In dealing with destructive writing anxiety--as opposed to the creative tension experienced by successful writers--composition teachers must identify the fears associated with writing and design ameliorating classroom activities. Two well-documented tests, the Daly-Miller Appreciation Test and the Thompson Writing Attitude Survey (TWAS), can be…

A university associates program is designed to bring secondary school English teachers in the United States to the freshman composition classrooms of a large university. Upon recommendation by their superintendents and with one-year sabbatical leaves funded at half-salary by their school districts, those selected teach three sections of freshman…

THE AUDIOLINGUAL APPROACH IS THE SUBJECT OF THE THIRD PART OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE'S REPORT ON FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN WHICH SUCH TOPICS AS AIMS, TESTING, AND METHODS ARE DISCUSSED IN THE FORM OF BRIEF ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS. SOME MODIFICATIONS OF THE AUDIOLINGUAL METHOD ARE SUGGESTED AS POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS THAT ARISE WITH THIS APPROACH,…

DRAMATIC INTERACTION, THE PRIMARY VEHICLE FOR DEVELOPING THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE, IS AN OFTEN UNEXPLOITED METHOD OF ENCOURAGING STUDENTS TO COMMUNICATE WITH OTHERS. STUDENTS CAN LEARN ABOUT LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND COMPOSITION IN A COHERENT FASHION BY WRITING PLAYS, SHORT STORIES, AND POEMS, OR BY ACTING, INTERPRETING, AND CREATING DRAMA. THE…

REMEDIAL ENGLISH INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS FOR COLLEGE WERE COMPARED TO DETERMINE WHICH OF TWO APPROACHES PRODUCES THE GREATER AMOUNT OF MEASURABLE EDUCATIONAL RESULTS AND WHICH CONTRIBUTES TO GREATER PERSISTENCY OF ACQUIRED SKILLS IN WRITTEN AND SPOKEN ENGLISH. IN ADDITION, THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG IMPROVEMENT AND PERSISTENCY OF IMPROVEMENT IN WRITTEN…

THIS PROJECT WAS DESIGNED TO DEMONSTRATE VARIOUS WAYS TO HELP STUDENTS UNDERSTAND MORE ABOUT THEIR LANGUAGE AND HOW TO APPLY THIS KNOWLEDGE TO MORE CORRECT AND FORCEFUL WRITING. TRADITIONAL AND MODERN METHODS OF GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS WERE COMBINED IN ONE ECLECTIC SYSTEM WHICH RELATED FORM AND MEANING. THROUGH FIVE MAJOR PHASES, WHICH INCLUDED A…

Publication credit has taken on great significance with the advent of an increasingly competitive academic job market and the decline in federal funds for psychological research. Policies regarding assignment of publication credit help to mold the careers of academic psychologists. A sample of psychologists was asked to endorse what they…

Grace and style are elements of composition rarely demanded by teachers or developed by students. Since both terms are elusive to define and because asking students to make attempts at grace and style can have unappealing results, perhaps vigor is a better element to encourage students to pursue. Vigor does not outlaw graceful flourishes and…

Two aspects of the problem of native language grammar instruction, in this case English, are addressed. First, it is argued that a combination of linguistic and pedagogical factors contribute to the explanation for the apparent decline in English grammar instruction in the schools. Secondly, it is argued that effective grammar teaching should…

The 17 articles in this journal issue focus on writing and writing instruction. The articles discuss the following: (1) the NorthEast Texas, Texas Hill Country, and University of Arizona writing projects; (2) the necessity of dealing with truth in the writing class, not as a concept to be defined, but as an act that creates and recreates…

The operative principle behind the use of essays as models for composition is that if students study and imitate the wide variety of rhetorical forms in an essay collection they will write well-organized and fluent papers. Unfortunately, when students are asked to copy forms the result is a clearly organized paper that says very little and has…

Ten current books covering a variety of topics relating to composition are reviewed in this paper. The first three reviews are of books describing actual writing abilities of students: "Language Development: Kindergarten through Grade 12" by Walter Loban; "The Development of Writing Abilities (11-18)" by James Britton and his…

Input from a course syllabus in advanced university level English as a second language composition was compared with student intake as manifested in the linguistic product (i.e., compositions). The frequencies and types of classroom, teacher, and textbook explanation of sentence control, paragraph organization, and rhetorical control were…

This booklet is one of a series of teacher-written curriculum publications launched by the Bay Area Writing Project, each focusing on a different aspect of the teaching of composition. It describes four sequences for teaching writing developed by four teachers at four different levels--kindergarten through grade three, intermediate grades, grades…

The Fitchburg, Massachusetts, school system's writing program designed to meet the requirements of the commonwealth's Basic Skills Improvement Policy is discussed in this paper. The skills sequences that were selected for use in the areas of composition (levels kindergarten through grade 12) and mechanics and usage (levels two through nine) are…