Presents a developmental perspective on text construction, understood as managing information within and across sentence boundaries. Claims that the systematicity in non-standard constructions in basic writer's texts reflects student awareness of three obligatory areas of information management in texts: topic management, reference tracking, and…

Outlines the basic elements and classroom applications of "word grammar," a form of sector (tagmemic) analysis to be used in standard English instruction. (RL)

Notes the problems associated with integrating grammar study in writing instruction. Provides strategies for such integration, including a syllabus for teaching the verb phrase. (RL)

Draws on concept learning research to address the problem of grammatical explanations that may be perfectly clear to the teacher or textbook writer but that leave students groping for help. Describes problems that students have in learning grammatical concepts, and provides strategies to overcome those problems. (RS)