Strategies for teaching mildly handicapped students the processes of revising and editing their written compositions are described. Students read and revise each other's writing thus providing peer feedback that is crucial in a process-oriented writing program. A hierarchy of revisions is given to evaluate changes from first to last draft. (VW)

Describes the process of developing an essay topic for large group scoring. Proposes guidelines for test development committees, and emphasizes the importance of accessibility and reader perspective in the formation of test questions. (MM)

Indicates that, although it was not easy for students to apply what they had learned from writing personal narratives to other subjects and other types of stories, the personal narrative assignment turned out to be much more than a way to keep students writing between interview-based assignments. (JK)

Recounts instances of computer use to teach English composition and poetry to college students and concludes that it is impossible to be a department chair these days without knowing something about a computer. (NKA)

Contrasts the traditional theory of composition with the new process theory of writing and concludes that the popularity of the new theory (with its student-centered teacher) is probably due to the compatibility of educationist theory with the unphilosophical temper of the age. (NKA)

Examines the scene of writing as an artifact of literary modernism and uses this examination as a basis for challenging common conceptions of writers and writing. Argues that the success of curriculum reform movements in the field of composition depend on revising this iconic view of writing to accommodate students and teachers. (JD)

To study growth in literacy, the literacy events of six preschool children, in which half the enrollees were Head Start children and the other half were tuition students, were videotaped daily for five months. Analysis of the data (including pre- and post-tests) indicated that all six grew in interest and knowledge of written language.…

Three innovative ideas for college instruction include a freshman assignment to write recruitment letters to high school students with similar interests, introductory art history classes taught solely in a museum adjacent to the campus, and use of the "Hunt of the Unicorn" tapestry to combine plant identification practice with art…

Good writing is seen as good thinking--thinking carefully, not just grasping for the opinion nearest at hand, and clearly. Its primary purpose is to communicate with the reader. Good writing can be learned--to think honestly, to say things clearly, to avoid pomposity, and to consider the reader. (MLW)

Writing programs and their directors have taken on a new importance because writing has become more necessary to society. However, the status of the writing program in the modern university is usually low and its financial support tenuous. (MLW)

The National Writing Project (NWP) became a key institution in the effort to define a new level of minimum literacy. There is an increasing awareness of the importance of writing as an aid to thinking in all subject areas. The NWP staff development model is described. (MLW)

Describes an interdisciplinary writing course organized around the theme of language as used by individual disciplines. Reports a significant improvement in students' writing skills, exposure to a breadth of issues to which these skills might be applied in students' respective majors, and an enthusiastic response to the approach. (DMM)

Reports on a study which investigated the relative merits of indirect and direct feedback on errors in the written work of English-as-a-second-language writers by comparing four types of error treatment, each of which provided the writers with progressively less salient information for making revisions in their compositions. (SED)

Suggests that the composing process is a kind of mental trip, a development of ideas not merely determined by one's limitations but conditioned, rather, by some ongoing circumstances not easily commandeered by the ego. (HOD)

Uses ideas from speech act theory to show students how to become "co-communicants" with their readers. (DF)