The persuasive writings of 14 teacher education students considered to be exemplary writers were examined to determine what variations occurred across topics and across writers. The stability of the T-unit (the main clause and all its subordinate clauses) as an indicator of writing ability was also tested. All the subjects wrote compositions on…

Prepared as part of the evaluation of the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP), this report offers descriptions of promising practices in composition instruction. It explains the selection criteria and classification scheme used and describes practices in the following four categories: (1) structuring of writing programs, (2) teaching the elements of…

This paper illustrates the usefulness of five principles of interpersonal communication in identifying ineffective teacher responses to student writing and in improving those responses. The principles described are that successful communicators (1) convey positive regard for the other person, (2) show empathic understanding for the ideas and…

A study was conducted to test the following four hypotheses: (1) more subject-area writing will produce better writing, (2) more subject-area writing will reduce writing apprehension, (3) the frequency and amount of learner-centered writing about a subject will increase learning of that subject, and (4) concepts students write about will be…

This handbook is offered to help content area teachers in their efforts to extend the development of writing skills beyond the English classroom and to help students prepare for the New York State Regents Competency Test in Writing. Two sections of the book discuss ways of introducing writing into the content area classroom and responding to…

This paper describes a program of interdisciplinary studies for high-school students who are not motivated to learn in the conventional academic setting. The program began with a work-incentive program that used points as the basis for weekly grades in reading, composition, and skill development. Collaboration of teachers of industrial arts,…

The effectiveness of the Kates method of teaching composition, which involves regular, sequential writing assignments and teacher/student conferences, was investigated using an experimental group of 142 ninth-grade students in six classes and a control group of 78 students in two classes. The experimental classes wrote approximately 14 essays in…

A study was designed to identify highly teachable composing skills that have a strong statistical relationship with composition quality across various grade levels. Sample compositions were randomly selected from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (1972). A total of 750 compositions written by 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old-students (250…

Arguing that dialect interference in writing does not exist, this paper contends that pedagogies for teaching writing skills to native speakers of English that assume such interference are wrong. It examines arguments and evidence that support the notion of dialect interference in writing, offers counter evidence, and explores an alternative…

The theory and research resulting from the Writing Research Unit of the Schools Council Project in England has received widespread attention. In response to that attention, and with the opinion that the ideas "Writing across the Curriculum" and "Language across the Curriculum" developed in the Project are fuzzy slogans not…

Student writers must be aware of the limits and needs of their readers if they are to transmit messages with clarity and precision. Psychological research in referential communication and the development of social-cognitive skills supports the theory that a writer's egocentrism and audience awareness affect composition. At the high school and…

A composition teacher at a New York City community college where cooperative education is stressed found that focusing the writing of his multiethnic students on the theme of freedom helped them look at their lives differently, revealing the contradictions involved in their beliefs, ideals, and prejudices. The course began with a discussion of…

A set of writing assignments and class activities designed to help students analyze their own writing processes, define their own strengths and weaknesses as writers, set their own goals, devise plans for achieving those goals, and evaluate their own progress is presented in this paper. The assignments are explained in detail, and suggestions for…

Written for use at Glassboro State College (New Jersey), this guidebook is designed to make college composition teachers aware of the writing competencies they should expect from their students, to provide those teachers with a technique for reacting to student papers, and to provide them with advising and referral information for students with…

THE ACALANES UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT ENGLISH CURRICULUM FOR GRADES 9-12 ATTEMPTS TO GIVE UNITY AND SEQUENCE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE SKILLS AND CONCEPTS BY MAKING THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE THE CORE DISCIPLINE, INTEGRATING IT WITH COMPOSITION AND LITERATURE STUDIES. EACH PART OF THE CURRICULUM IS DESIGNED TO COMPLIMENT AND REINFORCE THE…