Asking students to describe an unrecognizable portion of an artifact sharpened their powers of observation.

Seven methods for helping students find theme topics are presented in this document. The methods include the following: setting up a library browsing table of records, books, and criticism related to the work of literature that is being studied; permitting students to choose topics based on observation of the surrounding community or reactions to…

There is a logical sequence in the steps of a freshman English course, the goal of which is the comprehension of the writing process and a readiness to move forward with that process. Students must first learn prewriting--an outpouring on paper of every thought connected with a given topic. This is followed by selecting ideas, formulating a…

Teaching students to use specific details is perhaps the college writing teacher's most troublesome job. Much time and effort is wasted by marking students' papers with comments such as "specify,""details,""illustrate," or "demonstrate." Significant concrete details should occur to a writer before the generalization does, since the best kind of…

Presents a writing exercise which stimulates college freshmen's imaginations and suits adolescents' interest in a favorite subject for composition--themselves. (JM)

Students should be encouraged and taught how to write more effectively. This may be accomplished by involving them in two types of writing--the journal and the essay. The student is encouraged to record in his journal what he did and thought during the day, regardless of the trivialities. The journal is never evaluated by the instructor unless the…

This article proposes to teach writing from the hypothesis that true writing and good prose are only end products rather than the primary objectives. The author suggests that producing an effect in a reader and revealing the self in words are prior achievements in the process of learning to write well. Criteria for judging writing are based…

An 11-step process may be used by freshman composition students to help them write effective prose in a series of clear steps. The steps are: (1) select a topic (for the first assignment, usually a place about which students have strong feelings and vivid remembrances), (2) individually brainstorm the topic, (3) categorize the details that have…

Some of Professor Kenneth Pike's tagmemic theory is explained, and an attempt to apply it in freshman English classes at the University of Michigan is described. Two writing subjects (a concrete object and an abstraction) are examined from the aspects of contrast; range of variation; and distribution with respect to class, context, and matrix. The…

A number of the axioms of tagmemics are explored in order to develop exercises based on these axioms about language structure but specifically designed to develop writing competence. Exercises for unit definition through contrast with other units; range of variability; and distribution in class, sequence, and system receive particular attention.…