Discusses the experiences of a fictitious teacher and events surrounding a fictitious summer institute for writing teachers--experiences which sound a great deal like Alice's adventures in Wonderland. (RS)

Surveys college instructors on how magazine and feature writing are taught. Finds that most (55 percent) used the process method of instruction, and 30.5 percent used the product approach. Suggests the two methods have much in common. Notes advantages and disadvantages of each. (SR)

Criticizes the focus among some educators upon the writing process. Notes that all writers do not follow the same process and that teaching students otherwise oversimplifies writing instruction and diminishes efforts to improve it. Explains a "scaffolding" approach which involves outlining of increments in a writing process without…

Describes how one teacher who participated in "The WONDER of Learning Program" of the National Writing Project experienced change in her approaches to teaching writing. Shows how her experiences helped her to integrate a total literature program into her first-grade classroom. (HB)

Reports a study of members of the Magazine Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Indicates that writing coaching is widespread in magazine writing courses. Describes a five-step writing process in which students were coached in one such course. (SG)

The process approach to writing requires feedback. Peer feedback (which can be encouraged and taught) and teacher feedback are complementary; they should discuss both form and content of students' written work. Spoken teacher feedback on tape and student-teacher conferences (whether individual or group) augment the teacher's usual feedback…

Notes that recent critiques of process approaches to writing claim that an implicit mode of instruction privileging mainstream students is typical of process approaches. Traces implicit instruction to the structuralist intellectual tradition. Concludes that a poststructuralist appreciation of differences, especially difference among discourses,…

Encouraging students to be more vocal members of the response sequence can assist teachers in writing stronger comments on student texts. The author conducted a small-scale study of students' reactions to response formats, finding that students preferred formats that allowed teachers to elaborate on their comments, displayed teacher effort,…

Our students need to be able to adhere to standard written English to succeed in their other classes and to get jobs at the end of their schooling, and it's the responsibility of writing teachers to help them do so. In this article, the author provides a research-based theoretical underpinning for effective grammar instruction as well as several…

Composition teachers today are aware of the practice of differentiating between written and spoken language. The "basic writing" student often views written language as a nearly new language altogether. Therefore, it is increasingly important to recognize and codify not merely the disparity between speech and writing but also the…

A new theoretical paradigm for teaching writing and organizing composition research was at hand by 1982, focusing on how writers write and the practice of interventionist teaching. Today, the process theory of teaching composition dominates the field, yet it has not shifted teaching practices or research questions toward the settings and…

A first-year English composition instructor at Del Mar College, Texas, incorporates technology into the English curriculum by using a computer and a panel overhead projector, which allow for class collaboration in the production of a work. A student volunteer does the typing while the class engages in discussions about topics for a process paper,…

Writing in Western culture requires mastery of both rhetorical theory and the expressive writing often promoted in composition studies, however great the conflict between them might be. The tension between these two poles can even be a source of excitement and motivation. Landmark composition studies such as those of James Britton and Janet Emig…

This book explores the implications and consequences, both theoretically and practically, of four propositions: (1) discourse is produced in context; (2) discourse is primarily a reaction to a precedent action; (3) social interactions in which language is used to construct reality are performed in a variety of roles; and (4) the features of…

Developed for use with collaborative writing activities in conjunction with the Center for Educational Computing in English (CECE) Talk Program, this student guide provides sample activities for collaborative writing as well as detailed examples of the activities. The examples begin with a short exchange between people using the talk program to…