During the first half of the 19th century, written composition was seldom taught in American high schools. Speech writing was the only writing required of high school students until the mid 1800's when associationist psychology, with its emphasis on developing thinking habits through systematic, realistic exercise instead of memorization and…

Some reflections upon how writers learn to write are presented in an analogy with learning to swim, offering implications for the teaching of composition. The "simplicity" of the act of writing is contrasted with the "complexity" discovered by literary analysis. Two of the author's poems are used as examples. (AF)

The question of whether or not intermediate grade children write about their problems was the focus of an investigation conducted among 363 fourth grade students. Children were requested to respond to a paragraph concerning change in the world by writing a compostion answering how and what they would change if they had the power. Findings showed…

The purpose of this study was to estimate the reliability of various measures of writing behavior using 500-word samples instead of 1000-word samples. The themes of 135 eighth graders on narrative and expository topics were collected for 6 weeks, one theme per week. Samples of at least 1000 words were obtained from each student, and the criteria…

This study describes the use of (1) a clause analysis technique reflecting a sketch of the core grammatical system of English based on a tagmemic model and (2) limited individual instruction in a small number of principles of expository writing to increase the composition skills of students who had previously been obtaining failing grades in their…

The purposes of this study were to determine the frequency of nonstandard linguistic patterns of black and white college freshmen in remedial writing classes in the Pittsburgh area and to correlate these features at a statistically significant level to the following linguistic variables: ethnic and language-history background, racial background,…

The purpose of this study was to develop a foundation for reliable and effective measurement of significant parameters in the development of written language skills in school age children. The subjects for the study were 25 nine-year-old children, 12 boys and 13 girls, who were randomly selected from among 1,559 participants. The findings…

A handbook and teachers guide to phonics and the initial teaching alphabet (ITA) is given. The use of phonics to teach reading is described with the appropriate rules and steps. The principals of ITA and several practice lessons on using ITA are supplied. (WH)

One of a series prepared by the Hawaii Newspaper Agency, this teaching guide suggests ways of using the newspaper in the classroom and serves as an idea kit for introducing elementary school students to the newspaper. The two booklets comprising this kit provide background descriptions of the newspapering process, tips for good writing,…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of handwriting and related skills upon the written spelling scores of fifth graders. Comparisons were made between above average and below average readers and between boys and girls in performance on the oral and written spelling tests and tests of handwriting and related skills. The study…

Contained in this document are some significant research references, suggestions for materials useful in individualized instruction, and a rational and description of a freshman writing program for college students needing remedial help. Some of the problems faced by composition teachers are presented, followed by a literature review of research…

This study focused on a current problem in secondary English: an unwarranted emphasis on teaching literature. In order to formulate guidelines for teaching composition, the experimenter constructed hypotheses and submitted them to secondary school teachers and their students. Conclusions were drawn on the basis of preferences identified by…

In order to determine whether the use of two types of teacher written responses to student essays--clarifying and directive--produced significant differences in writing performance growth, 28 12th grade students in a metropolitan Nebraska high school were randomly divided into two groups. Each group received one of the two types of teacher…

As an alternative to the conflict among college composition teachers who are either repressive and authoritarian or permissive and lenient, a middle course offers teachers the latitude of encouraging free writing for some students and directed writing for other students, both of which may be responses to students' needs to express themselves. This…

Because of the tendency to reject Black English speakers, perhaps as an excuse for maintaining social and racial prejudices, teachers should understand that nonstandard dialects result from geographical and/or cultural isolation and conflict (as in Applachian English), and from linguistic conflict (as in Chicano English). The language of many…