Teachers can use the process writing format for many assignments to teach and refine more skills than are often incorporated in older methods, and this is exemplified by a teaching unit comparing two short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Peer conferences and peer editing in the revision stages, which are features of the process model, can lead to…

Literacy implies the ability to read and write, but for educated persons it also involves special skills that are fundamentally cognitive or intellectual. This ability to think critically should be taught in college composition classes, since studies have indicated that over half of the undergraduates in the United States are at the concrete…

In response to teachers' requests for specific information about implementing the curriculum in the Expository Writing Program (EWP), this manual presents the instructional methods and materials used during the Teaching Expository Reading and Writing Project. First, the lines of research that formed the basis for the instructional program are…

A study examined whether the use of word processors would enhance the amount and quality of students' revisions. Subjects, 28 high school sophomores and juniors enrolled in a special class for interested writers, met twice a week for 60 minutes in either a computer laboratory (experimental group) or in a regular classroom (control group). Findings…

Using the file approach in freshman composition gives students experience with the selection and utilization of a range of sources for writing, the awareness of writing as a learning activity that is by nature a process, and the opportunity to write and read across the curriculum. In this approach students are expected to keep a file of…

A study examined three recent language arts textbook programs for grades one through six to determine the frequency of writing activities, the nature of the writing tasks, and the frequency of process-approach activities such as selecting topics, prewriting, sharing, revising, and publishing. The programs analyzed were Scott, Foresman's "Language:…

Drawn from a larger study involving 16 children and 7 classrooms at a New Hampshire elementary school, this book presents a case study of one child's growth in writing during third and fourth grade. The first section of the book describes the inception of the writing workshop in one classroom, including the partnership between the researcher…

This collection of essays by college and high school faculty represents a variety of practical approaches that can be used in composition classes. The essays and their authors are as follows (1) "Undercover Preparation" (Judy Anderson); (2) "Paragraph Development from Visualization: 'a paragraph ain't nothing but a sandwich!'"…

Contractual revision promotes cooperation between teachers and tutors and, being student initiated, provides a method to increase student control over the revision process and encourage students to communicate their strengths and weaknesses in writing to their teachers or tutors. The contractual revision process requires students to form contracts…

Intended for teachers, this monograph argues that, unlike the structured, formulaic "school" essay, personal essays in the manner of Michel de Montaigne lead students to explore their connections with ideas and texts. The monograph describes several strategies which use writing as a tool for critical thinking. The monograph contains the…

This report describes the Prescriptions for Better Writing Program, a 9-week writing skills curriculum, suitable for seventh to ninth grade levels, developed by teachers in New Jersey's Lower Camden County's Regional High School District No. 1. The program was designed for two purposes: to remediate to ninth grade levels and designed for two…

This book emphasizes a comprehensive treatment of all areas of the language arts and advocates interrelating the teaching of the language arts and integrating this teaching with the teaching of other areas of the curriculum. The book contains the following chapters: (1) "Language and the Language Arts"; (2) "Teaching the Language Arts"; (3)…

Invisible writing is a technique whereby the composer writes with an empty ballpoint pen on a blank piece of paper backed by a piece of carbon paper and a bottom blank sheet. An informal experiment in which graduate students used the invisible writing technique was conducted to replicate earlier studies indicating that invisible writing is…

Using technical writing in the regular freshman composition course stimulates student interest by having the appeal of novelty and expands the horizons of students in the humanities and the pure and applied sciences. To begin the unit, one might stimulate interest in the content and style of technical writing of the past by using Robert M.…

Intended as a source of motivation and guidance for those who wish to examine and perhaps change a school's writing program, this handbook addresses both the content and the teaching methodology of a writing program. Sections of the handbook provide (1) background information on the teaching of writing, (2) a discussion of the writing process…