The teaching of writing in secondary English subjects in Australia, as in other countries including England and the United States, has become increasingly formulaic. Pedagogies including direct instruction, modelling, scaffolding, and genre-based approaches involve the implementation of formulas for writing sentences, paragraphs, and entire…

Good writers don't wing it--they have a plethora of skills. They list, picture, circle, strategize and revise to make language come alive. They know what to use and when. Like ace athletes, they are highly trained, well-versed in the techniques found in this lively book. "Writing Workouts" provides a method for instruction that gives…

Suggests an exercise to be used in a creative writing class to help students learn the various techniques available for characterization. (TJ)

Suggests that using Francis Christensen's method of analyzing paragraphs can help students improve their own paragraph development. (TJ)

Describes a teaching sequence in which students are taught to write as if they were readers and read as if they were the writers. (HOD)

Describes a method of writing about literature in which "major detail sentences" (sentences which make generalizations about the point of the paragraph) help students combine their observations and the facts of the story into an analytical form. (MM)

Proposes a formula for helping students learn to write paragraphs by requiring highly disciplined and limited material and sentences until students have acquired skills that permit more variety. (TJ)

The two essays in this booklet reflect the spirit and ideas of Francis Christensen, specifically his exhortations to composition teachers, illustrated by his own practice, to approach the teaching of writing inductively, to look always to the writing of professionals for models, and to behave as scholars. The first essay, on sentence modelling,…

Illustrates a method of helping students learn to write paragraphs and to organize their writing using a group writing technique. (TJ)

Describes a method for teaching composition skills based on the reading and rewriting of different texts. (AM)

Argues that although textbooks emphasize the importance of attention-getting introductions, such devices are hard to explain and hard for students to recognize. Observes that such an emphasis may suggest to students a vastly oversimplified view of the reading process. (HOD)

Describes a method for helping students see the importance of a topic sentence to achieve unity in written paragraphs. Students note all red items in the classroom. Parallels are then drawn between the way concentrating on red limits notice of other details and the way topic sentences limit and focus the details in a paragraph. (HTH)

A study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of a new rhetoric program of composition instruction for secondary school students. The lessons used in the program were designed to provide students with a step-by-step procedure for moving from a topic sentence to a unified, coherent paragraph. Using the primacy of the topic sentence, they led…

The 12 activity-oriented units described in this study skills guide for students in the eighth, ninth, and tenth grades are designed to assist in the development of necessary study skills at most levels of competence and to reinforce already existing skills. The units in the guide also attempt to incorporate as much student activity as possible,…

Reading students whose reading skills are being improved need to learn expository writing in order to be able to organize and express thoughts on paper. This document presents a systematic approach for teaching writing as part of the total communication process and consists of five units. "The Expository Paragraph," designed for use in a skills…