Revision is an important aspect of the writing process but is often challenging for students. Peer review can be helpful, but training is needed for it to work effectively. This article suggests an approach to preparing students for peer review by teaching specific evaluation criteria and leading collaborative practice in reviewing papers written…

A required writing mechanics course for mass communication students was moved online. A case study experiment manipulating the course design was conducted to determine effects on student engagement, learning, and satisfaction. Online designs with greater interactivity capabilities are positively associated with all three outcomes. These desirable…

Provides a chart delineating some of the benchmarks in the writing development of elementary school children. Offers a variety of suitable program strategies with which teachers can modify their writing programs to suit the developmental stages of their students. (HTH)

Concludes that in classes where their writings are turned into books, even seven year olds gain a sense of audience and begin to write with their readers in mind. (FL)

Printing and writing skills and their interaction were studied to discover if teachers should not teach cursive writing to students with poor printing skills. Writing samples were analyzed using a diagnostic inventory that focused on major elements of form and neatness. Results are discussed. (Author/DF)

Describes how kindergarten children use invented spelling to rewrite Mother Goose nursery rhymes, indicating the phoneme grapheme system the children perceived from spoken language. (HTH)

Offers guidelines on helping young children develop into independent writers. Explains what to expect at different stages, such as semiphonetic and phonetic stages, drawing as a prewriting activity, and writing and revising once drawing no longer dictates writing. Offers suggestions for providing an environment that supports the writing process.…

The expressive reading journal aims to break through student passivity by asking students to write extensively and expressively about what they read, each time they read, and to make discoveries and take possession of what they read. This type of journal in the academic course depends for its usefulness on the nature of expressive language, the…

The rhetorical cycle is a step-by-step approach that provides classroom experience before students actually write, thereby making the writing process less frustrating for them. This approach consists of six sequential steps: reading, thinking, speaking, listening, discussing, and finally writing. Readings serve not only as models of rhetorical…

The teaching of writing as a process can be accomplished through an eight-step "prewriting process" approach. The eight steps include planning, organizing, establishing assumptions and premises, obtaining data, evaluating data, electing a course of action, control, and implementation. In the planning stage, students are asked to complete an…

Research on the composition process and writing instruction has reiterated that red-pencilling students' literary efforts achieves mostly negative effects. Researchers contend that if teachers ignore the mechanics used (or misused) by beginning writers, if they encourage and stimulate the production of both oral and written language, reward the…

Describes a first grade classroom in which children learn the concept of "author" by writing their own books, which are then shared with the rest of the class. (HTH)

Recounts how observation of children who were just beginning to write convinced a teacher that very young children can write, and thus changed the way she taught. (JL)

Writing apprehension needs to be understood and solutions found for it so that students' fears can be lessened and their success with writing increased. Carl Roger's client-centered, nondirective psychotherapy applies well to teaching composition. Composition teachers need to be real, empathic, and accepting, and should thus shed their…

Intended for administrators and policymakers as well as teachers, this digest explores the state of research into handwriting instruction and the printing versus cursive writing dilemma. After examining how handwriting is currently being taught, the digest discusses research supporting various kinds of printing instruction--block, italic,…