A Guide to Composition Pedagogies is the essential bibliographic guide written for newcomers to the field. This best-selling guide familiarizes writing instructors with the current topography of Composition Studies and directs them to the best books and articles for further exploration.

Preparing to Teach Writing: Research, Theory, and Practice, Third Edition is a comprehensive survey of theories, research, and methods associated with teaching composition successfully. The primary goal is to provide practicing and prospective teachers with the knowledge they need to be effective teachers of writing and to prepare them for the many challenges they will face in the classroom. Overall, the third edition of Preparing to Teach Writing is clearer and more comprehensive than the previous editions. It combines the best of the old with new information and features. The discussions and references to foundational studies that helped define the field of rhetoric and composition are preserved in this edition. Also preserved is most of the pedagogical apparatus that characterized the first two editions; research and theory are examined with the aim of informing teaching. New in the Third Edition: *a more thorough discussion of the history of rhetoric, from its earliest days in ancient Greece to the first American composition courses offered at Harvard University in 1874; *a major revision of the examination of major approaches to teaching writing--current-traditional rhetoric, new rhetoric, romantic rhetoric, writing across the curriculum, social-theoretic rhetoric, postmodern rhetoric, and post-postmodern rhetoric--considering their strengths and weaknesses; *an extension of the discussion of strengths and weaknesses of major approaches to its logical conclusion--Williams advocates an epistemic approach to writing instruction that demonstrably leads to improved writing instruction when implemented effectively; *a more detailed account of the phonics--whole language debate that continues to puzzle many teachers and parents; *a new focus on why grammar instruction alone does not lead to better writing, the difference between grammar and usage, and how to teach grammar and usage effectively; *an expanded section on Chicano English that now includes a discussion of Spanglish; *more information on outcome objectives; the Council of Writing Program Administrators' statement of learning outcomes for first-year composition courses has been included to help high school teachers better understand how to prepare high school students for college writing, and to help those in graduate programs prepare for teaching assistantships in first-year composition courses; and *a more comprehensive analysis of assessment that considers such important factors as the validity, reliability, predictability, cost, fairness, and politics of assessment and the effects on teaching of state-mandated testing, and also provides an expanded section on portfolios.

If you want to learn how to shoot a basketball, you begin by carefully observing someone who knows how to shoot a basketball. If you want to be a writer, you begin by carefully observing the work of accomplished writers. Recognizing the importance that modeling plays in the learning process, high school English teacher Kelly Gallagher shares how he gets his students to stand next to and pay close attention to model writers, and how doing so elevates his students' writing abilities. Write Like This is built around a central premise: if students are to grow as writers, they need to read good writing, they need to study good writing, and, most important, they need to emulate good writers. In Write Like This, Kelly emphasizes real-world writing purposes, the kind of writing he wants his students to be doing twenty years from now. Each chapter focuses on a specific discourse: express and reflect, inform and explain, evaluate and judge, inquire and explore, analyze and interpret, and take a stand/propose a solution. In teaching these lessons, Kelly provides mentor texts (professional samples as well as models he has written in front of his students), student writing samples, and numerous assignments and strategies proven to elevate student writing. By helping teachers bring effective modeling practices into their classrooms, Write Like This enables students to become better adolescent writers. More important, the practices found in this book will help our students develop the writing skills they will need to become adult writers in the real world.