Describes a writing assignment useful for high school and college students in which students ponder, discuss, and write about collecting, collectors, and the human impulse to collect. Includes some samples of student writing. (SR)

Describes using self-reflective synesthetic writing exercises (which prompt students to think metaphorically about crossed senses--taste of clouds, smell of anger, etc.) in creative writing with high school students. Notes how such writing allows a reader/teacher insights into students' lives and personalities. Includes student sample poems. (SR)

Describes an autobiographical writing assignment in which preservice teachers reflect on their past language experiences in order to examine the important elements of language development. Presents samples from student essays demonstrating that the factors influencing language development are varied and yet consistent. (RS)

Creative inductive exercises for teaching effective writing skills are presented. Basic objectives of the inductive method include: (1) challenging students with creative options; (2) discovering the basics in sentence construction; (3) interpreting the idea of the "levels of generality;" and (4) focusing on the parallel between sentence…

A study analyzed how freshman composition students handled an assignment that forced them to perform an act of sophisticated literacy which was a variation between spontaneity (present) and repetition (past) with a focus on how novice writers borrow language, whether through quotation or misquotation. The assignment involved two masterpieces of…

This report examines a variety of ways that the QUILL program for teaching writing was realized in elementary classrooms. In particular, the report looks at the different ways purposeful writing was achieved using MAILBAG, the electronic mail component of QUILL. The analysis shows that innovations in education should be viewed as objects created…

The situational approach is one effective way of presenting students with technical writing assignments that represent "a close approximation of the writing chores which befall the gainfully employed technical writer in industry." The approach includes elements of both simulation and game playing, with some significant differences. The situational…

To explain the nature of the response process in journal writing, a simplified version of the theory of speech genres proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin is applied to excerpts from a journal by a college junior. Bakhtin's model of communication is continually interactive and dialogic, as though all voices from the speaker/writer's past are poised at the…

Among the various methods used by a classroom teacher to encourage writing in her first grade class are letter writing, writing a book, writing notes to each other, and keeping journals. The desire to communicate is the primary motivating factor in the development of both oral and written language. (JN)

Argues that writing to a real audience in the form of a letter is an effective way for students to learn the importance of audience in writing. Stresses the idea that students who are intimidated by the writing process will view letter writing in a more positive light and be more amenable to the learning process. Describes a specific…

The reader-response journal has proven useful in the literature-based composition class; it is also useful in the literature survey at the sophomore or junior level of college. Survey courses have a standard protocol that students have come to expect. In these classes, the teacher is an expert who lectures on historical background, trends, and…

A training program designed to teach high school students to be specific in their writing is described in this booklet. The first section of the booklet explains the three stages of the program: (1) daily practice in translating a "telling" sentence into a "showing" paragraph; (2) application of "showing" writing to…

This volume consists of nine conference papers and journal articles concerned with microcomputer applications in the teaching of writing. After a general introduction entitled "Computer-Assisted Composition Instruction: The State of the Art," by Robert Shostak, four papers are devoted to how computers may help with the writing process. In…

Encourages the use of imaginative writing about scientific phenomena and/or principles. Offers samples of student writings on the concept of succession. Includes a listing of topics which could be used for creative writing exercises and provides suggestions for classroom implementation. (ML)

This collection of documents constitutes the final report of the first year of Winchester High School's federally funded reading and writing across the curriculum program. The project director's report presents an overview of the program and discusses anticipated and actual outcomes, including: (1) more systematic reading and writing activities in…