This article describes a cooperative writing response initiative designed to develop writing skills in foreign/second-language contexts (hereafter L2). The strategy originated from my desire to cater for my learners' need to become better writers in English within a constrained educational environment in Argentina. In this article I describe this…

Concerns about the relation between critical and creative writing are reviewed in the context of encouraging students to engage in both kinds of writing as a response to literature in undergraduate degree courses. In particular the paper seeks to illustrate and promote good practice in the integration of creative and critical written responses to…

A writing workshop is a pedagogical tool that can create a more productive experience for teachers and students alike. Business students who have used this technique with experienced instructors agree that a well-planned writing workshop can be useful for dispelling writing fears, furthering understanding of business communication skills,…

Presents the text of an account of the author's research. Notes that the text's four layers (scientific report, reflective analysis, personal history, and deliberative appeal) are each indispensable yet individually inadequate to the task. Considers the tensions among possible accounts of the research and what these tensions say about the reading…

Writing, and the vocabulary building that goes with it, is a more complex process than merely putting words on a page. In the process of acquiring vocabulary, for example, students need to understand not just what individual words mean but also which combinations of these words in sentences or paragraphs convey a meaningful message to the reader…

Argues that writers gain skill in manipulating syntactic structures as they learn to engage in reflexive reading of complex texts. (MM)

Discusses a thinking-writing-organizing technique that Kenneth Burke called the dramatistic method. Suggests that having students ask and answer a series of questions prompted by five words (who, what, where, why, and how) placed at each of the points of a star can help students think and write about works of literature. (RS)

Reflects on a thematic section on "The Status of Women" taught in a freshmen writing class. Discusses the resistance of the author and students and the angered and impassioned writing that arises when texts challenge the ideologies of readers. (MG)

Noting that Katherine Paterson's books are loved by school children everywhere, this paper discusses her engagement with the books she writes and how children respond to them. The paper begins with a brief discussion of the inspiration of one of Katherine Paterson's fairy tales and presents an extended discussion of the motivation behind her…

In a collaborative learning experience at the South Carolina Humanities and Writing Institute, writing process teaching methods were used to teach literature. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was used as a prototype study for the group, while at the same time, each teacher-fellow developed his or her own literature study and teaching…

To ask students to write and respond to each other's papers is one means of confronting the difficulties posed by radical texts such as Adrienne Rich's "When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Revision," an essay from her collection "On Lies, Secrets, and Silence." When an instructor assigns such a work, he or she places him- or…

Text headings can be used to structural and expressive advantage in technical material, increasing textual coherence and encouraging reader/text correspondence. The five general types of headings are differentiated by their functions: (1) descriptive headings refer to the most prominent feature of a text section; (2) reflective headings provide…

Describes one high school English teacher's experiment with assigning stories instead of analytical essays. Argues for retelling and storytelling as a valuable resource in the high school curriculum. (RAE)

Writing is at the heart of education. The business of English teachers is to make people more comfortable in using language, particularly written language. Language serves two broad functions: (1) representing elements of external reality; and (2) defining relationships among the people who use the language. The writer's first need is to use the…

Describes the Directed Reading-Writing Activity (DRWA) as a framework that helps high school students write about the information they acquire through reading. Discusses how the DRWA's three steps--preparation, involvement, and reaction--extends the thought processes associated with reading comprehension into effective writing. (AEW)