By emphasizing the similarities between writing and speaking, writing instructors can help students generate coherent, natural sounding prose. Instructors can point out the connections between speaking and writing by (1) reading good student writing aloud, (2) having students read their work aloud in class, (3) encouraging students to develop…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 10 titles deal with the following topics: (1) how speech acts in advertisements relate to the purpose of selling merchandise; (2) the use and evaluation of accounts in problematic episodes; (3) rhetoric as a way of knowing; (4)…

Based on observations of three first grade classrooms in Milan, Italy, this paper provides information about beginning writing instruction in Italy and offers suggestions for adapting some of the more successful techniques found there into writing programs in the United States. The various sections of the paper contain the following: (1)…

Based on the latest research and theories, this junior high school curriculum guide was prepared for teachers of language arts. Following a statement of the philosophy of the program, teaching objectives are stated for writing, literature, and related skill areas. Other sections include a scope and sequence chart, evaluation and testing…

Consistent with the Utah State Office of Education philosophy that listening, speaking, reading, and writing are integral aspects of the total curriculum, the strands included in this elementary language arts guide are study skills, affective language, literature, composition, speaking and listening, and grammar and usage. Each of the strands is…

This book recounts the struggles and successes of one Seattle School District secondary school composition teacher guiding special education students through the writing process. The nine students had an IQ range of 59 to 109 and had an age range of 14 to 17 years. Of the students assigned to this class: one was neurologically impaired; one was…

A college English teacher, dissatisfied with the approach used in her composition classes and with its results, turned to the Outward Bound concepts of the German physician and schoolmaster, Kurt Hahn. These concepts include a belief in the value of creating adversity in order to overcome it, a belief that important things happen to people who are…

The result of a year of research and development in the classroom, the language arts activities presented in this handbook are designed for use with microcomputers in elementary and junior high classrooms. The first chapter reviews the current uses of microcomputers in the classroom and identifies the problems associated with the prevailing…

The first section of this report lists a variety of advantages and disadvantages of educational applications of Local Area Networks (LANs), with descriptive and evaluative comments on how the Union County Computers in the Curricula Network Project (Cranford, New Jersey) dealt with each. The second section of the report describes the following…

What made the teaching and learning experiences of a five-week pre-freshman composition primer course for minority students and a ten-session seminar on contemporary American literature for a group of teachers of English as a second language (ESL) from black and colored schools in South Africa so radically different for the professor who taught…

This 27-item bibliography represent the diversity of articles added to the ERIC database from 1983 to 1988 on the uses of ethnography and personal narrative in education. Included are conflicting opinions concerning the appropriateness of using this form of qualitative research to describe accurately problems within the classroom and to prescribe…

Writing teachers have a potential role in the development of a better hypertext. Hypertext can be defined as writing designed to be read--and perhaps added to--along many different paths, at the reader's choice. What the computer does for hypertext is increase greatly the speed and potential number of the links between chapters or ideas. What…

The 1988 Writing Objectives Assessment is the fifth such assessment by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in grades 4, 8, and 12, since the program began in 1969. The objectives reflect a consensus of opinion regarding the process of writing: that it is used for a variety of purposes and audiences, and that the form and process…

Designed primarily for English faculty at two-year colleges in California, "Inside English" includes articles on instructional innovations in teaching remedial writing, literature courses, and freshman composition, and on major curricular, administrative, and employment issues in the field. The four issues in volume 7 contain the following feature…

Writing and reading can be viewed as processes in which meaning is gradually constructed, and this description extends to the visual arts as well. Certain process-oriented thinking skills are inherent in both, including comprehending and composing, regenerating ideas, the application of language learning and processing. Five characteristics of…