The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an intervention in which teacher-led instruction was combined with computerized writing software to improve paragraph writing for three middle school students with intellectual disability. A multiple probe across participants design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the…

Presents and discusses a descriptive paragraph useful for teaching composition students how rhetorical fragments work in writing and why sentence fragments do not. (HTH)

THIS IS THE REPORT OF A COMMITTEE WHICH IDENTIFIED FIVE STUDIES WHICH IN ITS OPINION WERE SOUNDLY BASED UPON CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTATION AND TEXTUAL ANALYSIS. THE FIVE STUDIES ARE BRIEFLY SUMMARIZED AND THE IMPLICATIONS OF EACH FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHING ENGLISH COMPOSITION ARE PRESENTED. (JK)

A crucial concept in Francis Christensen's principles of writing involves the "addition," which may be construed as any grammatical unit that is not a main clause. Obviously the effect of rhetorical writing derives mainly from the number of additions as well as from their placement and function within the single sentence. By means of…

The effect on student writing of Communications I classes at the University of Northern Colorado was tested using 95 students studying under 5 different teachers and 15 students who had participated in a previous study. Two paragraphs, one written at the beginning of the term and one at the end of the term were rated for organization, development,…

Describes a method for teaching composition skills based on the reading and rewriting of different texts. (AM)

Three authors comment upon each other's views as expressed in previous articles on the paragraph. Francis Christensen discusses the "sentence-based" theory and compares it to other descriptions of the paragraph. A.L. Becker compares Christensen's and Paul Rodgers' views and discusses their major differences in (1) identity and variation in…

Describes research that examines the social and the pedagogical factors responsible for differences in the writing skills of elementary grade students. (AM)

In this collection of 18 essays drawn from reports of the Yale Conferences on the Teaching of English, high school teachers present ways to handle problems relevant to all English classrooms. Essays on the teaching of language include a discussion of grammar, a definition and illustration of language study, and a consideration of the kinds of…

This text is designed for students of English as a second language for intermediate and advanced levels of proficiency. The text is based on an approach to writing which is semantic and cognitive. Providing for active transfer of each student's knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, it bridges the gap between controlled writing and free writing.…

The purpose of the study was to compare the effectiveness with which composition skills could be taught by the traditional theme-assignment approach and by an experimental method using weekly multiple-choice composition tests in lieu of theme writing. The weekly tests were based on original but typical first-draft compositions and covered problems…

This book has been written to help improve the composition skills of students of English as a second language or second dialect. It has been planned for students at the advanced secondary, college, and university levels who have had some previous training in English vocabulary and grammar; it is particularly suited for a one-semester course for…

This book provides a discussion of rhetoric and its importance in second language learning in general, with specific remarks on problems in teaching English as a second language. Logic (not in the strictest philosophical sense), the basic rhetoric, is evolved out of a culture; it is not universal. Rhetoric is not universal either. Rhetorical…

A technique to help English as a second language students master the basic elements of expository prose is considered in terms of course objectives and the types of assignments used to accomplish them. A characteristic of many highly verbal students entering a college program is their propensity to "talk on paper" in an informal, ungrammatical,…