Writing as a tool for thinking, learning, and communicating is crucial to academic and career success as well as to active citizenship in a democracy. This annual report of the National Writing Project features teachers of math, chemistry, art, history, and business who develop their students as writers. These educators employ writing to engage…

Designed for those responsible for printed materials produced in schools, school systems, and educational organizations, this handbook is a collection of guidelines, tips, and checklists for producing printed materials for the profession and the public. The first two chapters consider elements essential to producing effective publications:…

This guide discusses in detail a variety of issues important to the preparation of a good evaluation report. Main sections are concerned with describing the context of the program (locale, school system, etc.); explaining the program (scope, personnel, procedures, etc.); reporting the evaluation (objectives, sample, measuring and reporting change,…

The Presenters' Collaborative Network (PCN) was started in 2002 to support the creation of a corps of teacher-consultants who would lead workshops for the Rhode Island Writing Project (RIWP) at local schools and conferences. The PCN is a group of teachers, past participants from summer institutes or year-round embedded programs in schools that…

A complete description of the development of a guide to help authors improve the quality of descriptive evaluation reports of federally funded programs is provided. Improvements in reports would be particularly useful to planners who must decide if and how programs should be modified. The methods and procedures employed in the development of the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report results from an evaluation of an online abstract mentoring programme to support early career and less experienced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) researchers improve their chances of acceptance to International HIV/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Conferences. Design/methodology/approach: An…

Writing in its many forms is the signature means of communication in the 21st century. This simple truth heightens the urgency to help all of our nation's students become strong writers and effective communicators. The National Writing Project (NWP) pursues this goal by focusing the knowledge, expertise, and leadership of the nation's educators on…

Discusses the process of observation and presents a systematic approach for incorporating behavioral observations into evaluations and written psychological reports, based on Robert Carkhuff's Human Resource Development Model. Using this framework and drawing on the experiences of the authors, several principles of report writing are discussed.…

Uses a principal's disturbing experience to introduce the contention that teachers' lack of careful attention to instructing students about report writing may lead to mere copying, which in upper grades can become plagiarism. Proposes a solution involving the "six questions" (who? what? when? where? why? and how?). (JM)

Program portrayal is one way of addressing the need for increased descriptive capability in evaluation research. Portrayal supplements traditional reporting by utilizing subjective, anecdotal, or impressionistic information, in an appropriately communicable form, to enrich the description of program transactions, settings, and outcomes. It is…

The efforts of the Austin (Texas) Public School District to improve the readability and usefulness of technical reports are reviewed. Coincident with, or consequent to, a 1977 letter by W. E. Jones to the editor of an Austin paper (the "Austin American Statesman") complaining about excessively lengthy (500-page) evaluation reports, the…

The development and content of a freshman engineering program that stresses writing, speaking, and listening skills are described. In conjunction with writing expository essays and research reports, the students make demonstrations, deliver informative and persuasive speeches, and participate in panel discussions and debates. Videotaping,…

A high school electronics teacher describes the integration of technical report writing in the electronics program for trade and industrial students. He notes that the report writing rather than just recording data seemed to improve student laboratory experience but further improvements in the program are needed. A sample lab report is included.…

To increase quality of Indiana State Board of Vocational and Technical Education (SBVTE) proposals and final reports, a study assessed the quality of sixty SBVTE proposals and final reports from fiscal year 1976-77 and provided SBVTE with quantified descriptions of them. The first review involved acquiring descriptive information about how the…