Argues that understanding assignments is the first step toward successful college writing. Urges instructors to support students by helping them to decode assignments. Breaks down instructions into individual tasks including (1) writing an essay, (2) examining an issue, (3) reviewing articles and books, and (4) focusing on some texts. Defines each…

Offers a sequence of writing assignments that provide experience for managerial communication students who must learn to organize thoughts and data efficiently to present information in a professional manner. Focuses on understanding context, developing points, analyzing texts, and creating an authoritative, committed voice. (KEH)

Outlines a balanced view of writing instruction emphasizing process, product, and purpose. Proposes various principles of writing that instructors should foster among student writers. Gives examples of these principles in practice. Argues for more carefully structured teacher-directed instruction. (HB)

Instructions for three classroom sessions show how process writing can be introduced to students with learning disabilities by the teacher modeling the processes of planning, writing, sharing, taking criticism, and revising. Teacher modeling helps students overcome their hesitance about sharing their work. (DB)

Whereas there has been strong advocacy of the value of writing for learning in science, the role of student planning in this approach and the relationships between planning, writing, and learning have been underresearched. Our mixed method study aimed to address this issue by seeking to identify quantitative differences in learning outcomes…

Learning through writing is a way of learning not only the appropriate written expression of disciplinary knowledge, but also the knowledge itself through reflection and revision. This study investigates the quality of a writing experience provided to university students in a first-year biology subject. The writing instruction methodology used is…

In process-oriented composition studies, few concepts are more universally accepted than that of the decentered classroom. Ken Macrorie, Peter Elbow and Don Murray, in their publications of the late 1960s and early 1970s, began a movement to place students, with their writing and their ideas, at the center of writing instruction. While most…

Designed to include a broad base of information about how children acquire and develop literacy, this book discusses the knowledge that is necessary to be an influential teacher of reading and writing. Each chapter in the book begins and ends with a "Double Entry Journal" (DEJ)--an interactive strategy designed to stimulate thinking and…

The "Writing Buddies" program is designed to allow students from one grade level to write, edit, publish, share, and celebrate their success with peers from another grade level. Students also benefit from the strengths of two teachers and parent volunteers. The role of the teacher is to provide the atmosphere conducive to writing, and to…

With the advent of composition software, the microcomputer has become a valuable writing and teaching tool. In "Writing with a Word Processor" (Harper, 1983), William Zinsser details the trauma he experienced in the shift from being a pencil and paper writer to being a computer writer. However, those accustomed to composing at a typewriter will…

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…

To teach students the skills of editing, teachers should provide them with an opportunity to become editors--to work cooperatively in the editing of each others's writings in order to be able to accept help and to learn to edit their own writings. Purpose and audience are the two guiding lights of the editing stage. Instruction begins with…

Imitation of organizational and sentence patterns is an ancient technique for teaching rhetoric, but to be effective, imitation must be informed, deliberate, and creative. Students must first learn to recognize the characteristics of a given style and then to appreciate the connection between specific stylistic qualities and their cumulative…

There are three serious impediments to the acceptance of voice as a practical focus in the college writing classroom: the attitudes and beliefs of educators; the theories guiding classroom practices; and the classroom practices themselves. A means of overcoming these impediments and of ensuring that students will discover and develop the power of…

Intended to help freshman composition teachers develop productive audience strategy in their students, this paper explores useful and functional techniques elicited from expert writers to facilitate the generation of internal audiences for the typical college student in a required writing class. The paper encourages small-group peer discussion to…