During 1983, an observational study was carried out in four classrooms in two schools in Wellington, New Zealand, with the following objectives in mind: (1) to describe the different writing tasks, assigned to the students, (2) to outline the guidance students were given in order to help them complete their writing tasks, (3) to establish which…

Members of the Polish faculty at the English Institute (Poland) primarily use English as a second language (ESL) techniques to teach writing, with grammar and idiom drills, and little writing beyond the sentence level. An American professor, on the other hand, used a process approach to teach writing by providing specific instructions about…

A study examined the effects of peer evaluation on writing fluency and writing attitudes. Subjects, 177 ninth grade students from seven classrooms, were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Subjects in both groups wrote a first draft of a paper. Those in the experimental group then received peer evaluation training and rewrote…

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/…

Stylistic features that impede the efficiency of communication in writing were studied in the essays of a sophomore class in reading and essay writing in English as a second language (ESL) at Birzeit University (Israel). It was hypothesized that in ESL writing, college students apply many strategies of communication more typical of the spoken mode…

By investigating the similarities and differences between speech and writing, teachers can help students mature as writers. The difference between speech and writing in conveying meaning is explained by the degree of context dependence of the utterance or passage. Speech is highly context-dependent because a speaker depends on a listener to assist…

Developed at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) for use in teaching basic research paper skills in English composition classes, this handbook consists of 11 chapters. Chapter 1 tests the student's research IQ, while Chapter 2 presents techniques for choosing a topic. Chapter 3 guides the student through the use of sources (working…

Intended especially for elementary and secondary school teachers, this report analyzes the results of the Keystone Writing and Reasoning Skills Workshop. The introductory summary states the purposes of the project, which were to interest elementary and secondary school teachers in the proposition that writing is essential to critical thought and,…

This manual contains the writing objectives and measurement specifications for grades 3, 5, and 9, for use by teachers and other educators responsible for pupil instruction, and for test development specialists involved with preparing the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills tests. The learning objectives are congruent with the "State Board of…

A study investigated how and when writing is used at the elementary school level to determine (1) what kind of instructional support elementary students receive, (2) what prewriting support is provided, (3) what support for revising is offered, and (4) what happens to the students' writings. Using preservice teachers as observers, data were…

The main tasks of the foreign language writing class should be to focus on the writing process and to help the students see their work as an act of communication with value in itself. An important means of encouraging good writing is the provision of good readers during the composition stage. A Swedish undergraduate course in English as a second…

The focus of the articles in this journal issue is helping students write for real audiences. The document contains the following articles: "Real Audiences: The Only Kind We Write For" (Margaret Queenan); "A Literary Magazine for Middle Grades" (Anthony R. Angelo and Marie-Jeanne Laurent); "Rewarding Understanding and…

Noting that teachers in all disciplines and at all educational levels will likely make some use of computers in their courses, this annotated bibliography provides a guide for English teachers wishing to learn how computers (particularly word processing capabilities) can be of use in the teaching of writing. Following an introduction on word…

Written for a 12th grade English program at Wayne Central High School, this curriculum project is designed to take into account the affective dynamics/processes as well as the cognitive processes integral to writing research reports. There are two alternatives for this paper which is required of all 12th graders: The Future, a library based…

Intended for teachers beginning to integrate the use of computers into the teaching of writing, this manual reports on a computer and writing skills project for teachers and discusses current theory and research in relation to the classroom experience, practical advice, and specific teaching suggestions of the 10 secondary school teachers involved…