When students write informational text, they have the opportunity to engage with meaningful topics, become curious about the world, learn domain-specific knowledge, and use academic vocabulary. Given the possibilities for learning through writing informational text, it is important for teachers to reflect on and improve their informational writing…

The development of strong writing skills is a critical (and somewhat obvious) goal within the classroom. Individuals across the world are now expected to reach a high level of writing proficiency to achieve success in both academic settings and the workplace (Geiser & Studley, 2001; Powell, 2009; Sharp, 2007). Unfortunately, strong writing…

Mobile Internet-based technologies have created the opportunity for many students to view writing and research as an everyday activity. While many students use these kinds of technologies on a daily basis in and outside of the classroom, not many writing pedagogies reflect this shift or capitalize on how beginner writers use them to effectively…

In this article, the author provides technology-based techniques for prewriting invention and drafting that offer students new ways to look at and think about writing topics and tasks. Rather than creating electronic versions of existing paper-and-pencil invention strategies, the author suggests strategies using commonly owned and used computer…

Many business and technical writing students find classroom discussions of professional ethics interesting and enjoyable. However, when trying to incorporate the content of discussions directly into their writing practices, they often experience difficulties linking ethical concepts to writing process. This article discusses how instructors can…

This article discusses the use of computer logging as a means of investigating aspects of the second language (L2) writing process as writers are engaged in producing text at the keyboard. The observation of writing by means of this method provides researchers with detailed information concerning aspects of the planning, formulation, and revision…

All humans use objects in their environment as tools for actions. Some tools are more useful than others for certain people and populations. This paper describes how different first-graders used handheld computers as tools when writing. While all 17 children in the observed classroom were competent users of their handheld computers, their use of…

Arguing that children need access to word processing to reap the same benefits as adult writers, a fourth-grade teacher convinced her administration to provide one computer per child during their writing workshop periods. Having portable word processors liberated student writers by making the mechanical aspects of writing easier. Students could…

The study of discourse genres as social action has steadily displaced more traditional views of genre, proposing the organic and ecological model that any consistent pattern of response to a recurrent rhetorical situation might constitute a genre. Observation of the life cycles of genres as transient social events can occur in a classroom using…

There is no single program for improving student writing, but there are common elements of programs that help kids learn to write well. Likewise, there is no professional development program that provides all the skills and knowledge a teacher will need to improve student writing--and, ultimately, student learning--but there are common elements…

Reviews four specific prewriting activities designed to foster prewriting and avoid premature drafting on the computer: freewriting, electronic journal-keeping, idea-generation, and online "conversations." Provides hints for developing lesson files, reviews current prewriting and hypertext software, and provides tips on selecting software. (14…

This paper asserts that all the praise currently being lavished upon computer technology in the writing classroom should be tempered with realistic criticism. In addition to making research easier for students, the Internet makes plagiarism very easy. The author stresses that this plagiarism problem is not limited to the composition classroom, and…

Computers can help young writers learn to write well. Exercises for developing ideas, such as freewriting, are easily adapted to computers and enhanced by hypertext and thesaurus functions. Grammar and spell checks make editing easier, and the ability to rearrange text facilitates writing out of order and revision. Changing formats and fonts,…

Asserts that students learn more rapidly and retain knowledge longer when they take an active role in the learning process. Describes a college sociology course in which students regularly contribute to a "class journal" using electronic mail. Discusses problems and pitfalls of using computers for classroom discussion. (CFR)

This report discusses the effectiveness of strategy-based writing instruction for adolescents with language-based learning disabilities. The instruction is being provided to Canadian students in grade eight who are at least two grade equivalents below their peers in reading and writing ability. The students are taught a paraphrasing strategy that…