Claims that writing logs constitute an effective teaching tool in basic college writing courses. Discusses one teacher's success using writing logs to assist the development of students' freewriting skills. Includes sample entries revealing students' comments and progress throughout the term and documenting the teacher's response to these…

Encourages students in creative writing classes to grow as writers by following in some way the words of advice given by an older, wiser, professional writer. (CRH)

Discusses how the author and a colleague made a short videotape of students talking about their writing experiences. Describes first steps, arrangements and questions, the shoot itself, and crafting the video. Discusses uses of this video, noting the impact this infusion of student voices can have in the composition classroom, influencing the way…

Describes a successful approach used by the author in "Composition and Literature" courses which teaches students to write in a relaxed manner about material unnatural to them (literary texts). Describes focusing on communicating to a generally ignorant reader who is knowledgeable about the work. Argues that papers became clearer as the semester…

Outlines detrimental effects of word processing in the composition classroom on planning, reading, organizing, revising, error detection, and spelling and vocabulary skill development. Discusses strategies instructors can use to teach students to use the computer at each stage of the writing process in ways that encourage and develop the…

Argues that student self-assessment and reflection need to be central components of writing instruction and that the response sequence between teacher and student should routinely include them. Offers examples of this sequence with two students, and presents nine specific classroom strategies that put self-assessment and reflection at the center…

Describes a series of exercises the author developed to help college writers identify wordiness, reword, and revise carefully. Notes that these lessons build from simple recognition and repair to writing a 100-word piece. Concludes that many students choose this series of assignments as their favorite semester activity and one that influences how…

Suggests that students can become motivated and engaged to improve their writing through guided interactions that target their affective, social, and cognitive capabilities. Presents fictional case scenarios developed from first- and second-year college students' comments about their writing to help students assess their perspectives on writing,…

Claims that computer-assisted instruction can be a feasible option for the basic writing classroom. Argues that developmental writers must have the opportunity to use computers to enhance the writing process and improve critical thinking. Advocates using computers to go beyond sentence-level writing errors. (HB)

Offers comments on an article appearing in a recent issue of this journal in which the writer argued that word processing enhances student writing performance. Includes a response by the article's author, Don Richard Cox. (FL)

Examines internal and external factors which affect the way women reentering higher education learn and write. Finds several constant internal factors: sense of inferiority among peers; inability to concentrate; sense of guilt; feeling out of place among younger students; fatigue; and doubt. Finds that positive internal factors outweigh negative…

Reviews over 50 textbooks grouped into three categories: (1) workbooks; (2) sentence style books, most of which use sentence combining as the fundamental type of exercise; and (3) copy books, which are used by directly copying passages with signals for particular changes. (EL)