Crossing the threshold from high school to college-level writing expectations constitutes a challenge for many students since secondary and post-secondary composition instructors often work under different constraints and are guided by different curricular philosophies. Dual enrollment classrooms provide a space where these differences can be…

Textbook assertions about the use and placement of topic sentences are contradicted by analyses of professionally-written prose. (JH)

Although teachers focus on style, fluency, tone, and correct grammar in writing, they rarely emphasize the importance of content. Both the National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges and the NAEP seem to favor emotional and personal writing, at least at the high school level. Judging from their guidelines, both the SAT and the…

Urges secondary school English teachers to encourage students to experiment more with repetition as a writing technique. (SW)

One difference between articles published in general interest magazines and those that journalism students write for class assignments is the number of quotations used; too often students tell about some situation or person instead of letting their sources relate the information and opinions. In support of this observation are the results of an…

Content analysis was used to determine the evaluation criteria of high school and college teachers and college seniors in grading essay tests. Content analysis is defined as a way of asking a fixed set of questions unfalteringly of all of a predetermined body of writings, in such a way as to produce quantitative results. Four reponses to a…

Intended for writing teachers, this paper shows how "pithy prescriptions" for writing, such as "use definite, specific, concrete language," can be misleading or wrong. To support this thesis, the paper examines a technical writing book advocating short sentences and finds that it has sentences averaging 27.8 words in one section and 30.18 in…

The contexts and purposes for civic writing may influence the composition process as well as text features, and an analysis of the purposes and audiences for civic writing might yield an insight into the way that such writing stimulates the personal and moral development of both its readers and writers. An examination of two related pieces written…

Compared to regular freshman composition textbooks, materials for advanced instruction in English as a foreign language are unsubstantial. An examination of EFL tests reveals the triviality of much of the content, particularly in comparison with the sophistication and significance of literature taught to native speakers. In addition, some EFL…