Modeling the process of communication through fictive constructions of audience is as much a part of teaching writing as is imparting rules for grammar and organization. A historical review of rhetorical theory and the goals of writing instruction delineates the shift away from traditional, fuzzy conceptions of audience to more carefully…

A journal-based college composition program has been developed that links journal writing to the development of competence in more formal writing. Students write both free choice and assigned entries, and their entries become the basis of all the themes they write; in-class assignments focus on the improvement of specific aspects of the journal…

Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP) is a theory that predicts how units of information should be distributed in a sentence and how sentences should be related in a discourse. A binary topic-comment structure is assigned to each FSP sentence. For most English sentences, the topic is associated with the subject or the left-most noun phrase, and…

A brief review of the state of the art of writing research suggests several areas in which future research could be profitable. These areas include: (1) extended use of individual case studies as a source of insight to the creative process, perhaps gathered together by a bibliographical center for classifying and indexing to demonstrate the…

This paper describes writing as an exploration through unknown terrain by which student writers find out what they are really thinking. It offers teachers the following ground rules to help the difficult process whenever their students are writing in any subject: (1) do not ask students to regurgitate what they already know; (2) give students time…

This is one in a series of eight discussion pamphlets produced by the Writing Across the Curriculum Project dealing with some of the issues connected with writing in the schools and their relation to learning. This pamphlet contains five papers that are concerned with the ways in which writing changes under the influence of who it is for and what…

Five articles concerning plans for the teaching of composition are contained in this monography published as part of an Illinois Office of Education project to respond to the need for materials written for classroom teachers of language arts. Aline Wolff encourages teachers to write themselves and to write with their students as they go through…

Advocates emphasizing invention or substance of writing first, and suggests that peer evaluation will provide a necessary audience for student writers. (MKM)

Outlines ways to encourage students to think of writing as an act as simple as talking and gives practical suggestions for encouraging writing in the classroom. (SRT)

Examines the practice of assigning writing topics to students versus allowing them to choose their own topic, and suggests a way to strike a balance. (JC)

Argues that writing apprehension can be dispositional, but that it can also arise in response to elements in the writing situation. Discusses the elements in timed writing competence tests that can trigger writing apprehension and hinder effective writing. (JK)

Describes the development and implementation of a writing project for which students wrote letters to senior citizens. Reflects on students' writing improvement and positive attitude toward writing. (SRT)

Proposes incorporating a wide variety of texts from a variety of academic disciplines into the freshman writing course. Offers two sample text-based, process-oriented writing assignments. (HTH)

Discussion of the use of microcomputers as word processors in basic writing classes highlights the improvements in students' writing skills. Changes in teachers' approaches to writing courses are discussed and results of a study of 24 students in a basic writing course using microcomputers at Montclair State College are presented. (Author/LRW)

Studies original and revised essays of 60 university freshmen to determine the effects of attention to audience on improving overall compostion quality. Finds audience attention effective as a revising strategy but more effective as a drafting strategy. (NH)