Describes how creating "mythical machines" can develop students' technical writing skills. Describes how students work in groups to produce documents for various purposes related to their machine. (MM)

Research suggests that good writers differ from poor writers. Teachers who develop prewriting exercises, emphasize multiple draft assignments, help the student think about revision, and evaluate the product can help undergraduates write and think more clearly. (Author/AM)

Writing processes and writing skills are highly compatible, but only if "writing skills" are defined as genuinely helpful learning strategies rather than prescriptive techniques or isolated forms and rules. Increased skill is a product of meaningful practice, not prescriptive instructions or isolated drills. In the present context, the…

Sentence combining can teach students one of the most difficult aspects of the writing process--how to construct effective, versatile sentences. In sentence combining exercises, students take a series of short sentences and combine them into a longer and more elaborate sentence in such a way that the important information from each short sentence…

Describes a documented term paper assignment that allows students to investigate topics in other courses in which they are enrolled. Discusses the advantages of enlisting help from instructors in other areas and offers tips for involving the cooperating instructors in a mutually satisfying way. (FL)

Free writing--writing without concern about spelling, grammar, and punctuation--provides students with opportunities to practice without being judged. Some free writing activities are described that allow teachers of subjects other than English to improve their students' writing skills without sacrificing time for their own subject. (JMD)

Based on his experience of being trained in a process-centered pedagogy and of working in a product-centered program, a writing instructor discovers that the in-class essay is not only a useful or workable part of a regressive curriculum, but that it is effective and necessary for any progressive process orientation as well. Pragmatic, ethical,…

Explains how computers can be used in the journalism class for a variety of writing exercises. (FL)

Some exercises to allow composition students to express their attitudes about writing courses and to allow instructors to keep more in touch with student apprehensions are suggested. (HTH)

After presenting a series of assumptions about the teaching of playwriting (for example, that students can be taught the craft, if not the art, of playwriting; students must be kept to a strict deadline if they are to develop into disciplined writers; and playwriting should never be discussed outside the context of production possibilities), this…

Ungraded writing is a way of increasing the amount of writing by geography students without unduly burdening the teacher. Two examples of ungraded writing assignments are described: in-class writing and periodic writing in a private journal. (RM)

Results of two experiments strengthen the hypothesis that the ability to divide attention is constrained primarily by the individual's level of skill. It is not affected by rapid alteration of attention between a reading and writing task, or by automatic processing of the dictated material. (Author/CP)

Reading, vocabulary enlargement, and the cause and effect essay are stressed as activities students can pursue on their own to improve their writing. (HTH)

PORPE, a comprehensive strategy system utilizing writing, was originally created for students who wanted to know how to study for essay examinations in their college courses. With PORPE, students are involved in (1) predicting potential essay questions to guide subsequent study; (2) organizing key ideas using their own words, structure, and…

Technical communication teachers need to recognize the increasing diversity of their classroom populations and become more flexible in planning curricula without "watering down" students' expectations to leave the courses more skilled than they were upon entering. Teachers should discuss with students some of their writing barriers and the…