The exhibition 1492: AN ONGOING VOYAGE describes both pre- and post-contact America, as well as the Mediterranean world at the same time. Compelling questions are raised, such as: Who lived in the Americas before 1492? Who followed in the wake of Columbus? What was the effect of 1492 for Americans throughout the Western Hemisphere? The Library of Congress' Quincentenary exhibition addresses these questions, as well as other related themes, including fifteenth century European navigation, the myths and facts surrounding the figure of Columbus, and the differences and similarities between European and American world views at the time of contact.

Bad Ideas About Writing counters major myths about writing instruction. Inspired by the provocative science- and social-science-focused book This Idea Must Die and written for a general audience, the collection offers opinionated, research-based statements intended to spark debate and to offer a better way of teaching writing. Contributors, as scholars of rhetoric and composition, provide a snapshot of and antidotes to major myths in writing instruction. This collection is published in whole by the Digital Publishing Institute at WVU Libraries and in part by Inside Higher Ed.

This module contains instructor resources and student-facing materials to facilitate the use of online forums to teach a blended, workshop-based writing/composition class.

This resource provides references, writing aids and guides for students writing essays in a literature-based composition course. These materials were culled from several different sites; the individual pages link back to the original resource and indicate the Creative Commons license under which the page is adapted and/or reused. Except where otherwise noted, this resource is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA.

Students use the free computer game Pingus to learn how engineers, specifically environmental engineers, use their technical writing skills to give instructions and follow the instructions of others. Students learn to write instructions to express their ideas in clear, organized ways using descriptive, un-ambiguous sentences, as an example of one type of technical writing that important for engineers. The students write instructions enumerating how to beat a game level, which represents surveying that level for environmental problems. As a test of their instructions, students review each others' instructions and offer suggestions for improvement, and then revise their instructions to make them better. Students also see some examples of environmental problems.

Sentence combining is an instructional technique used to improve sentence quality, complexity and variety. Students are taught how to combine two or more basic sentences to create more interesting, sophisticated and varied sentences. When sentence combining is taught explicitly and in a sustained way, it becomes one component of successful writing instruction.

With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, The Next Generation Science Standards, and the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards, many middle and high schools require their content teachers to teach writing within their discipline area, often resulting in role confusion, anxiety, and resistance.“Teaching writing” – the job of the ELA faculty - is confused with “Teaching How to Write like a Historian, a Scientist, a Mathematician . . .”  - the job of the content faculty. Because content faculty are not usually trained in composition pedagogy, they may avoid writing instruction or worse – actually damage young writers by offering misguided instruction in mechanics and grammar.Content faculty may be familiar with the writing conventions of their particular discipline. With raised awareness of their expertise and by identifying the rhetorical characteristics of their subject area, content faculty can learn instructional skills to support writing across the curriculum.As a K-12 informational resource, the librarian holds a key position to raise awareness, reduce role confusion, provide instructional references, and improve writing school-wide. This module prepares pre-service librarians to understand and provide information to rectify the confusion of writing instruction across the secondary curriculum.

The intent of this framework is to show how the school approaches and implements the effective teaching of
writing and writing assessment, and to evaluate opportunities for further improvement.

This is a worked example of how the writing instruction framework was applied from the perspective of school leaders in a primary school. The intent of this framework is to show how the school approaches and implements the effective teaching of writing and writing assessment, and to evaluate opportunities for further improvement.