Discusses two ways of organizing writing: "imitative" or "natural" order, which reflects either chronology or spatiality; and "imposed" order, in which topical materials have been restructured in a significant way. Argues that all rhetorical alternatives should be considered when teaching writing. (MM)

Argues for using the metaphor of the contract as a principal strategy for teaching students how to craft introductions. (SR)

Describes method in which students write a draft requiring some writing skill before learning about that skill. Concludes that predrafting (1) enforces first-drafting; (2) shows students their natural writing abilities; (3) emphasizes discovery of substance first, rules and form second; (4) promotes an active student role; (5) arranges learning in…

Describes lessons learned about writers and writing from living with a fiction writer. Discusses implications for teachers of writing. (SR)

Analyzes the research process by examining student journals from a research paper course in which volunteers recorded their reactions to articles, how they were developing their topic, and problems they encountered. Concludes that the blocks encountered in the research process are more complex than and different from those encountered in other…

Presents specific implications of writing research for teachers who work with gifted youngsters in elementary school writing. Supports the use of derived plot patterns and point of view as two types of literature-based writing assignments that work especially well with gifted students. (MS)

Illustrates the debate between (1) those holding the mechanic view that form must be imposed on writing, enabling the selection of relevant details, and (2) those holding the neo-Coleridgean organic view that as one writes one's thinking assumes shape, structure being indivisible from content. Contrasts textbooks by R. Decker and D. Murray. (JG)

Criticizes the focus among some educators upon the writing process. Notes that all writers do not follow the same process and that teaching students otherwise oversimplifies writing instruction and diminishes efforts to improve it. Explains a "scaffolding" approach which involves outlining of increments in a writing process without…

Relates how a microcomputer with word processing capabilities can facilitate and enrich a student's writing. (HOD)

Demonstrates how an integrated approach toward writing evaluation works at each stage of the writing process and presents a checklist teachers can use to assess whether their students use specific behaviors of the writing process as they compose. (FL)

Explores one teacher-researcher's attempt to involve students in theory-building research of their own composing processes. Aims to increase involvement of rural youth in higher education, youth who have traditionally remained on the farm or gone directly to work in now-faltering rural economies. Shares an outline of the course plan. (MG)

Suggests that if students are to become comfortable enough with poetry to freely write about it, they must first discover the poetry in themselves. Offers a composition-poetry method that allows students to experience poetry, analyze their writing processes, and synthesize all the information gained from doing and analyzing. (MS)

Examines how teacher evaluation effects students' willingness and motivation and hence the writing process. Analyzes results of a survey measuring student responses to several kinds of evaluation of their essays. Concludes that informal evaluation (e.g. peer evaluation, conferences, ungraded writing) improves students' attitudes. (JG)

Examines elements in the early stages of the process of writing criticism. Suggests that the key to criticism is connections made in context, and that criticism of film or theater is first a reading act, and then a writing act. (MS)

Compares the rhetorical context of essay exams with that of assignments written outside of class. Reports differences in pedagogical function, prompts, rhetorical function, mechanics, style, and organization. Refutes two common assumptions: that essay exams are not a genre and that they work against students' mastery of writing process skills.…