Makes a case for students' using a focused, carefully phrased question as the basis for prewriting and writing, as opposed to a thesis sentence which can more easily lead them astray. (TB)

Describes an assignment where the student must examine him/herself as a writer. Discusses the implementation of the National Writing Project noting its purpose to improve the teaching of writing and improve learning in the nation's schools. (SC)

Presents an interview with James Cross Giblin. Discusses how writing non-fiction books for children aged 8 to 12 gives him the opportunity to pursue his research interests, meet interesting and stimulating experts in various fields, and share his enthusiasm with a young audience. (SG)

Two experiments examined effects of content and rhetorical prompts on undergraduates' writing processes and the quality of their writing. Found that content prompts extended time spent writing and related to improved text quality. Rhetorical prompts demonstrated some influence on planning and global text quality only when presented during domain…

Describes how to use students' journal writing as the basis for their own short stories. Includes developing story subjects by brainstorming and questioning, the basic elements of writing, the final product, and examples. (LRW)

Describes a method of helping students to invent characters in the context of a creative writing workshop for undergraduates. Considers how students draw composition characters for which they can write a profile using the surrealist technique of "exquisite corpses." Uses student work to illustrate how such characters feed into the story…

Discusses: poetry as a prereading activity; collaborative invention of poems; poet as gatherer of ideas; considering the poetic memory; remembering people through poetic memory; communication and creation; form and meaning; and engaging all students. (RS)

The acknowledged expert on the 6+1 traits of writing explains what the traits are and what they are not: The traits are not a curriculum; they are part and parcel of the writing process; they are a model, not a program; they are not a prepackaged replacement for teaching writing; and they are the language of the writing workshop. The author…

In the real world of academia, almost every professor must regularly write recommendation letters. Although the ethics of the act are seldom discussed and rarely studied, at least two dissertations--both in the 1930s--tackled the subject of faculty recommendation letters. In this article, the author discusses the ethical responsibilities and how…

Induction, properly understood, is not merely a game, nor is it a gimmick, nor is it an artificial way of explaining an element of reasoning. Proper understanding of inductive reasoning--and the various types of reasoning that the authors term inductive--enables the student to evaluate critically other people's writing and enhances the composition…

We compared 56 eighth-grade students who, 28 months previously, had received instruction in strategies for planning and revising their writing, with 21 students of similar academic ability from the same school who had not experienced the intervention. Both groups wrote an expository essay whilst logging their writing activities and completed…

The purpose of this action research project is to motivate elementary students in writing, specifically in the areas of creativity, detail, and accuracy. The teacher researchers wanted to develop self-motivated and knowledgeable writers. This project was conducted from September 2nd, 2008 to January 30th, 2009. The targeted students enjoyed…

This article presents an exchange between Kip Strasma and Elizabeth Tomlinson. Strasma responds to "Gender and Peer Response" by Tomlinson, and Tomlinson responds to Strasma's ""Spotlighting": Peer-Response in Digitally Supported First-Year Writing Courses." Both of them respond to each other's cross talk.

Building on Sheen's (2007) study of the effects of written corrective feedback (CF) on the acquisition of English articles, this article investigated whether direct focused CF, direct unfocused CF and writing practice alone produced differential effects on the accurate use of grammatical forms by adult ESL learners. Using six intact adult ESL…

The author has been tutoring and teaching writing for fifteen years, but has discovered that few people outside of academia know what it is that she does. Despite the rise in composition graduate programs and the improving market for composition specialists, even within the university, faculty from other disciplines frequently have vague notions…