In recent years, with support from the Texas Legislature, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has funded various developmental education initiatives, including research and evaluation efforts, to help Texas public institutions of higher education provide more effective programs and services to underprepared students. Based on evaluation…

Offers advice on structuring the college technical writing course. (RL)

Offers an approach to using film as an object of analysis for writing classes having no previous knowledge of film terms and techniques. Provides 19 study questions to stimulate identification and a description of a director's techniques to facilitate an interpretation of what the film means. (JG)

A composition course was redesigned so that the research paper assignment might be better integrated with the rest of the course and provide a source for inquiry throughout the course. Students read a report speculating on the ecological and industrial problems the world is likely to face in the year 2000. Values clarification exercises were used…

Theoretical thinking is needed to help establish writing across the curriculum as a real field and not just a passing fad. The metaphor of the Three Graces--Giving, Receiving, and Returning--suggests a procedure that could generate and sustain both theories and programs. English teachers usually give the initial impetus to cross-curricular…

Suggests that ethics be used in place of law as the subject matter of the writing class when students are not prelaw majors. (RL)

Suggestions for teaching main idea, thesis, theme, topic sentence, and clincher as related concepts are provided. (MKM)

Research from various fields supports the crucial relationship of speech and writing. Experience with the Story Workshop used in composition classes can show how thinking, speaking, listening, reading, writing, recalling, and immediate audience focus can be integrated into every phase of the writing process. Activities must enable students find…

A holistic case can encompass the whole of technical writing by allowing the student to experience the total communication act in which the technical task and data are fully integrated into the rhetorical situation. The salient components of a holistic case are the persona of the technical professional, the facts about the technical problem and…

Describes a teaching technique that capitalizes on the individual meanings a piece of literature can have for different students. Explains how it encourages students to concentrate first on facts that they notice in a text and in the inferences they make based on those facts. (FL)

Describes the use of summary writing as a combined project for college reading and writing courses for basic skills students. Includes student samples and handouts. (HTH)

Considers the situations of "interdisciplinary writing," writing done in correspondence with subjects other than English. Describes some methods and experiences in teaching interdisciplinary writing in a college level "Writing Science" course. (JT)

Authors discuss (1) journalism and business writing as ways of learning to write, (2) differences between journalism and business writing, (3) a journalistic approach to solving business communication problems, and (4) business communication and journalism sharing a common goal of effective communication. (HTH)

Outlines a technique for improving student writing across the disciplines through postwriting evaluation sessions. (FL)

Critiques common metaphors used regarding writing centers. Argues that the "skills" metaphor suggests wrongly that students must learn basics before undertaking the larger writing process. Observes that the "remediation" image casts the instructor as clinician diagnosing students' language problems and restoring them to healthy…