Describes a synonym exercise--composing an essay without using the verbs "be,""have,""go," or "get"--which increases students' awareness of at least six different language features. (MM)

Notes the prevalance of advertising language and personae in student writing. Includes exercises that evoke the advertising voice, suggesting that using these as a stepping stone to teaching advertising is preferable to a separate advertising unit. (HTH)

Noting that the writer's journal is both a memory bank for observations and a nonthreatening means of exploring language, this guide offers individual classroom strategies for making the journal a valuable writing instruction tool. Following an introduction, the guide is divided into sections as follows: (1) philosophy of journals in the…

Describes two writing assignments that elicit investigations of language and generate topics for which students are knowledgeable authorities. The first requires students to write an extended definition of a familiar slang term, while the second assignment requires them to write a final report after participating on a language usage panel. (HTH)

Discusses word games and activities that encourage students to use dictionaries and alternate forms in their writing. (HTH)

Describes a method for involving disabled readers with Shakespeare texts by means of reading aloud, writing, and workshops. (HTH)

Describes a journalism writing assignment in which students compile a specialized style manual with computer and business terms. (HTH)

This booklet is one of a series of teacher-written curriculum publications launched by the Bay Area Writing Project, each focusing on a different aspect of the teaching of composition. Methods are illustrated for teaching students to recognize dishonest language and to write honestly themselves and include cliche/euphemism avoidance techniques,…

Teachers who restrict their teaching of writing to elements of exposition are likely to fail because there is insufficient content, interest, or challenge in learning simple exposition, and the techniques that contribute to polished exposition are more easily accessible when approached through aesthetic writing. A teaching sequence for using…

The Cooperative Principle posits four general ways in which a speaker is expected to be cooperative: (1) quantity--make a contribution no more and no less informative than is required; (2) quality--say only that which one both believes and has adequate evidence for; (3) relation--be relevant; and (4) manner--make a contribution easy to understand.…

Explains a three-step method of presenting the logical relationships indicated by connecting words (e.g., similarly, however, and therefore) so that developmental students can use them by building upon their understanding of coordinate and subordinate sentences within the paragraph structure. (DMM)

Describes the emphasis on creativity in expository writing in a college composition class. Outlines four traits of creativity promoted and encouraged in student nonfiction writing and writing assignments for that purpose. Includes samples of students' creative nonfiction. (HTH)

Discusses the importance of the English passive voice in particular contexts and suggests a program for teaching it. There are three stages: (1) the student is shown the use of the passive and its function, (2) work is done on reading and listening comprehension, and (3) some grammatical markers are shown. (PJM)

High school and college writing assignments encourage students to avoid every sense of purposeful self-involvement by directing all their attention to the world or to others. Perhaps teachers need to be reminded that, unless they give students the opportunity and occasion to focus on instrumental relationships between the world, other people and…

Explains that creative writing is a form of communication and stresses the importance of communication in all aspects of education and suggests activities to facilitate that, such as having students produce a town guide or initiate and organize a campaign. (DF)