The writing process depends heavily on linguistic, psycho-perceptual, and psycho-motor abilities. If a student has a significant weakness in one of these major trait clusters, then thinking will suffer and he or she may experience great difficulty in writing. The process of writing can be broken down into four main phases, which can be labeled…

Advocates modeling as an appropriate approach to teaching composition, provided teachers select models carefully and present them as paradigms of dynamic processes and as hints leading to avenues of discovery. Uses N. Scott Momaday's "The Way to Rainy Mountain" to illustrate how such a model can be used to assist student invention. (RBW)

Proposes a seven-stage model to assist in the process of synchronizing the rhythm of teachers' activities with those of their students. (DF)

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…

The process of getting a thought out of the mind and onto paper can be divided into five major categories: (1) discovering the word, (2) excavating the mythic word from the subconscious, (3) perceiving the word in the conscious, (4) verbalizing the expressed word, and (5) comprehending the unsaid word. When humans experience anything, their minds…

Reading and writing are both creative acts of communication that use written language as a vehicle for meaning. A strong theoretical case for teaching the two processes concurrently can be built by examining points of contact between reading and writing. One such point is context concerns. The Communication Triangle model (author/audience/…

Presents some of the better-known models to describe the process to writing. Combines some of their common features into a framework that is useful for thinking and talking about the roles that computers may play in supporting "the writing process." (MG)

Secondary school teachers can present the process of writing compositions simply and effectively by adopting three tools: the positive approach, the easy three-step analysis process, and the brainstorm outline. Using the positive approach, teachers first convince students that writing effectively is important to them--it gives them the power to…

Explores why it is both difficult and vital to model nonauthoritarian, student-centered, collaborative learning in a teacher workshop on writing. (SRT)

A study examined whether writing modeled from children's picture books would improve reading comprehension of fourth and fifth graders as much as traditional skills instruction. Subjects, 69 children reading at least one year below grade level from six Chapter 1 Colorado schools, were pretested for reading comprehension levels. Subjects were then…