This study involved a pretest-posttest control-group design in which four multimedia writing programs were tested with secondary students across a school year. These programs were based on strategic instruction and focused on the skills of writing complete sentences, paragraph writing, and theme writing. Measures included scores on practice…

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…

Writing places heavy demands on students' cognitive capacity. Existing research suggests that planning before writing can help to alleviate this cognitive burden; thus improving the quality of student writing. In this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study, the researcher examined the efficacy of specific pre-planning tools on students'…

Students with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) perform academically below their peers. One area of particular challenge is written expression. Using a multiple-probe design across participants, this study evaluated the effects of GO 4 IT . . . NOW! strategy instruction on the writing skills of three students with EBD, ages 11-14. The…

In this study, we propose a link between L2 rhetorical concepts and ELF as a way of the analysis of the development of a single concept, of an EFL college student's rhetorical knowledge. Using Vygotskian sociocultural theory as analytical lenses, we examine whether L2 rhetoric can be mastered and internalized as a culturally neutral concept, i.e.,…

This study aims to explore the effectiveness of a paradigm to teach native Cantonese-speaking university students the hierarchical structure of expository prose to improve paragraph coherence. Most of the diagnostic argumentative essays the participants in this study wrote in the course were incoherent, failing to meet readers' expectation of…

There is a seductive "commonsense" logic to two opinion pieces that have appeared over the last two years in the "Speaking My Mind" section of "English Journal": (1) Byung-In Seo's "Defending the Five-Paragraph Essay," which appeared in the November 2007 issue; and (2) Kerri Smith's "In Defense of the Five-Paragraph Essay," which appeared in March…

This case study measured the effectiveness of a writing strategy designed to enhance the organization and cohesion of paragraphs written by four students with writing difficulties who are currently enrolled in a resource program. The strategy steps were taught through a mnemonic in which steps beginning with each letter of UNITE provided an…

A study investigated the influence of goal setting and progress feedback on self-efficacy and writing achievement among gifted children. Thirty-three fourth graders who previously had been identified as academically gifted in language arts received writing strategy instruction over 20 sessions and were given a goal of learning to use the strategy…

Current research and legislation show a need for special education instruction to be more closely aligned with general education curriculum and develop strategies that support the development of self determination skills in students with disabilities. The present study embeds self-determination skills of writing annual goals and objectives in the…

A challenge facing educators is to find ways to arrest and reverse the cumulative deficit in reading experienced by many students with learning disabilities. In this study, we evaluated the effect of a strategy intervention to increase the reading comprehension of eighth grade students with reading disabilities in intact junior high school classes…

This book presents a range of activities for writing instruction that develop different composing skills, attend to the social processes of reading and writing, involve the peer group in evaluating and responding to drafts, focus on different types and formats of writing, and stimulate these activities through diverse techniques and methods. The…