English writing is one of the four indispensable skills that English learners need to master, but unfortunately, many Chinese college students have much difficulty composing clear, concise and coherent essays although they have studied English for at least over six years. To address the problem, the researchers and teachers in China have tried…

This article presents a three-strand approach to help L2 writers in English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a second language (ESL) instructional contexts achieve greater cohesion in their written work. The approach focuses on (1) the analysis of authentic texts, (2) the development of productive vocabulary, and (3) information…

In this high-accountability era--one in which there is an expanding movement to condemn teachers for the failures of their schools--teachers teach students who believe writing is primarily an act of complying to a prompt, likely for a state accountability assessment or the troubling 25-minute essay that constitutes less than half of the writing…

Unlike the vocabulary used in language arts and social studies, knowledge of expository text (text written to inform) and the language of science are required for reading and writing in science (Carrier 2005). This vocabulary, along with expository text structures, often is not taught in middle and high school classrooms, thus hindering students,…

Describes an approach to teaching students a basic design process for routine business documents like memos, letters, and reports. Outlines the design principles of HATS (Headings, Access, Typography, and Spacing), how they apply in before-and-after fashion to various documents, and discusses an assignment in which students redesign an existing…

Discusses "textual intelligence": knowledge of how texts of all kinds work. Describes how the author uses grammar in his classroom to help students understand how to read and write better and how to think with greater clarity. Describes activities used before and after students read or write. Argues that grammar is a process that helps students…