Investigates the effects of word processing on the quality of college basic writers' revisions. Finds that word processing does have a positive effect. (MS)

Writing well means communicating successfully. To communicate successfully the message must be accurate, brief, and clear. The basic components of clarity are sentence length, story length, and vocabulary. Creative devices and descriptive writing are discussed. (MLW)

Traces the writing problems of visual thinkers to three factors: a lack of words, the unimportance of sequence, and the presumption of context. Pleads for better understanding of the thinking processes that produce such writing problems and the development of new ways of teaching writing that directly address visual thinkers. (SR)

Studied four-year olds' writing development over a school year by analyzing their output on a word-processing program. Found a combined increase in productivity, complexity, and accuracy. Results suggest that these increases may be attributable to the word processing program and not solely to novelty, maturation and incidental learning, or teacher…

This article discusses methods for teaching students to improve the introductory paragraphs of their papers and essays. The use of specific concrete images, interesting contrasts and facts, and illustrative metaphors to grab the reader's attention is explored, and examples of students' writing and brainstorming processes are provided. (PB)

Argues that writing models, such as the inverted pyramid, help students of news writing reach more quickly the point at which many of their skills become automatic. Describes the "news in four paragraphs" model for hard news stories, and discusses the limits of models. (SR)

Reprints a 1989 article from this journal describing what happened when students who could not read and write like other kids were turned loose in a computer lab. Updates the article with an Afterword commenting on the earlier piece. (SR)

Reprints a 1985 article from this journal describing how and why the author stopped "fixing" student papers. Updates the article with an Afterword commenting on the earlier piece. (SR)

These guidelines for teaching editing skills to secondary students with hearing impairments focus on: (1) revision, in which students review and refine the content, ideas, and form of their writing; and (2) proofreading and copy editing, in which students examine grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling. Ways to utilize peers as…

Finds that visualization techniques were effective in guiding the revision process and that students remembered both specific details about the pictorial information used to guide the composing process and the underlying principles informing the techniques. Discusses visualization techniques in terms of their potential usefulness in reducing the…

Presents six short articles to help authors publish articles both in Association for Business Communication journals and in other academic journals. Includes "Some Gentle Reminders"; "The Three D's of Denial; the Three A's of Acceptance"; "Thoughts of Research"; "Doing a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Your Writing"; "Turning a Presentation into an…

Discusses the challenges of research writing and presents techniques for writers to follow that will aid in making their research writing readable and understandable for the intended audience. Suggestions include questions to address, and tips, hints, and reminders to improve writing skills. (JMV)

Describes ways in which freshman composition classes can be made more interesting, such as the use of cliche analysis. Defines cliche, and provides some appropriate examples for classroom use. (PA)

Relates a teaching assistant's experience of assigning student journals in a first-year composition class. Discusses the assignment, responses to journal entries, discoveries, and dilemmas. Concludes that they are worthwhile. (SR)

Presents a procedure to compose or evaluate structurally sound text, encompassing inclusiveness, exclusiveness, hierarchy, sequence, and language. Offers guidelines for making text structure visible to the reader with headings, format, signals, reminders, and effective paragraphing. (SR)