Passionate student writers rarely lack ideas, but instructors can help them narrow those ideas down by choosing to write what makes them feel the most. Authors Matthew Clark Davison and Alice LaPlante instruct students to write what’s “not fair.” Unresolved emotions, from hatred to love, offer great fuel to new writers seeking direction.
Category: Composition
Making More Space for Student Attitudes about AI
Generative AI is everywhere, even in places we’d least expect it to be. Read how English professor, Traynor Hansen, served himself a taste of his own medicine to better teach his students new strategies of academic inquiry against a backdrop of AI.
Bringing a Gift to the AI Party: Teaching Ethical AI Use in First-Year Composition
What role can AI play in your classroom? Instructor and author Max Everhart emphasizes the importance of bringing meaningful work to the table when working with AI. Learn how to AI can support your students while honoring their own voice and critical thinking.
Teaching Students to Write Award-Winning Essays
In Spring 2020, I started teaching in the Second Chance Pell program, and I was fortunate to have some gifted students. I decided to submit a couple student essays to the Norton Writer’s Prize competition. One of those essays won the First-Year Writer category, which recognizes original nonfiction by undergraduate writers, and another one was selected for publication in The Norton Field Guide to Writing (with Readings), Sixth Edition.
The Ultimate Remix: A Student’s Journey from Final Project to Published Author
Katelyn is a senior at Miami University studying Emerging Technology in Business & Design, as well as Digital Marketing. When I clicked the submission button on the final project of my senior year of high school, I wiped my hands clean and promptly pushed that assignment to the back of my mind like any other …
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Getting to the Heart of Positioning Language: Who Is “They”?
Deanna Brossman started teaching English in Geneseo, Illinois, in 2001. She earned her MA in English literature in 2007 and National Board Certification in 2012. She teaches dual credit composition, AP English Language and Composition, and a transitional English course for seniors wanting to strengthen their fundamental reading and writing skills before college. She and …
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From Content to Ideas: Helping Students Craft Their Voice in Writing Technical Documents During the Age of Generative AI
Dr. Laura Gonzales teaches technical communication at the University of Florida. In academia, many of the conversations about generative AI focus on surveillance and cheating. If students can have AI generate content for them, how can teachers assess students’ work? In the introductory technical communication course, many traditional assignments focus on teaching students to generate content—the …
A Sixty-Year Tradition: Q&A with Today’s Authors of Norton’s First Composition Reader
The W. W. Norton Composition team sat down with editors of The Norton Reader to discuss its growing legacy at Norton and what instructors can look forward to in the Sixteenth Edition, publishing this summer. Why do you think The Norton Reader has endured for six decades? Joseph Bizup: John Brereton, a former editor of …
Rereading and Annotation to Support Secondary Reading and Writing
Tara B. Johnston, PhD is an assistant professor of education at York College of Pennsylvania. She is a former elementary school teacher, reading interventionist, and literacy specialist. Her research interests include content literacy practices, teacher knowledge and beliefs in relation to literacy, and pre-service teacher training in literacy instruction. Tara JohnstonImage Credit: Emily Rund The …
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Structure Isn’t Spoon-Feeding—Providing Students with Models and Support
Susan Pagnac is the assistant dean for learning enrichment and director of writing at Central College in Pella, IA. Her work has appeared in Journal of Business and Technical Writing, Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, WPA: Writing Program Administration, and Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture. She has presented at the …
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