"Writing with Authority: Students Roles as Writers in Cross-National Perspective" offers a comparison of student writers in two university culturesone German and one Americanas the students learn to connect their writing to academic content. David Foster demonstrates the effectiveness of using cross-cultural comparisons to assess differences in literacy activities and suggests teaching approaches that will help American students better develop their roles as writers in knowledge-based communities. He proposes that American universities make stronger efforts to nurture the autonomy of...