Offers a nonverbal prewriting strategy, writer-based sketches, intended to help students turn their thoughts into words. (MS)

Describes different types of prewriting activities such as "brainwriting," visual synectics, and relational algorithms. (JL)

Describes a remedial writing class in which students learned organizational skills by cutting up and rearranging their own freewriting on a particular topic. (JL)

Points out the value of responding to students' first drafts of papers, outlines a three-step approach for doing so, and gives five examples of such an approach. (JL)

Designed to combine the science and the art of teaching composition, this series of assignments encourages junior high and high school writing students to explore tone, original visual images, point of view, and other literary techniques. One assignment asks students to write a number of paragraphs alternately using sarcasm, humor, melancholy, and…

Suggests a prewriting exercise in characterization using the legend genre as framework. (HTH)

Describes an activity in which students write guided-imagery scripts that are related to works of literature. (MM)

Describes a pre-writing dialogue prompt, a word association activity, and a writing assignment that draw upon students' memories of saying good-bye. (MM)

Research in secondary school composition instruction indicates that (1) emphasis on writing for the teacher-as-examiner is prevalent, (2) prewriting activities are limited, (3) there is little discussion of approaches to the topic or what information should be included, and (4) activities to help students while they are writing are almost…

Lists 10 ways to involve students in the teacher's writing that can be beneficial to both teachers and their students. (MS)

Contributors offer a writing activity that can help students sharpen their awareness of how authors structure stories, and a scale that can serve as a guide to content area teachers for textbook selection. (HOD)

Although the focus of this issue of the "Virginia English Bulletin" is on making effective assignments, most of the articles also emphasize the importance and power of writing. Articles deal with the following topics: (1) the use of I-search (as explained by Kenneth Macrorie in "Searching Writing") as a form of research paper…

Suggests that learning to write should be mastered before a research paper is ever assigned. Presents exercises developing student skill in using source materials to express their own ideas. (MM)

Suggestions are offered to help secondary and postsecondary language teachers think more deeply about speaking activities that prepare students for writing. Criteria for evaluating prewriting activities are discussed, along with brainstorming, collaborative concept mapping, and the 4/3/2 technique. (Contains 14 references.) (LB)

A series of six related lessons is presented that covers the three stages of process writing in which secondary students work in pairs and groups. Covering 11 35-minute periods, the lessons include prewriting, writing, and postwriting. Sample questions are appended. (Contains five references.) (LB)