In this article we propose, theorize, demonstrate, and report early results from a course that approaches first-year composition as introduction to Writing Studies. This pedagogy explicitly recognizes the impossibility of teaching a universal academic discourse and rejects that as a goal for first-year composition. It seeks instead to improve…

Background: When writing a text, students are required to do several things simultaneously. They have to plan, translate and review, which involve demanding cognitive processes. In order to handle this complexity, writers need to develop a writing strategy. The two most well-defined writing strategies that have been identified, are those of a…

Describes an approach to teaching written reports and how the author adapted this approach for her students. Discovers ways to use the process approach to writing in interesting ways that take the students beyond the personal narrative. (MG)

Examines the influence of prior knowledge on the quality of fourth-grade students' responses to three process-approach tasks: writing, conferencing, and revising. Results suggest that prior knowledge is a significant factor in all phases of process-approach lessons. (NH)

Has the new emphasis on process versus product led instructors to teach that the writing process is everything and the product, the finished paper, of no import? This is a lesson that not even the most orthodox believer in writing process methodology would support. The process and the product are, in fact, mutually linked, rather than mutually…

According to contemporary thought and foundational research, this paper presents various elements of the foreign language teaching profession and language learning environment in the United States as either product-driven or process-based. It is argued that a process-based approach to language teaching and learning benefits not only second…

Surveys of two second-grade and two fifth-grade classes (45 and 40 students, respectively) assessed effects on student attitudes of using the process approach to writing as the core of poetry instruction. The approach worked for both grades for poetry, but only for fifth graders for other creative writing forms. (TJH)

Eight Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) teachers met with software developers at the Florida Instructional Computing Conference in January 1989. During the session, the panel of ACOT teachers expressed their wants and wishes for educational software and developers responded with their own concerns. The face-to-face communication provided a…

Fluency writing programs do not meet the needs of poor and minority pupils. If minority people are to effect the change which will allow them to progress, writing programs for them must insist on skills within the context of critical and creative thinking. (PS)

Demonstrates a method for teaching writing to emotionally handicapped children which treats writing as a "fun" activity, using a process writing approach. Shows through two examples that writing is a perfect vehicle for these children to air their emotions nonviolently. (SKC)

Intended for composition teachers and researchers, as well as those involved with educational issues apart from the writing community (legislators, administrators, researchers in other fields, parents), this book contains essays that take a critical step beyond the standard arguments of the profession, pushing hard for example, at some of the…

Based on a teacher's 14 years of experience in teaching writing, this manual was developed to help General Educational Development (GED) teachers to guide adults to improve their writing ability in preparation for the GED test. The manual is organized in four sections. The first section is a discussion of frequent concerns and problems that…

This comparative study evaluated the writing growth of 97 college freshman before and after instruction to determine if a process-centered mode of teaching had a more significant impact than a traditional form-centered mode of instruction on discourse coherence in composition. The study used a pretest/posttest, quasi-experimental design with both…

Compared the effects of computer-based word processing and writing by hand on 14 third and fourth graders' attitudes and performance in the writing process. Found that third graders tended to make more revisions and edits when using a word processor, whereas fourth graders made more changes in their handwritten drafts. (MDM)

Process writing methods, which are well established in Canadian elementary and secondary schools, are introduced in this book for use with adult English as a Second Language (ESL) and adult basic education (ABE) classes. The book is the result of two research projects that investigated the feasibility of using a process approach to teaching…