In the rewriting of a book, the author combined various stages of revision in each draft--adding new material, reshaping thoughts, striving for coherent expression, and polishing prose simultaneously instead of serially. (HOD)

Presents writing as a form of dialog and the paragraph as a unit of implied dialog. (MM)

Two views of coherence in written discourse can be analyzed and then blended into a theory of coherence that selects the best of both views. One view is H. Miller's observation that all coherences are tentative and that the composing process is richer than its products. Another view is A. D. Van Nostrand's suggestion that the two elementary…

In "Fragments of Rationality" (1992), Lester Faigley says that the practice of making contradictions coherent has a great deal to do with the power a writing teacher exercises in the classroom. The way in which historians of writing use textbooks in their research, however, removes power from the writing teacher and from the classroom,…

Since there are similarities between the process of writing computer programs and the process of writing successful expository prose, a student's knowledge of computer programing can contribute to the understanding of some principles of composition. The establishment of a clear objective is the first priority of both the writer and the programer,…

One approach to teaching organization to a writing class is to subdivide the organizational processes. One subdivision recognizes that certain compositions have a predictable format--they put expected parts in predictable places. Following a format at appropriate times is a skill that should be taught, or at least insisted upon, at the beginning…

Readers as well as writers compose meaning. Using the same characteristics essential to effective writing--planning, drafting, aligning, revising, and monitoring--readers react creatively with the text. In response to the author's intention and their own knowledge base, they decide what they want to get from their reading. Constantly renegotiating…

To understand and describe a developmental learning progression of choices students make in forming chains of relationships in their narrative texts, a study used the Cohesive Harmony Index to measure cohesion in children's written narratives. Data were obtained from 36 grade school children at intervals of four months over the students' first…

Investigates the relationship between topic-specific background knowledge and measures of overall quality, coherence, syntactic complexity, audience, and function in the expository writing of tenth grade students. (HOD)

Learning to write is difficult, especially for those beginning the process at the university level, such as dialect speakers of English and speakers of English as a Second Language. Recent pedagogical experimentation with external dialogues involving instructors and peers to provoke critical thinking have not been very successful. One explanation…

This guide was developed to help teachers prepare adult students for the essay writing section of the General Educational Development (GED) tests. It informs teachers of what is expected of students on the essay section of the GED examination, and leads them through the writing process in preparation for teaching students how to write an essay.…