Many students who are nonnative speakers of English, yet highly proficient, are placed into basic writing or English as a Second Language courses when they enter college. While these students may have advanced oral English proficiency, their writing frequently suffers from a lack of training in academic writing and commonly contains fragments and…

As a solution to the problems presented by approaches to teaching English composition that are almost purely cognitive in nature, an experimental course was offered for freshmen at the Miami-Dade Community College. The course was designed to be holistic and confluent, synthesizing both the cognitive and affective domains by incorporating Gestalt…

Identifies community college students, the educational needs of these students, and the instructional methods necessary for meeting these needs. Specific types of practical writing exercises are listed. (MH)

Explores various prewriting techniques that can be used to teach thinking skills (e.g., keeping a metaphor journal to teach students to think and write metaphorically; free-writing and focused free-writing; and Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI) and Alternative Ways of Looking (AWOL) techniques, which teach students to consider both sides of an…

Instructors often criticize student writing styles in abstract, nebulous terms which further serve to alienate student writers from the concept of style. College instructors should direct students to such concise, recognized discourses on improving writing style as Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style." In these manuals, specific, effective…

Explains a teaching method which uses students' sentences as examples of faulty writing, provides a clue system which guides students in error diagnosis, and requires the revision of example sentences. Explores the use of the method in developing students' understanding of the importance of revision. (AYC)

A three-phased writing assignment in Freshman Composition helps students move from writing narration and description to producing writing which supports and argues a point. In the first phase, the students are asked to write a paper which clearly states a point. In the second phase, students alter their first paper to conform to the needs of a…

Three types of journal writing used by a teacher in her community college English classrooms are (1) the reading journal, in which students respond to course materials that they have been assigned; (2) the "sensorium," a writing unit devoted to detailed, specific descriptions of what the student sees, hears, touches, tastes, and smells;…

Argues that writing to a real audience in the form of a letter is an effective way for students to learn the importance of audience in writing. Stresses the idea that students who are intimidated by the writing process will view letter writing in a more positive light and be more amenable to the learning process. Describes a specific…

The results of interviews conducted with 48 freshman writing/composition teachers in 11 two-year colleges in California are summarized in this report. After brief descriptive comments introducing each interview topic, responses are summarized by college to the following questions: (1) What placement procedures are used to assign students to…

Designed as a looseleaf resource, a supplement to established teaching plans, and an aid to meeting individual needs, this compilation of writing exercises represents the responses of 157 teachers from 87 two-year colleges to the request, "Describe a successful writing task -- what it is, how you teach it, and why." The compilation includes tasks…

This digest draws upon the thirteen published volumes of "Inside English" to offer a summary of practitioners' advice on techniques to improve two-year college students' writing skills. First, the paper summarizes underlying principles of writing instruction, indicating that: (1) usage, formal grammar, phonics, and spelling are best…

Community college students tend to perceive a gap between their current writing ability and the level of writing skill they expect to need as employees in the future. Unfortunately, college composition classes generally do a poor job of capitalizing on the true value of writing to career development, and fail to have students practice the kind of…

Discusses the differences between developmental students and their teachers in terms of pragmatism and background. Describes the use of a classroom publishing project, which requires students to contribute articles to the magazine and share editing responsibilities. Discusses the benefits of the approach. (DMM)

The result of the Writing across the Curriculum Project at Minneapolis Community College, this handbook provides teachers with effective, efficient, and practical suggestions for crafting good writing assignments in content area classrooms. In general, the book encourages teachers to ask good questions and to experiment with writing. Respectively,…