Bringing Literature Teachers and Writing Teachers Closer Together

Many traditional college English departments now find themselves in an unpalatable predicament. Pressure from the marketplace and from other college disciplines has made clear that students need more than basic composition skills. They need skills to communicate effectively in business, research, and industrial environments. While enrollments in traditional literature courses have continued to decline, English departments are asked to staff and teach an increasing number of courses in various types of technical writing. These two trends have produced a less than harmonious climate within many English departments. Technical writing courses are often viewed by literature teachers as alien intruders unrelated both to the established goals of an English department and to the attempt to encourage and preserve the study of humanities and aesthetics. Many teachers see technical writing as intellectually arid, controlled only by format and mechanical approaches to clarity. Many more consider it antiliterature, unsympathetic to the methods used to teach literary analysis and appreciation.

Kroitor, Harry P. and Elizabeth Tebeaux. ADE Bulletin (1984). Articles>Education>Collaboration

Computer-Assisted Grading of Essays and Reports  

Someday computers may grade our students' essays and reports, but until then they can assist human graders in this onerous task. I wrote a program composed of three major sections: the first is a simple test editor for writing original comments; the second section consists of pre-written commentaries on common writing errors, principally in mechanics and organization; section three keeps track of bookkeeping. Questionnaire results show that students prefer this type of grading over traditional hand-written methods because it doesn't involve marks on their papers, and it produces more extensively detailed comments.

Jobst, Jack W. Computers and Composition (1984). Articles>Education>Reports>EPSS

Gender-Free Legal Writing: Managing the Personal Pronouns

Where a statement of any complexity is made about a person, the maker of the statement may face decisions about how further references should be framed.

Close, Arthur. British Columbia Law Institute (1984). Reference>Writing>Legal>Grammar

Genre as Social Action    

Although rhetorical criticism has recently provided a profusion of claims that certain discourses constitute a distinctive class, or genre, rhetorical theory has not provided firm guidance on what constitutes a genre.

Miller, Carolyn R. North Carolina State University (1984). Articles>Rhetoric>Genre>Theory

Good Legal Writing: of Orwell and Window Panes

George Orwell once wrote that `[g]ood prose is like a window pane.' What I take Orwell to have meant by that remark is that when people read good prose, it makes them feel as if they've `seen' something more clearly.

Samuelson, Pamela. University of Pittsburgh Law Review (1984). Articles>Writing>Legal>Minimalism

Technical Writing in the English Department: An Outside Perspective

During the last few years the growth of technical communication courses and programs in departments of English has been unprecedented. While this development has generally been viewed as healthy, not only for technical writing but for English departments themselves, the success of these courses and degree programs will depend on how well the administrations and faculties of the departments face up to a number of problems. What follows is an effort to identify these problems and suggest possible solutions.

Coney, Mary B., Judith A. Ramey and James W. Souther. ADE Bulletin (1984). Academic>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

What Every Department Chair Should Know About Scholarship in Technical Communication

What should every department chair know about scholarship in technical communication? Probably a good deal more than I can tell you in this short paper, since many of you will probably be hiring faculty members for whom technical communication is a major area of interest. To evaluate the scholarly work of those people, you'll have to know something about the tradition within which they are working.

Halloran, S. Michael. ADE Bulletin (1984). Articles>Education>Management