In establishing a framework for observing and interpreting the interplay among students accumulating knowledge, their intellectual growth, and their ability to express ideas in writing, it is useful to consider the major stage theories and analyze their place in student writing. In general, cognitive stage models describe logical and psychological…

Although many studies have been conducted on the subject of writing, little research on the composing process itself can be found. One early study of significance is Janet Emig's "The Composing Processes of Twelfth Graders," which compares school-sponsored writing with self-sponsored writing. Donald Graves, Lucy McCormick Calkins, and Donald…

To relate the way in which children structure stories at different age levels to their performance on other tasks or to their general stage of cognitive development, a study required subjects of four age groups to participate in working memory tasks in two different paradigms and to generate stories involving a variety of characters. The structure…

Intended for teachers, language arts supervisors, curriculum designers, and others interested in the teaching of English in elementary and middle schools, this book proposes a way of unifying the language arts in a program that makes literature the center of language studies. The first chapter includes a discussion of the central role that…

Noting the rediscovery by composition scholars of the tradition of classical rhetoric, this collection of essays explores the resurgence in the teaching of written discourse in college English departments. The 18 articles and their authors are as follows: (1) "The Revival of Rhetoric in America," by Robert Connors, Lisa Ede, and Andrea…

This paper describes an in-service workshop on writing, which begins by having teachers air negative feelings and false conceptions about the writing process, involves the teachers in writing and introduces the writing process concept. A sentence completion activity, integrated with the viewing of a videotape, helps teachers examine their…

No significant differences in attrition rates were found between groups of students enrolled in conventional and individualized remedial freshman English courses. (JH)

Freshmen college students benefited from an individualized, oral approach to composition, in classes team taught by a professor and an undergraduate senior. (JH)

The classics of our literature are still the best antidote to the abuses of language found everywhere around us. (JH)

Author presented a case study of one particular educational endeavor in which there is a heavy reliance on modern technology. (Author/RK)

This paper discusses a contemporary literary movement, "New Nonfiction." New Nonfiction is described as a reaction against the hermeticism of the modern novel, the abstractions of historical scholarship, and the impersonal, sensational, and formulaic reports of the mass media. It is a written narrative that connects private sensibility with public…

This paper describes a college summer-enrichment program that helps minority students improve their communication skills. The program concentrates as many different writing experiences as possible into a month-long workshop that provides intensive, individualized, daily writing practice with a variety of instructional materials. The major thrust…

As cutbacks continue to be made in college programs and faculty, composition programs will have to prove themselves effective or else face massive cutbacks. To improve their programs, composition instructors should abandon the ineffective approaches of the past, which have been based on formal courses in the principles of good composition, and…