Broad Claims Research Articles

The Limits of Claim Differentiation

The process of claim construction is the most important part of patent litigation. Courts employ a number of rules, or canons, to reach an understanding of what patent claims mean. Of these, the doctrine of claim differentiation has arguably had the most significant impact on claim construction. Understood most broadly, the claim differentiation doctrine provides that no two claims in the same patent should be interpreted to have the same scope. As a general matter, applying the doctrine of claim differentiation results in broader constructions of patent claims, because it is most commonly used to prevent defendants from limiting a broad genus claim to the range of embodiments actually disclosed or more explicitly recited in other claims. Sometimes this is the right result, because defendants are improperly seeking to limit broader genus claims to the preferred embodiments disclosed in the specification. But at other times it leads to problematic results by expanding claims to cover things the patentee never intended. In this Article, I conduct an empirical review of claim differentiation decisions in the Federal Circuit and in the district courts, and I suggest limiting

Permitting Moral Imperialism? The Public Morals Exception to Free Trade at the Bar of the World Trade Organization

The objective of this article is to critically review the case law on public morals exception in the multilateral trading system and argue against the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body’s exceedingly deferential approach to the meaning and identification of public morals in international trade disputes. Admittedly, the WTO Appellate Body’s judicial minimalism approach to trade dispute settlement has so far prevented it from making any broad claims about public morals exception. Nevertheless, I argue that the Appellate Body has already waded into treacherous waters. Going forward, the WTO Appellate Body must be cautious so as not to permit moral imperialism and put the delicately balanced multilateral trading system at grave risk. For this purpose, I propose a more nuanced approach to define public morals as well as manage its extraterritorial application in international trade law.

Talking with the President: The Pragmatics of Presidential Language. By JohnWilson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. 274 pp.

Talking with the President: The Pragmatics of Presidential Language. By John Wilson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. 274 pp. For many years, presidential rhetoric has been a significant object of analysis in the fields of political science and communication studies. Political scientists have tracked the changes in the substance of presidential rhetoric over the course of the twentieth century and have commented both on the turn public rhetoric as a mode of influence and on the different styles of various presidents. Communication studies scholars have considered what presidential rhetoric does, what effects it has, and how it helps frame or constitute American identity. John Wilson's book Talking with the President addresses the concerns of both disciplines, albeit from very different methodological perspectives. Wilson begins with a brief overview of issues in linguistics and philosophy of language in the twentieth century. The purpose of this overview is twofold: on the one hand, he wants demonstrate the advantages of pragmatics over other forms of linguistic analysis. On the other hand, he argues that others have rarely, if ever, analyzed presidential rhetoric with the methodologies that he uses. For those not trained in linguistics, this introductory material offers an accessible account of some of the major theoretical issues that have emerged from the philosophy of language in the twentieth century. Thereafter, Talking with the President tries show what pragmatics, as a form of linguistic analysis, can reveal about presidential language that other methodologies cannot. Wilson returns repeatedly his contention that pragmatics offers key insight into presidential language. He analyzes Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Obama support his position. This is a substantive range of examples from which draw, and that range certainly bolsters the argument for the utility of pragmatics. In each of these cases, Wilson shows how context informs meaning. Unlike semantics, which examines how meaning is coded into the propositional forms of sentences, pragmatics concerns the ways in which meaning depends on the context of an utterance, the intention of a speaker, the preexisting knowledge of those involved in communication, and other social factors. This basic perspective then anchors Wilson's reading of each of the presidents that he analyzes. Two important broad claims issue from this analysis. First, the aim of the book is be descriptive and, therefore, Wilson wants to descriptively highlight the way in which linguistic forms become utilized in context and for what purpose, without, as far as possible, imposing any prescriptive values on linguistic choices in specific political contexts (p. …

A decade of e-cigarettes: Limited research & unresolved safety concerns.

It is well known that tobacco consumption is a leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide and has been linked to major diseases ranging from cancer to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, atherosclerosis, stroke and a host of neurological/neurodegenerative disorders. In the past decade a number of alternative vaping products have hit the market, rapidly gaining consumers especially among the younger population. Electronic nicotine delivery systems or e-cigarettes have become the sought-after product due to the belief that they are much safer than traditional cigarettes. However, inadequate research and lack of regulatory guidelines for both the manufacturing process and the content of the vaping solution of the e-cigarette has become a major concern. Highly debated and unresolved questions such as whether e-cigarettes may help smokers quit and whether e-cigarettes will promote the use of nicotine among non-smokers add to the confusion of the safety of e-cigarettes. In this review article, we summarize the current understanding (and lack thereof) of the potential health impacts of e-cigarettes. We will also highlight the most recent studies (in vivo/in vitro) which seem to conflict with the broad safety claims put forward by the manufacturers. Finally, we provide potential solutions to overcome the research gap of the short and long-term health impact of e-cigarettes.

Nostradamus Lite – Selected Speculations as to the Future of Internet Jurisdiction

This paper examines and analyses current trends in the field of Internet jurisdiction, including the troubling development of overly broad claims of 'scope of jurisdiction', the increasing interest in so-called geo-location technologies and the tendency of litigants targeting Internet intermediaries. A handful of recent key judgments from around the world are also analysed, and an effort is made to identify and present key projects and other initiatives currently dealingwith the topic of Internet jurisdiction. Based on observations flowing from this analysis, a selection of speculations as to the future of Internet jurisdiction is presented.It will be shown that while the topic of Internet jurisdiction is currently gaining an unprecedented degree of attention and, while progress is being made, there are several serious hurdles in relation to which we have seen little or no progress over the past 20 years. In addition, there are new dangerous trends emerging, adding to the concerns for the future direction of Internet jurisdiction.

Evaluating the Competing Claims on the Role of Ownership Regime Models on International Drinking Water Coverage

<p class="1Body">While progress has been made for providing drinking water through the completion of the Millennium Development Goals and other international programs, millions of people still do not have access to clean drinking water. This study examines how drinking water coverage is impacted using three regime ownership models. Using the framework of the privately-owned, publicly-owned, and decentralized regime models, the impacts of water production, non-revenue water, and unit operation cost are evaluated for drinking water coverage. A sample of 144 utilities across 33 countries were sampled using data from the International Benchmarking Network for Water and Sanitation Utilities. Using ordinary least squares modeling, results indicate that predicting water coverage from water production, non-revenue water, and unit operational costs provided weak explanations of variation for both publicly-owned and decentralized regimes. None of the three regime models established a significant relationship between water coverage and all three independent variables. For publicly- and privately-owned water regimes, decreasing non-revenue water by plugging leaks and improving infrastructure can translate into higher rates of water coverage. For decentralized water regimes, higher levels of unit operational cost can increase water coverage. The regression analyses also showed that broad claims about regime ownership, efficiency, and improved water coverage should be suspect. None of the three regime models established a significant relationship between water coverage and all three independent variables. This suggests that the competing claims that privatized drinking water utilities as being more efficient or more able to provide water coverage as compared to other types of utilities in the literature is not supported when compared across countries.</p>

Religion and Public Perceptions of Gays and Lesbians in South Korea

ABSTRACTPublic support for gay and lesbian rights has increased in Western democracies, yet less is known regarding views in South Korea, or East Asia more broadly. Rather than broad cultural claims, this analysis asks to what extent religious identification explains perceptions of gays and lesbians. Public opinion survey data from South Korea finds that Protestants were consistently less supportive of homosexual issues compared to Catholics, Buddhists, and those without a religious identification. Furthermore, after controlling for religion, identification with the largest conservative party associated with less support.

ASHWAGANDHA (WITHANIA SOMNIFERA) – HISTORICAL ASPECTS, CURRENT LITERATURE, MONOGRAPHS, NEWER INDICATIONS AND DELIVERY SYSTEMS

The present review on Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is divided into four Sections. Ancient scriptures and broad claims therein form Section I. Section II comprises comparison of selected monographs. There are large numbers of review articles and treatie as well as books written on Ashwagandha, a segment of which is referred to in Section III. It is surprisingly significant that Ashwagandha is the subject matter of innovative indication and innovative delivery dosage forms and combination in the current times world over. US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and leading researchers in many countries of the world have studied Ashwagandha for its wide and advanced therapeutic indications. However, it is not surprising that research on Ashwagandha and its potential is rather poor in its country of origin, i.e. India. Aggressive NGO-led campaign using the Anti-benefit generation oriented BDA (Biological Diversity Act, 2002) coupled with excessive interpretation of non-patentability using TKDL (Traditional Knowledge Digital Library) and over-interpretation of Section 3(p) of the Indian Patents Act, 1970 has led to diminishing interest in advance research on Indian herbs including Ashwagandha, as is seen from the comparison of the patent literature between research in India and overseas countries as seen from section IV.

A REPLY TO RUDI MATTHEE

Rudi Matthee's book has several key problems, which I discussed already in my review. Here I will provide evidence for two main issues that I see in the book. These issues are the limited use of Persian primary sources, and a tendency to make very broad claims based on very limited evidence.

METAPHYSICS AND HEAVY BREATHING (OR TIPPETT'S FOURTH SYMPHONY)

AbstractMichael Tippett's Fourth Symphony opens with the striking sound of an intake of breath, a gesture, which – according to the composer – describes the very nature of existence. Such statements are not uncommon from Tippett, yet nevertheless this is a broad claim, which naturally poses more questions than it answers. This article explores whether such a claim has any validity, presenting a philosophically led reading of the opening breath motif in an attempt to understand whether art can really shed new light on the well-rehearsed arguments of metaphysical enquiry.

Sustainable Development: The Role of Scientific Literature in Dutch Municipal Spatial Planning

<p>The objective of this article is to show how Dutch municipalities use scientific literature about sustainable development in their spatial planning policies and processes. The approach to this research is twofold. First, we conducted a literature review that summarized the most important discourses in the international and Dutch literature. Secondly, we interviewed Dutch municipalities and asked them how they interpret and define sustainable (spatial) development, how they keep up with the quick developments surrounding sustainability and how they approach sustainable development in their own planning practices. Results show that many municipalities claimed to interpret sustainable development in a broad manner and claim to use a sufficient amount of scientific literature, but their planning practices suggest otherwise. We conclude that the trichotomy ‘international scientific literature – national professional literature - planning practice’ is not self-evident within Dutch sustainable (spatial) development.</p>

‘Machines don’t have instincts’: Articulating the computational in journalism

This article examines the articulation of computational journalism, focusing on how the meaning of the computational is discursively constructed and mobilized as a specific constellation of intelligibility within news organizations. Relying on the concept of articulation developed in cultural studies, the article asks what, exactly, is meant by the computational in the context of journalism? Drawing on interviews with key managerial staff, editors and developers at Scandinavian news organizations, three broad claims about the linkage between the computational and journalism emerged. These articulations include the notion that machines don’t have instincts, that democracy can never be personalized and finally that the computational is something to think with, rather than simulate. The argument is made that what can and cannot be calculated is not merely a technical question, it is also a deeply social, cultural, political and economic one. Thus, the computational emerges as an important organising framework and discursive order for thinking and talking about journalism in the digital age.

“A Reading Problem”: Margaret Lynn, Jean Stafford, and Literary Criticism of the American West

“A Reading Problem”:Margaret Lynn, Jean Stafford, and Literary Criticism of the American West Cathryn Halverson I have borrowed the main title of this essay from one of Jean Stafford’s many autobiographical short stories, “A Reading Problem.” Recasting details of Stafford’s Boulder, Colorado girlhood, the story tracks the quest of its protagonist, Emily Vanderpool, to read in peace. Emily owns many books, including Tom Sawyer Abroad, Hans Brinker, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, but she has no place to read them free from the scrutiny of prying adults. A hotel lobby and the town jail prove to be only temporary solutions, and her dilemma leads to a fraught encounter with a con man and his daughter. The story ends with Emily’s revelation that the cemetery meets her needs. However, the rather portentous final image of her reading while seated “beside the grave of an infant kinswoman of the sheriff, a late-nineteenth-century baby called Primrose Starbird,” undermines any complacent resolution (344). Emily’s proximity to another bygone Colorado girl points at once toward familial connections between generations of western women and the inaccessibility of past stories. The evocative name on the stone is the only text the “infant kinswoman” offers her. This essay uncovers connections between western women writers by discussing Jean Stafford in concert with her literal kinswoman, Margaret Lynn. Author of the once widely known A Stepdaughter of the Prairie, Lynn was a native Missourian who preceded Stafford as an important spokeswoman of the West; she was also, not incidentally, Stafford’s first cousin once removed. The brunt of my argument is that Stafford and Lynn thematize, in their autobiographical texts, the difficulty of identifying a literary tradition shaped by western women. As critics, I posit, we experience this same difficulty—the same “reading problem” in respect to women writers and the West. Stafford’s three novels and many short stories established her as a leading [End Page 127] literary voice of the American West and “a figure of genuine consequence” in American letters more generally (Yardley). For over twenty years Stafford published short fiction in the New Yorker, a magazine with which she remains closely associated, and she won the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Collected Stories. Her oeuvre includes numerous expressions of the plight of the female intellectual coming of age in the American West—some comic, like “A Reading Problem,” and others tragic, like her best-known book, The Mountain Lion (1947). Stafford was deeply interested in the ramifications of being a western woman. She did not, however, openly explore relationships between women in the West. Women’s succor and bonds are present in her fiction only at a sedimentary level, as almost literally configured in the image of Emily Vanderpool reading beside Primrose Starbird’s grave. Stafford’s inclination to feature “woman” over “women”—to focus, that is, on individual female characters without making larger claims about women’s experience—is mirrored in dominant trends in western literary criticism. Key figures like Willa Cather, Mary Austin, Mourning Dove, and Laura Ingalls Wilder, to take some earlier twentieth-century examples, are typically treated in single-author studies. Correlatively, we have only a scant handful of monographs on “western women’s literature” as such. It is telling that Annette Kolodny’s The Land Before Her, published over three decades ago, remains the standard reference. In her review essay, “Big Books Wanted: Women and Western American Literature in the Twenty-First Century,” Victoria Lamont investigates the sources of this dearth. Her title references Christine Bold’s observation about the lack of major studies featuring “the explanatory patterns and causal narratives that would produce an alternative history of the literary West” (qtd. in Lamont 322). Lamont shows that the limited number of monographs is due partly to the long stretch of recovery work that had to come first, in a discipline that “emerged from the margins of a marginal field” (311). Yet the scarcity is now perpetuated by its achieved sophistication, with scholars favoring—over broad claims—the more focused arguments that case studies yield. “The increasing complexity of feminist work may have had the unintended consequence of allowing traditional master narratives to...

Orgies of Feeling: Melodrama and the Politics of Freedom by Elisabeth R. Anker (review)

Reviewed by: Orgies of Feeling: Melodrama and the Politics of Freedom by Elisabeth R. Anker Vincent Lloyd ORGIES OF FEELING: Melodrama and the Politics of Freedom. By Elisabeth R. Anker. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2014. Once, the jeremiad was the genre that set the parameters for American political discourse. Since the 1950s, and especially since September 11, 2001, it has been melodrama that sets the parameters. Politicians, journalists, and even leftist academics have adopted the conventions of melodrama. These are the central claims of Orgies of Feeling, a deeply compelling and smart work that itself defies genre convention, standing between political theory, cultural studies, and media studies. The jeremiad essentially involves self-criticism, a sense that we have gone morally astray and that we must be held to account for our transgressions. On this our future depends: if we succeed in moral correction now, we will enter the land of milk and honey; if not, fire and brimstone await. In contrast, melodrama, on Anker’s account, involves an innocent community injured by an evil Other. A hero emerges from the victimized community to combat the forces of evil and return a community to its original goodness. In melodrama, unlike in the jeremiad, there is no self-criticism: pure evil is located outside “our” community, pure goodness inside “our” community. When melodrama becomes a political convention, on Anker’s account, the community becomes the nation (America) and the hero represents the nation—paradigmatically, George W. Bush’s carefully choreographed performances of heroism post 9/11. The problems that accompany this sort of Manichean political discourse are obvious. [End Page 158] According to Anker, melodrama became the genre of American politics during the Cold War. Even after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt did not portray the struggle against the Japanese as a war of good against evil. It was Truman who first cast America as a victim-hero, beleaguered by Communist advances and intervening around the globe to defend freedom. Anker tracks the development of melodramatic politics over the next several decades as it took on new forms and gained a monopoly on the American political imagination. For example, she notes how Reagan positioned Americans as victims of inflation requiring his heroic efforts at deregulation and government shrinkage in order to restore freedom to Americans—who each can become heroes themselves by letting self-reliance replace dependence on government. Anker draws on Nietzsche (from whom she takes her title) to argue that the strong emotions evoked by melodrama are responsive to a sense of powerlessness, a sense that one is a victim but that one cannot clearly identify the cause of one’s suffering. The reason melodrama has such a strong hold on our current politics, Anker posits, is that it is the impersonal force of neoliberalism that is victimizing us, depriving us of actual freedom while promoting a hollow rhetoric of freedom. The genre of melodrama gives form to the feelings that this contradictory situation produces, affirming Americans’ sense of themselves as victims, clearly identifying the cause of suffering—Communism, inflation, Osama bin Laden, or Saddam Hussein—and authorizing the state to play the role of hero, championing good against evil. Even Leftists, Anker charges, adopt these conventions: Hardt and Negri’s “multitude” battles “empire.” The book concludes on a hopeful note. Reading Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows together with Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech, Anker suggests that melodramas that underscore their own failure, intentional or not, can encourage Americans to think about freedom in new, less sensationalist modes. This is a largely successful book, one that will surely have a significant impact on the field. It makes broad claims, claims that cannot be decisively proven, but claims that Anker shows to be plausible and, most importantly, useful in thinking about contemporary American culture. The book suffers, mildly, from a typical vice of first books: it is overly dependent on, and uncritical of, scholarship by the author’s advisors, political theorist Wendy Brown and film theorist Linda Williams. It is also perplexing that the only “transnational” moment in the text comes in the second chapter’s tracing of melodrama’s origins in Europe. At least some reflection...

Thick Marks, Thin Marks

Not all trademarks are created equal. Strong marks like APPLE computer receive more protection than lesser known, weaker marks like JOE’S diner. The difference is reflected by the amount of attention judges pay to surrounding context in resolving infringement claims. When a mark receives “thick” protection, facts that might make confusion less likely (e.g., clarifying marketplace realities or perceptible differences between the parties’ marks) matter less than when protection is thin. This conception of thick or thin protection is part of routine trademark disputes, but it has more interesting implications for trademark law. Trademarks do more than identify a product’s source. They embody connotative and abstract meanings over which trademark owners seek control. Traditional trademark doctrine is often ill-suited to resolving the resulting litigation. One way courts respond is by calibrating thickness of protection. Judges receptive to the expansion of trademark rights may grant thick protection; skeptical judges, thin. This shortcut frustrates the development of precedent. Treating a mark as thin, for example, enables courts to resist broad trademark claims without disturbing their doctrinal underpinnings. This softens the impact of trademark’s growing scope in individual cases, but without providing comfort to future defendants. Unfortunately, judicial vacillation between thick and thin protection is inevitable and intertwined with the long, unresolved debate about the extent to which trademarks should be treated as a form of property. Drawing on the literature describing modularity and property rights, I argue that thick trademark protection is simultaneously appealing to judges yet impossible over the long run. Thick protection offers the ability to hide complex interactions between trademark meanings behind a simpler property signal, leaving it to the trademark owner to manage them. This approach may be understood as an information-economizing tool that frees judges from the task of sorting out whether unauthorized use of a mark’s extended meaning might adversely affect its core, source-identifying function. But many such uses implicate the interests of third parties who cannot rely on the economic decisions of the mark owner for vindication. Because trademark doctrine also recognizes the importance of these concerns, consistent treatment of trademarks as thick is impossible notwithstanding the lure of the property shortcut. Judicial uncertainty and unclear doctrine is the result. Courts should think more clearly and explicitly about when thick protection is appropriate. Many extended trademark meanings are built out of a mark’s source-identification function. This suggests that the case for thick protection is strongest when a mark’s source identification capability is threatened, but weaker with respect to other meanings. Some doctrinal developments in trademark law reflect this view; others do not. But regardless of whether one agrees with this approach to trademark thickness, judicial choices on the subject should be acknowledged and made transparent.

“Emasculation nation has arrived”: sexism rearticulated in online responses to Lose the Lads’ Mags campaign

In the spring of 2013 a British feminist campaign sought to have men’s magazines, such as Zoo, Nuts, and Loaded, removed from the shelves of major retailers, arguing that they are sexist and objectify women. The campaign—known as Lose the Lads’ Mags (LTLM)—received extensive media coverage and was the topic of considerable public debate. Working with a data corpus comprising 5,140 reader comments posted on news websites in response to reporting of LTLM, this paper explores the repeated focus on men and masculinity as “attacked,” “under threat,” “victimised,” or “demonised” in what is depicted as a sinister new gender order. Drawing on a poststructuralist feminist discursive analysis, we show how these broad claims are underpinned by four interpretative repertoires that centre around: (i) gendered double standards; (ii) male (hetero)sexuality under threat; (iii) the war on the “normal bloke”; and (iv) the notion of feminism as unconcerned with equality but rather “out to get men.” This paper contributes to an understanding of (online) popular misogyny and changing modes of sexism.

Shared Environment Estimates for Educational Attainment: A Puzzle and Possible Solutions.

Classical behavioral genetics models for twin and other family designs decompose traits into heritability, shared environment, and nonshared environment components. Estimates of heritability of adult traits are pervasively observed to be far higher than those of shared environment, which has been used to make broad claims about the impotence of upbringing. However, the most commonly studied nondemographic variable in many areas of social science, educational attainment, exhibits robustly high estimates both for heritability and for shared environment. When previously noticed, the usual explanation has emphasized family resources, but evidence suggests this is unlikely to explain the anomalous high estimates for shared environment of educational attainment. We articulate eight potential complementary explanations and discuss evidence of their prospective contributions to resolving the puzzle. In so doing, we hope to further consideration of how behavioral genetics findings may advance studies of social stratification beyond the effort to articulate specific genetic influences.

Do genome‐scale models need exact solvers or clearer standards?

Constraint‐based analysis of genome‐scale models (GEMs) arose shortly after the first genome sequences became available. As numerous reviews of the field show, this approach and methodology has proven to be successful in studying a wide range of biological phenomena (McCloskey et al, 2013; Bordbar et al, 2014). However, efforts to expand the user base are impeded by hurdles in correctly formulating these problems to obtain numerical solutions. In particular, in a study entitled “An exact arithmetic toolbox for a consistent and reproducible structural analysis of metabolic network models” (Chindelevitch et al, 2014), the authors apply an exact solver to 88 genome‐scale constraint‐based models of metabolism. The authors claim that COBRA calculations (Orth et al, 2010) are inconsistent with their results and that many published and actively used (Lee et al, 2007; McCloskey et al, 2013) genome‐scale models do support cellular growth in existing studies only because of numerical errors. They base these broad claims on two observations: (i) three reconstructions (iAF1260, iIT341, and iNJ661) compute feasibly in COBRA, but are infeasible when exact numerical algorithms are used by their software (entitled MONGOOSE); (ii) linear programs generated by MONGOOSE for iIT341 were submitted to the NEOS Server (a Web site that runs linear programs through various solvers) and gave inconsistent results. They further claim that a large percentage of these COBRA models are actually unable to produce biomass flux. Here, we demonstrate that the claims made by Chindelevitch et al (2014) stem from an incorrect parsing of models from files rather than actual problems with numerical error or COBRA computations.

Shifting Paradigms in Music Education Research (1953–1978)

The purpose of this study was to examine evidence of a hypothesized shift in the operative research paradigms in music education during the first quarter century of the publication of the Journal of Research in Music Education, during the period 1953 to 1978. This shift was from humanities-oriented historical and philosophical studies to scientifically oriented psychological studies, from studies couched at higher levels of generality to more specific levels of analysis of the data, and from studies geared toward broader contextual and institutional issues to those concerning the specific behaviors of students in music education. Data for our analysis are drawn from the first 26 years of the Journal of Research in Music Education during its formative period from 1953 to 1978. In order to test quantitatively these broad philosophical claims for shifting paradigms in music education research during this period, our specific research questions focused on indicators that, taken together, might document these changes. Based on heuristic models, 499 articles were classified according to types of research method, facets of music education, and integrative levels of analysis. Descriptive statistics and statistically significant correlations provided strong evidence of this shift. Implications for further research were sketched.

Textual Adventures: Writing and Game Development in the Undergraduate Classroom

Abstract Building on scholarship in video game studies, this article argues that rather than writing about games as textual artifacts or playing games to reveal what they can teach us about writing, we should design curricula that introduce students to all of the writing that supports a successful game. The broader claim is that good writing leads to good software. In this case the software in question just happens to be a video game. The software and information technology industries value skilled writers, and those involved with writing pedagogy should continue to explore new methods for preparing students for these opportunities. Building on existing narratological approaches to teaching games is recommended as a place to begin. This article documents a specific endeavor to teach writing through software and game development. The article demonstrates how students experience the entire software development life cycle and its many writing challenges while developing their own text-based adventure games from the ground up.