Written and oral communications and the processes of writing and reading are highly valued within the scientific community; scientists who communicate well are successful in gaining recognition and support from members of their own communities, the research funding agencies, and the wider society. Yet how do scientists achieve this proficiency?…

This article describes how one U.S. school district created a planned writing curriculum to provide strong, cohesive instruction for all students. Because of teacher preferences, some children received little instruction in expository writing, and scores on the state writing assessment fluctuated widely. The authors focus on how all teachers came…

Strategies are actions and behaviours used by the writer to solve problems in the writing process. These actions and behaviours reflect four clusters: meta-cognitive, cognitive, social, and affective processes. The goal of the overall study with 352 children was to check the effect of strategy usage on written output. Three research windows were…

In graduate circles, academic writing is presumed to be a solitary activity for which students already are prepared. Yet, the reality is that students tend to find academic writing difficult and stressful, and they often look to university faculty members for guidance. Faculty members, in turn, may provide hands-on practice and other classroom…

The introduction of quilt pattern consisting of many quilt blocks formed by congruent triangles, for writing by the students in the geometry classrooms, is studied. It is found that the students enjoyed this method and writing also helped in understanding the geometric concepts expanding their vocabulary in geometry.

Many academics continue to approach the multi-path and multi-voiced capacity of the Internet's networked nodal structure as if it were a book with pages and paragraphs and sentences that flow together in one direction to make a whole. A different approach to that of traditional writing, is required to make effective use of the distinctive…

This paper looks at young ESL writers in Hong Kong and describes an action research project which involved the implementation of a new ESL writing programme designed to enhance students' motivation and engagement by taking more account of the young learners' own socio-cultural context. The study examined both the students' and teacher-researcher's…

A study examined and described a program to improve writing skills and related attitudes of elementary school students. Targeted population consisted of second- and fifth-grade students in a stable, middle class suburban community, located 20 miles southwest of Chicago, Illinois. The problems of underdeveloped writing skills and lack of student…

A keen understanding of ethnocentricity and the role it might play in classroom instruction may determine whether or not writing strategies for language-diverse learners will be effective. Research indicates that it is the attitudes of teachers toward students that most distinguishes successful teachers from unsuccessful teachers. The first…

This paper shows how changing the learning situations in which psychology students find themselves can affect their motivation to write differently. When students have something to say to someone for some reason, they can learn both content and important lessons about writing. The paper describes a project that involved an introductory college…

A study was based on a perceived need for creative writing improvement. A creative writing program was administered to three separate schools in two districts over an eight-week time period. The first district was in a middle class community with primarily White students. The other district was in a lower middle class community with primarily…

A study explored the constructive, collaborative process of a group of writers under circumstances which throw light on dimensions of meaning making. The writers were college freshmen receiving "process instruction" and working collaboratively in a writing course. Collaborative planning is a loosely structured planning process in which…

The purpose of this 3-year data gathering and analysis project is to specify ways in which strategic instruction is conducted in classrooms, including how teachers adapt instruction to their curriculum and how students adapt instruction to fit their purposes for and methods of writing. The purposes of the writing instruction on which the study is…

A survey investigated the attitudes of 52 elementary school teachers of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students concerning their preference for product- or process-oriented writing strategies for this population. The teachers were administered a questionnaire on which they indicated preference, on a four-point scale, for 28 product- and…

While few business people dispute the importance of carefully crafting persuasive, demanding, conciliatory, and bad-news letters, the regular flow of routine communications receives very little meaningful consideration or scrutiny. These routine communications (letters, inquiries, requests, collection letters, complaints, confirmations,…