The aim of this article is to reveal the ways in which six 14- to 15-year-old second language (L2) learners, two each of high, mid, and low English proficiency levels were cognitively engaged in writing while using an automated content feedback program known as the Essay Critiquing System 2.0 in three out of five workshops in a Hong Kong secondary…

This article examines relationships in the writing process and offers some strategies to address student needs on both the cognitive and affective domains.

The ancient literary form of commonplace books offers rich possibilities to students and teachers of English in Australian schools in the 21st century. By briefly tracing early uses of commonplace books and examining contemporary approaches to the teaching of writing, this paper re-imagines the 15th century commonplace book as a personal learning…

The brain is a complex organ with an intellectual capacity that is unique to humans. For educators, it is wise to study the brain's many attributes and how it functions to help guide, inform, and improve teaching practice. Learners' brains are particularly sensitive to certain kinds of stimuli--that is social, physical, cognitive, and emotional…

Most students avoid the reflective nature the writing process requires. Their resistance to meta-cognition, thinking about one's thinking, often means they are incapable of capitalizing on their strengths or improving upon their weaknesses. The author believes students who are familiar with writers' lives and habits will be that much more…

Presents a taxonomy of writing instruction, a model or paradigm of the writing process, an application of this model to the teaching of writing, and an explanation of the empirical basis of the model. (Author/GW)

Theory and practice, especially in education and more particularly about the composition process, stand in a dialectical relationship to one another, otherwise practice gets gimmicky and theory becomes dogmatic. The role of theory is to define purposes, figure out why something works so it can be repeated, give perspective, and free teachers from…

Proposes that a unified theory of writing be sought as a basis for teaching composition, and that such a theory come from theories of mind and learning already developed. (RL)

An 11-year-old's discussion of five school writing assignments sheds light on the composing process and on learning-through-writing. (AA)

Composition can play an important role in helping our society move away from being a "mentally handicapped" left-brained culture because composition is one of the few "bispheral" activities; left and right brain functions seem to alternate during the writing process, supplementing the insights of each other. Currently, however, most teaching of…

Discusses several definitions of protocols, methods of protocol collection and analysis, applications in current research, and the limitations of collecting protocols as a research method. (HOD)

Uses stimulated recall to elicit a retrospective account from a student following his production of an artistic text representing his view of the relationship of two central characters in a short story. Analyzes the student's process of composition. Suggests that nonlinguistic texts can help students construct meanings. (HB)

Advocates emphasizing invention or substance of writing first, and suggests that peer evaluation will provide a necessary audience for student writers. (MKM)

Offers a review of various veins of thought related to writing instruction such as traditional grammar and rhetoric, discourse processes and cognitive science, and discourse form and sociolinguistics. (SRT)

Traditional methods of studying literature have included making assignments, having class discussions of the texts, and then assigning students to write about them. However, based on the concept that reading literature is a form of composing and that aspects of the process model for teaching writing can be applied to teaching literature, the…