In this article, we describe and analyze the experience of undergraduate chemistry students who scripted episodes of a science podcast for non-expert audiences. This practice aimed to improve public communication of science and technology, often suppressed throughout science careers but relevant for developing critical thinking. In particular, the…

This article examines a manageable approach that provides students with significant opportunities to write and improve their writing over time in an introductory quantitative business course. The study examines six elements of written communication skills, as evidenced by assessment data from memorandum assignments administered following…

This multicase study explores students' understandings about revision in the light of successive findings that they typically revise their texts little and at superficial levels. Students' limited revising has been variously explained, both in terms of cognitive-metacognitive factors and restrictive school models. Few studies, however, have…

This research explores a presumed link between today's use of digital media and an ever-increasing lack of rhetorical awareness in students. Specifically, the study pilots a method for measuring rhetorical awareness through students' e-mail transactions with faculty in technical writing service courses, questioning whether rhetorical awareness has…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Practice Guide, "Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively," offers educators three specific, evidence-based recommendations that address the challenges of teaching students in grades 6-12 to write effectively. This summary focuses on the first of the three recommendations: Explicitly teach…

Opportunities to read and analyze others' writing or to observe readers as they analyze writing might enhance one's own sense of audience and improve one's own writing. This mixed-methods study investigated whether reader and observer activities in comparison to writing practice activities affected fifth-grade students' persuasive writing and…

This article presents the rationale for and implementation of the family message journal as a writing tool. The family message journal provides multiple opportunities for students to develop as writers while strengthening the school-home connection. This article provides examples of rhetorical moves that indicate young writers are aware of their…

This article seeks answers to questions, such as how children's writing develops and how young students express themselves in writing at various stages of their development. This article reviews the literature through a wide lens as it examines elementary students' writing and is intended to lead to a more comprehensive understanding of…

This article addresses an under-researched area of graduate studies: the role of writing groups in developing the research and publication potential of university graduates. Drawing on focus group discussions with participants from a pilot program conducted in the Arts Faculty at Monash University in Australia, the authors investigate the outcomes…

Notes that reader analysis is essential in writing technical documents. Reviews several ways to analyze readers, and groups the ways into three manageable categories: demographic, organization, and psychological approaches. (SR)

Cites the news story "lead," which tells immediately what the story is about, as necessary for "hooking" the reader. States that leads do not come that easily, but that they must deliver the news. Adds that a good lead should eliminate unnecessary words and select key words. Offers examples of good and bad leads. (PA)

Points out that understanding the buyer's perspective is critical to developing effective marketing materials. Discusses how to determine the buying concerns that are relevant to customers and products and how to organize good marketing writing. (SR)

Offers suggestions to help technical writers get a start in marketing writing. Discusses thinking differently, making the transition, and good beginner projects. (SR)

Describes how, in a unit on Russia's history, culture, and future, eight high school students with writing difficulties presented their work to small student groups, a teacher alone, one student, and finally themselves via videotape. Notes that students' reactions to these audience options show how student writers can develop a sensitivity to…

The media role model was recently developed to frame how science faculty members can teach their students to write more effectively to lay audiences (14). An Opinion Editorial (Op-Ed) was introduced as a novel assignment for final-year physiology and pharmacology undergraduates. This second phase of this study, reported here, demonstrated the…