Author extends Christensen's theories on paragraph development to formulate a sequence of development for longer compositions, and includes diagrams of sample sequences. (SP)

Presents an exercise for teachers which illustrates the limitations of workbook drills and rule study by teaching a brief hypothetical grammar text of five rules and exceptions, then employing those rules in standard drill exercises and a writing assignment. Claims that traditional pedagogies of formal grammar are not effective in improving…

An assignment to write a comment in less than fifty words encourages conciseness and precision. (JH)

Argues that writing teachers need to encourage profuseness as well as concision, to teach not just brevity but also loquacity, to help students repeat inventively. Notes that the stylistic values implicit in writing theories, pedagogy, and culture so overwhelmingly favor conciseness that elaboration gets lost in the learning process. Presents…

The ways in which our common ways of teaching the art of writing differ from successful practices in teaching the fine arts are analyzed.

Suggests the value of a prewriting sheet which asks remedial students to specify an occasion, audience, and purpose for each of their one-paragraph papers. (DD)

Notes how the use of controlled composition techniques in English-as-a-second-language classes can be adapted to help basic writers in remedial writing classes. (RL)

One can learn a great deal about teaching composition by writing the essays he assigns to students to write. (JH)

Stresses the virtues of one technique and the limitations of another technique for focusing on a writing topic. (RL)