Techno-Rhetoric Cafe

I find myself focusing my energies in my Basic Writing classes on helping students not only become better writers, but also to build confidence in their writing. On a regular basis, I encounter students, both L1 and L2, who fear writing because of a fear of the countless red-marked grammar errors they must correct when [...]

Teachers of writing struggle every day to help their students overcome the belief that they are “bad writers.” Teachers of Basic Writing struggle even more with this problem because of the stigma automatically attached to the class they teach. Students of Basic Writing register for a class that, I believe, should require a supplemental class [...]

In my last post, I was talking about the changes I have made to motivate my students to speak with our Writing Consultants about their essays. I wanted to come back and reflect on how I have changed their relationship with the Writing Center through my own relationship with the Writing Center.
Getting to Know the [...]

When I first stepped into the classroom this morning, one of my students told me that she had completely scrapped an essay draft after her visit to the Writing Center yesterday. This was wholly her decision, although one supported by her Writing Consultant. She came in with a draft she was much happier with and [...]

If you’ll recall, a few weeks ago I wrote about the potential to use Pikiwiki with group projects and later I mentioned that one of my students had made her own PikiWiki page. Well, Since then, I’ve had a few more students play around with this site on their own. One student not only created [...]