The establishment and role of the Writing Center at Harvard is described as a means of improving freshmen writing skills. Students receive personal consultation, attend a series of mini-courses, and participate in a series of lectures by faculty members from different departments about how to write for various disciplines. (LBH)

Describes five writing activities for college writing courses: (1) a documented opinion paper exercise; (2) breaking writing rules; (3) trip reports from absentees; (4) case studies to promote writing for particular audiences for pragmatic purposes; and (5) an organizing strategy for studying, using a chart format. (SR)

Describes five activities for college writing courses: (1) sports as a literary topic; (2) paragraph descriptions of a favorite meal; (3) interdisciplinary team teaching in the humanities; (4) use of "real" letters and memoranda in a technical writing course; and (5) a word-strength chart for a poetry-writing class. (MM)

Common pitfalls in technical writing and how to avoid them are outlined. These pitfalls include goobledygook words and phrases, plodding style, failure to follow the prescribed format for publication or proposals, misuse of words, inconsistencies, and failure to edit or proofread adequately. (MSE)

Experience and research have shown that writing workshops are an excellent tool for improving workers' writing skills. In the past 5 years, the emphasis of writing instruction has shifted from a focus primarily on handwriting, correct spelling, and simple reinforcement of skills to a focus on empowering students by emphasizing fluency and student…

Describes a pedagogical approach to teaching composition, based on research indicating that inexperienced writers have undeveloped composing processes. Presents a sample lesson for describing an item that gives technical writing students knowledge of how they write and introduces them to strategies for mastering the composing process. (HTH)

A complete description of the development of a guide to help authors improve the quality of descriptive evaluation reports of federally funded programs is provided. Improvements in reports would be particularly useful to planners who must decide if and how programs should be modified. The methods and procedures employed in the development of the…

Intended for the adult who needs writing skills for career purposes, this three-part book presents principles rather than mechanical rules for achieving effective communication through writing. The first section of the book offers specific guidelines on communicative attitude, content, perspective, theme, organization, and revision. The middle…

Clarity in communication is important for workers in the General Accounting Office since much of the auditing work must be committed to paper if Congress, government officials and employees, or the public are to benefit. As a result an extensive writing improvement program was launched and this booklet written. Part 1 covers basic communication…

Designed for those responsible for printed materials produced in schools, school systems, and educational organizations, this handbook is a collection of guidelines, tips, and checklists for producing printed materials for the profession and the public. The first two chapters consider elements essential to producing effective publications:…

Recounts the experience of writing a biographical profile in which the language used to describe a professional woman was unwittingly sexist and how this was corrected in successive revisions. (NKA)

Described are the essential elements of memos; suggested are a basic format for organization, and two problems to which technical specialists' memos seem particularly susceptible. Included is a memo assignment used in senior design classes and professional development seminars. (MVL)

Suggestions are presented to assist the nontechnically trained English as a second language teacher to create a syllabus for a technical writing course for foreign students who are studying science and technology. The syllabus for the English for Science and Technology (EST) writing course is based on the format of technical writing derived from…

This language unit for grade 10 builds on a definition of the expository use of language developed in the two previous 10th-grade units. In a brief overview of report language, the referential language of Thomas Huxley is compared with the expressive language of Edgar Allan Poe. The writings of S. I. Hayakawa, Hans Guth, and others are examined…

Argues that comprehension is a problem-solving activity and that different problem-solving schemata exist for different types of texts, both narrative and expository. Suggests that good comprehension occurs when there is a match between the author's schemata and that of the reader, creating a dialogue between the writer and the reader. (JK)