The North Bay Area Writing Project at Sonoma State University (California) is an inservice program designed to train teachers and improve their effectiveness in writing instruction. (JM)

Summarizes a study of five unskilled college writers, focusing especially on one of the five, and discusses the findings in light of current pedagogical practice and research design. (DD)

Considers the use of syntactic complexity data as norms of syntactic development and notes misinterpretations that have resulted from the use of the term "syntactic maturity" for "syntactic complexity." (DD)

Recommends having students proofread each other's papers, thereby increasing student incentive to write carefully and reducing the amount of teacher time spent correcting mechanical errors. (TJ)

Discusses the attitudes of high school teachers and students toward "Urban English" and describes the advantages of an exchange of letters between students and their teachers. (DD)

Discusses the language experience approach to reading and writing and describes how such an approach would benefit limited and non-English speaking high school students. (DD)

Discusses how elementary school instruction of Latin in public schools in Philadelphia increased the English vocabulary test scores on standardized tests of fifth graders. Evidence is provided for the efficiency of Latin instruction in strengthening English language skills. (NCR)

Discusses factors that will aid teachers in their efforts to spark inner-city students to understand modes of discourse and therefore write interesting themes. (Author/RL)

Two common trends are beginning to change writing courses. They are a growing emphasis upon the persuasive nature of prose, and an accelerating interest in the study and analysis of moral values. Hopefully the concern for values will help guide and direct the persuasive powers of writing. (JMD)

Considers the place of composition in liberal education, the proper aims and conduct of such courses.

Proposes a course of programed instruction designed to teach 8th-grade students to write English, with a view to becoming able to help English-speaking foreigners. Teaching aims are defined in detail. Some student work is examined, errors are corrected, and achievement is measured. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

This article criticizes the use of translation from English into French as a method of teaching French, and proposes alternative methods, including a variation on the language experience approach. (CLK)

Describes how comic strip development stimulated an elementary bilingual classroom. Shows results of four girls' fotonovela. (HOD)

Urges that college composition students' critical thinking skills be refined so that they may analyze and reject the influence of mass culture. (DD)

Presents a selective list of recent research studies in the teaching of English. States that most appeared during the six-month period preceding the compilation of the bibliography (July through December 1996). Contains 57 items divided into sections on bilingual education, cultural studies, literacy studies, literature, professional development,…