Presents the work of four students who participated in a a twelve-week unit on the antebellum south in the United States. Explains that the students' stories, all historical fiction, focused on slavery. Presents four examples of student writing to demonstrate that children can interpret the past. (CMK)

Examined Grade 8 French immersion students use and accuracy of pronominal verbs within one of two tasks--jigsaw or dictogloss--while working in pairs. Two groups of students viewed a videotaped mini-lesson on pronominal verbs, while another two did not. Found that the mini-lesson had a significant impact on students' use of pronominal verbs in…

Explores the most visible expression of a writer's presence in a text: the use of exclusive first person pronouns. Shows that not all disciplines follow the same conventions of impersonality, and that there is considerable scope for negotiation of identity in academic writing. (Author/VWL)

Defines cut and paste plagiarism as copying sections of articles or books directly from the Internet or a CD-ROM and into a personal paper. Offers suggestions, from a librarian's vantage point, for locating plagiarized sources and for dissuading students from cheating. (NB)

Investigates self- and peer evaluation of writing in the English-as-a-Second-Language classroom. The investigation is examined in two parts: (1) adapting and implementing an appropriate evaluation scale, and (2) studying the various end-of-term effects use of the scale had on students. (17 references) (GLR)

Shares the experiences of one teacher who changed her way of teaching high school at-risk students by creating an environment that encouraged students to explore writing and reading topics of their choice. Finds that students changed and learned using the writing-reading workshop approach. (MG)

The article describes seven methods to help special needs learners improve reading comprehension: the Pre Reading Plan; the six-step survey technique; semantic mapping; story maps; mental imagery; learning logs; and use of question-answer relationships. (DB)

Guidelines are offered for serving learning-disabled (LD) students in college writing labs. LD student characteristics identified by clinical observation and data-based research are reported for spelling, cohesion/coherence, and syntactic complexity/maturity. LD writers are distinguished from basic writers. Current practice in writing centers is…

States that newspaper and magazine journalism tend to depict handicapped persons as victims. Explains that teachers can help eliminate this stereotypic imagery through writing and critical reading exercises. (GG)

The theoretical and empirical work of J. Britton and his followers is reviewed. The uses of Britton's discourse system in writing research and studies of school writing are considered. Topics addressed include Britton's conceptualization of heuristics, written discourse, pedagogy, function system, learning processes, teaching methods, and text…

A project at Loyola University of Chicago and Northwestern University has three teams of two students each write papers and present them at a joint meeting. One team from a university writes in support of a particular side, while its counterpart at the other university takes the opposite view. (MLW)

Describes study conducted at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) that investigated the adoption of word processing for dissertation writing by doctoral students. Perceived attributes of word processing that affect the adoption or rejection of word processing are examined and their influence on the writing process is discussed.…

Reviews studies that deal with word processing and writing. Areas covered include surveys of research on the effects of word processing on writing instruction; students' attitudes toward writing; composing behavior; collaborative writing; revising; and reading and writing, emphasizing screen design. Implications for instruction are then suggested.…

Describes a writing assignment designed to help students in large introductory political science classes argue and write effectively. Provides assignment format and criteria for evaluating class papers. Expounds on paper and paragraph structure. Discusses the use of writing tutors and explains grading procedure. (RW)

Maintains that in order to get quality engaging essays, students must be fully cognizant of what is expected of them. Discusses areas that need to be defined for students. Proposes four C's for designing assignments: clearness, completeness, conciseness, and candidness. (RW)