This current study aimed to reveal expert opinions on the development of informative text-writing skills through descriptive writing practices. The methodological design of this study is a case study that is one of the qualitative research types. In the process of data collection, 65 expert opinions were sought, 55 of whom were Turkish Language…

Although competent argumentative writing is important for academic success and daily life, it is difficult to teach, especially in middle schools where English is taught as a foreign language (EFL). Previous research has indicated that extensive reading or writing improves the descriptive writing skills of EFL students. However, it is not certain…

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of progressive sentence development activities on 5th graders' description skills. The study was conducted based on the pretest-posttest quasi-experimental model with a control group. A total of 58 students participated in the study; 29 in the control group, and 29 in the experimental group. The…

This book captures the diversity and richness of writing as it relates to different forms of abilities, skills, competencies, and expertise. Psychologists, educators, researchers, and practitioners in neighboring areas are interested in exploring how writing develops and in what manner this development can be fostered, but they lack a handy,…

This study compared the preferred writing topics of urban and rural middle school students. Eighth graders (n = 205) responded to a brief survey of preferred writing topics in the descriptive writing genres of real or imagined stories, reports, and opinions. While some preferred writing topics were divergent such as society, crime, and violence,…

There are two major categories of writing, expository and creative. Expository writing includes descriptive writing (description, report, taking notes, outline, exposition, summary, letter, diary, telegram, and minutes) and argumentative writing (argumentation, essay, and comment). Creative writing includes poem, narration, tale, slogan,…

This book describes "Writing Pictures," a daily developmental writing exercise in which students visualize a moment in their life of their own choosing, sketch it quickly, and write four guided sentences in paragraph format about it. Beginning with level one, it takes students through the basic format, and, with time, students progress upward…

Included among the 10 commandments for good writing are: (1) Write with verbs and nouns; (2) Write for yourself and other people; (3) Do not write in jargon; (4) Read aloud your writing; (5) Do not write cluttered sentences; and (6) Use concrete words and phrases. (JN)

A college technical writing class project on preparing an instruction manual for a toy race-car set not only showed that the students recognized their audience and used appropriate language, but also provided subject matter for other coursework. (RL)

Based on courses showing teachers how to use many kinds of objects to teach writing and stimulated by ideas from teachers across the country, this booklet contains suggestions for helping students improve their writing. The booklet discusses writing about objects as a process involving the following steps: making observations and gathering data,…

Creative inductive exercises for teaching effective writing skills are presented. Basic objectives of the inductive method include: (1) challenging students with creative options; (2) discovering the basics in sentence construction; (3) interpreting the idea of the "levels of generality;" and (4) focusing on the parallel between sentence…

Unlike less skilled writers, who are intensely writer-oriented, skilled writers of personal essays and autobiographies are reader-oriented and demonstrate a conscious concern for their external audience. Student writers can develop a sense of an external audience by analyzing parallel autobiographical text selections of skilled and unskilled…

A consideration of real world language use yields five questions that could prove helpful in assessing student writing achievements: (1) What is the writer's purpose or intention? (2) What audience does the writer have in mind? (3) What are the organizing principles of the piece? (4) What range of experience and knowledge might one reasonably…

Objects assembled in nonrepresentational fashion from tinker toy pieces are the starting point for a technical description writing assignment designed to increase the students' awareness of audience while at the same time giving them practice in description, analysis, and active judgment. Having been separated into two groups, each facing a…

Presents a descriptive exercise, also useful for technical writing, that provides a real reader and a strong sense of the nature of descriptive writing. Students are given sketches of an art piece that they must describe for a museum for identification. (HTH)