This study examined the reflective journal entries of 42 trainee teachers who underwent teaching practicum in schools in Malaysia. The study investigated the types of reflections, strategies or stance used, and perceptions of the trainees toward reflective journal writing. The findings of the study indicated that the trainee teachers were engaged…

A tribute to the similes and metaphors used by historian Dr. Adolphe E. Meyer in his textbook writing. (IR)

Presents an exercise in descriptive writing that shows how to take a subjective statement and support or deny it using a common body of factual observations. (PA)

Describes a three-part exercise used in a first semester freshman composition class, intended to show students the world of details in even the most ordinary, everyday objects by having students write about a plastic coffee mug. (SR)

Details the components of a two-part, two-week assignment in the writing of description which gives the students a chance to work on both observation and order. (JM)

Summarizes recent research into systems of lexical and grammatical cohesion in technical description. Discusses various methods by which technical writers "re-enter" the topic of description back into the text in successive sentences. (HTH)

Presents a teaching assignment for business communication students involving library research and a process description assignment for technical writing students. (FL)

Aspects of personalization in historical descriptions and explanations are explored, considering conceptualizations of great leaders, the personification of institutions, and the tendency of students to transform structural explanations into personalization. It is argued that personalization is central to a common-sense concept of history. (SLD)

Presents a way of teaching process explanation in a technical writing course. Urges that the assignment ask students to explain a process they have learned from experience or from observation. (TJ)

Argues that descriptive writing has an important role in disciplinary learning for novice students and that discussion of critical analysis and critical thinking in tertiary learning could benefit from a linguistic perspective on how critical analysis is realized in student writing. (Author/VWL)

Describes an activity to encourage students to write with specific details. Notes that (at the beginning of each class) students briefly jot down three things that have made them feel good on that particular day. Notes several other benefits of this activity. (SR)

Asking students to describe an unrecognizable portion of an artifact sharpened their powers of observation.

An ethnographic study narrated three tales about a soup kitchen for the homeless and the near-homeless. To provide a cultural, ethnographic analysis, and share fieldwork experiences the study began with realist and confessional tales. These two tales emerged from the initial writing and presenting of the soup kitchen ethnography to qualitative…

Examines gender differences in topic choice by analyzing freshman writers' narratives of an incident they witnessed. Finds that pronounced, gender-based patterns influence text production, with women demonstrating caring and nurturing values in everyday life and men engaging in romantic fantasies of self-aggrandizement or apocalyptic fascination…

Writing well means communicating successfully. To communicate successfully the message must be accurate, brief, and clear. The basic components of clarity are sentence length, story length, and vocabulary. Creative devices and descriptive writing are discussed. (MLW)