In this paper, the five interlocking de Bono LAMS sequences are introduced as a new form of generic template designs. This transdisciplinary knowledge-mobilising strategy is based on Edward de Bono's attention-directing ideas and thinking skills, commonly known as the CoRT tools. The development of the de Bono LAMS sequence series is an important…

Argues that writing assignments should (1) specify audience, purpose, and topic, (2) define rhetorical problems, (3) incorporate stages of the composing process, (4) provide timely feedback to avoid cognitive overload, and (5) follow some developmental sequence. Describes several assignments based on letter writing. (JG)

Presents several assumptions about scientific writing and from these derives teaching methods for a year-long sequence of writing courses for science freshmen. (DD)

Examines the debate between two approaches to teaching writing: imitation of classic models versus technical writing for the real world. Argues that, in either approach, a developmental sequence of assignments is paramount. Describes compromise course plan based on careers, in which students write research papers about vocations in which they are…

This paper examines the relationship between pedagogy and subject matter specifically in the context of the instructional planning provided by two alternative route programs. Instructional planning can be and often is taught to teacher candidates as a generic skill, yet in practice it must necessarily occur in the context of a subject. The paper…

Although sentence combining practice has been shown to be an effective instructional technique for improving students' writing, scant attention has been paid to the appropriate sequence for such instruction. Studies of the natural development of oral and written language point out two general trends that should be considered in sequencing sentence…

A freshman composition course taught to a group of science majors at Case Institute of Technology was based on the premise that learning to write involves a stylistic response to style. This book presents, through the eyes of the course's teacher, a novelistic account of teaching and learning. Thirty assignments that were given to the students are…

Increasing numbers of teachers seem to recognize that sequencing assignments is an effective way to teach writing. A sequence of 20 writing assignments was developed by four composition instructors at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado. The first eight exercises asked cadets to look at and think about their physical surroundings at…

In order to investigate the effects of sequence and synthesis in the teaching of taxonomically-related concepts, a study was conducted in which 27 students from Syracuse University were asked to examine printed instructions dealing with kinds of sailboats and then to respond to a test based on those instructions. The synthesizing structure…

Describes a sequential model (organized around seven writing assignments that culminate in a substantial essay in rhetorical/critical analysis) for teaching rhetorical criticism as written argument. Asserts that learning to write argumentative prose should be a central concern of undergraduate courses in rhetorical criticism. (MM)

Examines elaboration theory of instruction (ETI), a theory that prescribes different patterns of sequencing for different kinds of learning. Presents results of surveying undergraduate students who have undergone ETI sequencing. Results identify the strengths and weaknesses of the instruction and ways of improving it. Student debriefing questions…

A study of the effect of an "incremental" version of a generative rhetoric approach to writing instruction was conducted to determine whether such an approach would increase students' syntactic complexity. Ninety-eight college students were randomly assigned to one of five experimental or five control sections of a freshman composition…

A journal-based college composition program has been developed that links journal writing to the development of competence in more formal writing. Students write both free choice and assigned entries, and their entries become the basis of all the themes they write; in-class assignments focus on the improvement of specific aspects of the journal…

Sequenced writing assignments--a series of related writing tasks--offer students frequent opportunities to write and to acquire writing skills through redundancy, progressively more complicated cognitive and rhetorical demands, and a diversity of learning activities. The most frequently identified goal of sequencing is to move students beyond…