 CCCC Chair's Address,"The Wonders of Writing," in San Francisco,California. He is the author of over 18 books,including Shaping Written Knowledge,Constructing Experiences,The Languages of Edison’s Light,A Theory of Literate Action,and a Rhetoric of Literate Action. He also edited over 20 volumes,including Textual Dynamics of the Profession,Writing Selves/Writing Societies,What Writing Does and How it Does It,as well as the Handbook of Research on Writing and the two series Rhetoric,Knowledge and Society and Reference Guides to Rhetoric and Composition. He also wrote textbooks supporting the integration of reading and writing that have appeared in over 30 editions and versions including The informed writer:Using sources in the disciplines,The Informed Reader,and the English Skills Handbook.
Writing across the curriculum (WAC) is a movement within contemporary composition studies that concerns itself with writing in classes beyond composition,literature,and other English courses. According to a comprehensive survey performed in 2006–2007,approximately half of American institutes of higher learning have something that can be identified as a WAC program. In 2010,Thaiss and Porter defined WAC as "a program or initiative used to 'assist teachers across disciplines in using student writing as an instructional tool in their teaching'". WAC,then,is a programmatic effort to introduce multiple instructional uses of writing beyond assessment. WAC has also been part of the student-centered pedagogies movement seeking to replace teaching via one-way transmission of knowledge from teacher to student with more interactive strategies that enable students to interact with and participate in creating knowledge in the classroom.
Writing assessment refers to an area of study that contains theories and practices that guide the evaluation of a writer's performance or potential through a writing task. Writing assessment can be considered a combination of scholarship from composition studies and measurement theory within educational assessment. Writing assessment can also refer to the technologies and practices used to evaluate student writing and learning. An important consequence of writing assessment is that the type and manner of assessment may impact writing instruction,with consequences for the character and quality of that instruction.
Kathleen Blake Yancey is the Kellogg W. Hunt Professor of English at Florida State University in the rhetoric and composition program. Her research interests include composition studies,writing knowledge,creative non-fiction,and writing assessment.
Leslie Cooper Perelman is an American scholar and authority on writing assessment. He is a critic of automated essay scoring (AES),and influenced the College Board's decision to terminate the Writing Section of the SAT.
The WAC Clearinghouse publishes peer-reviewed,open-access journals and books,as well as other professional resources for teachers and instructional materials for students. Writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) refers to a formal programmatic approach within contemporary secondary and higher education composition studies that promotes the importance of writing in classes outside of composition.
Sondra Perl is a Professor Emerita of English at Lehman College and director of the Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is the founder and former director of the New York City Writing Project. She writes about the composing process as well as pedagogical approaches to implementing composition theories into writing practices in the classroom.
Victor Villanueva is an American academic and scholar in rhetoric and composition studies,serving the role of Regents Professor Emeritus at Washington State University. Villanueva was awarded NCTE's David Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English for his groundbreaking book Bootstraps,From an American Academic of Color. In 2009,Villanueva was the recipient of the Conference on College Composition and Communication Exemplar's Award. Villanueva has written and edited a number of significant works on the topic of race,rhetoric,basic writing,and the social and political contexts of literacy education.
Min-Zhan Lu is a composition professor and scholar. She serves as Professor Emerita of English at the University of Louisville. She is the 2005 recipient of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Richard M. Braddock Award and the 2012 CCCC Outstanding Book Award.
Linda Adler-Kassner is an educator and university administrator. She is known for her work in the field of writing studies,including co-authoring Naming What We Know:Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies, which was recognized by the Council of Writing Program Administrators.
Cheryl Ball is an academic and scholar in rhetoric,composition,and publishing studies,and Director of the Digital Publishing Collaborative at Wayne State University. In the areas of scholarly and digital publishing,Ball is the executive director for the Council of Editors of Learned Journals and the Editor-in-Chief for the Library Publishing Curriculum. Ball also serves as co-editor of Kairos:A Journal of Rhetoric,Technology,and Pedagogy,an open access,online journal dedicated to multimodal academic publishing,which she has edited since 2006. Ball's awards include Best Article on Pedagogy or Curriculum in Technical or Science Communication from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC),the Computers and Composition Charles Moran Award for Distinguished Service to the Field,and the Technology Innovator Award presented by the CCCC Committee on Computers in Composition and Communication (7Cs). Her book,The New Work of Composing was the winner of the 2012 Computers and Composition Distinguished Book Award. Her contributions to academic research span the areas of digital publishing,new media scholarship,and multimodal writing pedagogy.
