A study investigated the functional relationship that exists when mental ability and language competence are separately and simultaneously measured with regard to their influence on the effective treatment of verbal information. Data were gathered from 100 men and women, aged 20-60, who were tested for language competence, reading comprehension,…

This ERIC Digest briefly profiles the approach to emergent literacy used by the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation; comments on the process of understanding the connections between drawing, writing, and reading; and offers guidelines for supporting children's writing. It is argued that the process of learning to write begins in infancy,…

Reflecting the author's thoughts on trends in the teaching of language arts during the 1970s, 12 articles and talks in this collection deal with the following topics: (1) behavioral objectives; (2) the student-centered language curriculum; (3) teaching literacy; yoga for public school teachers; (5) instructional television for language learning;…

The legitimacy of writing as a science activity is supported in this paper and ways of incorporating it in an elementary science program are suggested. Reasons are delineated on how writing can help students improve their skills in the areas of critical thinking, problem solving, questioning, and concept clarification. Specific activities are…

Using ethnographic techniques to observe seven fifth grade and seven third grade students, a study examined the function of children's oral language during creative writing sessions in typical classroom situations. Findings indicated that oral language plays an important role in the writing process; specifically, that it (1) accompanies writing as…

This packet for vocational educators contains information and materials on writing a letter to a state legislator. A step-by-step procedure is outlined and informative materials that expand upon the various steps are then provided. These materials include a sample Mailgram, a flowchart on how an idea becomes a state law, common sense rules for…

Teaching invention strategies on the computer offers solutions to the problems of selection and presence by providing a variety of invention strategy alternatives. These strategies inform the teacher of the rhetorical task at hand and allow communication to exist at all stages of writing. A writer using a computer and a pool of heuristic…

A study of the influence of the writer's social and cultural background and training on the organization of his or her writing was studied in essays written by two groups of students: Chinese students at the Beijing Institute of International Relations and the Xian Foreign Language Institute and foreign students in the United States. The essays…

A technique for increasing student interest and participation which provides some of the benefits of individualized instruction includes daily homework assignments and short daily compositions. The daily homework assignments are only looked over, not corrected or graded. For the short daily compositions (three sentences for first-year classes, and…

The 2-year study investigated the use of word processing technology with 36 learning disabled (LD) intermediate grade children and 9 remedial teachers in five Massachusetts school districts. During the first year study staff documented how word processing was being used. In the second year, word processing activities hypothesized to be the most…

As part of a study examining articles on composition at five-year intervals from 1971 through 1987 to explore the evolution of composition knowledge, a study examined articles published in "College Composition and Communication" (CCC) and "College English" (CE) during 1971-72 and 1976-77. A citation list was created by noting…

This publication focuses on the work of one bright but math avoidant student in a writing seminar in mathematics. The introductory portion of the document explains the philosophy, goals, and activities of the seminar. The course is intended to provide opportunities for students in the humanities to experience mathematics as a discipline at once…

The social contexts students need to encourage productive collaboration in their writing can be provided by attending to various design features of the English microcomputer laboratory. Collaborative learning offers a powerful alternative to traditional classroom teaching methods and helps students become part of a community that approximates the…

Several analyses were performed as part of the process of validating a recently developed scale to measure the attitudes of students toward writing. The Florida Writing Project Student Survey is a 25-item measure of writing attitudes designed for use with students in grades six through twelve. It was developed to assess the attitudes of students…

Historical study of composition theory and teaching occupies a peculiar place in the discipline of composition instruction. It does not attempt new applications for theory, and pretends to no direct pedagogical applications at all. Unlike empirical research, it does not use experimental method or scientific rigor. However, the study of history,…