A defense of the passive voice against charges that it is wordy, obscure, and ineffective. (DD)

Identifies the characteristics of clear references to explain why certain kinds of broad pronoun reference are clear while others are not. (HTH)

Suggests that teaching students to achieve coherence involves teaching them what it means to plan and to move up and down a hierarchy of abstraction as well as teaching them to build cohesive links into their writing. Describes a program for teaching coherence. (RL)

Examines the sentence-based pedagogies that arose in composition during the 1960s and 1970s (the generative rhetoric of Francis Christensen, imitation exercises, and sentence-combining) and attempts to discern why these three pedagogies have been so completely elided within contemporary composition studies. Concludes that this erasure of sentence…

Guidelines for connecting the rhetorical principles taught by Francis Christensen with concepts from sentence-combining in a plan to help students learn to invent and develop sentences. (RL)

Explores findings from research on the psychology of reading that may confirm and enlarge upon both the importance of planning and the perceptions of plans in writing and reading. (RL)

Considers "unpacking" or "deconstructing" sentences (the reverse of sentence combining) an effective teaching technique that helps students to develop clear predication and eliminate their tendency to use vague, confusing nominalized verbs. (RL)

Describes three semantic theories for teaching the writing process (case grammars, the "given-new" contract, and cohesion), with their implications for helping students communicate more effectively with their audiences. (RL)

Explores the concept of ambiity in semantic relationships, and discusses several causes of relational ambiguity, including differing world views, subtext construction, and selective focusing. Asserts that while most instances of relational ambiguity do not impair text comprehension, readers should be aware of possible ambiguities. (MM)

Reports on a small pilot study that investigated the effect of word processing on the revision of six college freshmen. The results suggested that word processing did not encourage students to revise more extensively. (HOD)

Discusses the collected research on free modifiers and "minor sentences," or "formal fragments." Asks English teachers for less concentration on initial placement of modifiers, less rigidity concerning fragments, and more practice with punctuating final free modifiers. (RL)

Reports of research on using different patterns for connecting sentences. Shows the importance of applying insights from text linguistics to writing instruction. (RL)