Problems in developing writing often comes from creative processes in developing ideas to write. Outlines are often recommended as a tool to help students organize their thoughts and structure their writing. This study aims to find out students' perceptions and the challenges the students encountered when writing an exposition text using provided…

We examined the efficacy of a combined electronic essay writing and editing mnemonic driven strategy with 24 college students in a two-year postsecondary program for students with developmental disabilities. We used a pre-posttest experimental design with random assignment to treatment/control groups. During 26 sessions each consisting of 50 min.,…

This study investigated the effects of the "Expressive Writing (EW)" direct instruction curriculum on the expository writing skills of secondary grade students with serious emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD). The "EW" program targets writing mechanics, sentence writing, and editing but does not include pre-writing…

Writing is a very important skill that should be mastered properly by university students, especially pre-service language teachers (e.g. EFL student teachers). In order to present their ideas efficiently in the context of their academic study, they have to be trained well on how to write meaningful pieces (e.g. essays, academic reports,…

An exploratory study investigated how writers represent their task to themselves before beginning to write. Using data from verbal protocols, the initial plans of 12 writers (5 experts and 7 student writers) who were working on an expository writing task were examined. The protocols were coded for types of planning. Independent measures of the…

Creative problem-solving can be used successfully in the writing classroom, for the problem-solving process involves three distinctive stages of thinking activity that remarkably parallel the prewriting steps in the composing process. Similar stages include: (1) data generation and preparation to write; (2) data manipulation and incubation; and…

Describes a unit in which high school students research and write about the folklore of their youth. Discusses day-by-day steps including brainstorming, choosing a topic, writing a first draft, revising, conducting an interview, and writing an analytical essay. (MS)

Evaluates the efficacy of heuristics in the composition classroom, the importance of theory in teaching invention, the application of heuristics to stages of writing besides prewriting, and various heuristic systems. Describes the development of a theory of invention and pedagogy based on classroom experiment and the writings of other theorists.…

Describes assignments that integrate ideas from student journals into expository and deliberate essays. (HOD)

Describes the steps a writer can go through in producing an article and how a word processor can facilitate the thought and compositional processes. (CRH)

Explains four visual composition preparations providing both concrete experiences to stimulate student writing and a nonverbal means of teaching the internal structure of discourse. (MM)

The synthesis of four instructional models for argumentative writing--the Toulmin, Hiduke, Winder, and Crebbe-Debate approaches--with basic discourse theory produces a practical and positive method of teaching college students to write effective persuasive essays. A battery of questions based on a modified communication triangle--subject…

A teacher-written essay comparing writing to farming served as a process model for analogical student themes. This assignment, given to 39 students in 2 classes of a first course in freshman composition, produced complete analogical essays in all but 4 cases. The essays, questionnaire responses, and retrospective essays on the writing of the…

Each written by a classroom teacher and based on the experience of that teacher working with his or her students, the articles in this collection are an extension of the Bay Area Writing Project assumptions. Many contain samples of writing done by students in response to the writing tasks described. After a preamble that discusses what is already…

Teaching and learning activities for idea generation and planning, used to teach expository writing to university students in Singapore, are described. The techniques are applicable to both English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and English-as-a-first-language composition classes. (14 references) (LB)