Points out that the future of technical writing can be sustained only if teachers persist in setting for technical writing the same standards they apply to other sophisticated modes of writing, and if they require refinement in style as well as accuracy in content. (MS)

Describes a "composing process paper" assignment designed to make students aware of their own writing processes and to teach important problem-solving skills. Provides a series of protocol questions students can discuss before writing descriptions of their individual writing processes. (HTH)

Examines the reading and writing processes and their interdependence and urges the language arts instructor to be an audience for children's writing and to help them become aware that what they read is someone else's writing. (HTH)

Presenting highlights from the past decade of East Central Writing Centers Association conferences, this book addresses the questions of how writing conferences foster the development of writing ability and how teachers can give students control of their own writing and of the writing conference and thus promote higher-order thinking. By providing…

Intended for junior high and high school writing instructors, this booklet provides prewriting activities designed to help students master the thinking strategies essential to effective written communication. The first portion of the booklet discusses theory and research on the role of thinking strategies in writing and gives an overview of the…

By engaging in philosophical discussion in their writing, freshman composition students can discover that writing is a mediating tool between the self and the objective world, a means to examine the nature of reality and their thinking processes. Introducing philosophical issues opens the door for the investigation of difficult and abstract topics…

This paper presents a narrative account of how the process of discovery pertained to a college instructor's experience in teaching writing, offering it as a potential methodology for other teachers to consider in their own and their students' writing. The first two parts of the paper illustrate the process of primary and secondary invention in…

During writing conferences, many teachers impose their own ideas and attitudes on the student's essay, and often are not sure how else to help their students arrive at changes that will improve their writing. Understanding or assessment of a student's prior knowledge about the topic can be very helpful to a teacher in shaping the conference and…

Argues that observations and an analysis of 245 letters written by elementary school students support the idea that writers and learners do know how to promote their own self-development. (JL)

Suggests that students keep writing logs (a record of problems and solutions, techniques, and strategies) as a way to develop conscious control of their writing processes. (RAE)

Notes that creating focus which leads to formulating a thesis is a task with which many writers have trouble. Describes a process model of conceptual development that helps students gain confidence in abstracting, conceptualizing, and formulating a thesis. (NH)

Focusing on synthesis--the ability to recognize and create new ideas that subsume and relate to others--as one of the most sophisticated skills writers can attain, the articles in this journal present many ideas for teaching synthesis and a number of classroom approaches that combine the study of English with other fields. The following titles and…

Discusses three principles germane to the idea that writing is a response to its function, compares school writing with home writing, and suggests specific functions of writing that are frequently used in classrooms. (DF)

Explains how journal writing, taught with some direction, can guide students' writing and provide them with a sense of self-discovery. (HOD)

Describes a writing assignment that has been used with high school students, college freshmen, and graduate students to help them more adequately understand their own composing processes. Argues that heuristic methods are extremely powerful teaching tools and that teachers should learn the theory on which they are based. (TJ)