Describes a language arts teacher's work at a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed children, showing how the teacher established student reading habits before developing their writing. (A novel written by one of the students is included as an example of the work done in the program.) (RL)

Examines arguments in favor of the notion of dialect interference in writing; offers counterevidence and explores an alternative explanation for apparent dialect interference in writing. Concludes that pedagogies for teaching writing skills to native speakers of English that assume dialect interference are theoretically wrong, pedagogically…

Proposes that offering students activities that exercise right-brain functions (nonverbal, nonrational, spatial, and intuitive) helps students become more fully developed human beings and better writers. (RL)

Describes the Colorado Writing Project, a teacher-consultant inservice training program, and presents the results of holistic scoring of papers by students whose teachers had attended inservice meetings conducted by the teacher-consultants. (HTH)

Reports on research into the pedagogical uses of Andrew Wilkinson's writing evaluation instrument. Shows how Wilkinson's scale of cognitive development can be used both to classify writing students and to suggest strategies for helping students mature as writers. (RL)

Recounts the rationale, development, construction, and design of an essay examination format that accounts for teacher differences and provides some objectivity in observation and measurement that is usually lacking in such writing examinations. Notes that one of the features of the format is computer readable scoring. (RL)

Sketches the historical movement from orality to literacy that Walter J. Ong theorizes, applying it to basic writing instruction for open admissions students. Suggests that teachers first concentrate on narrative and rhetoric to develop writing about particularized details, saving sentence control exercises such as sentence combining for…

Makes teaching suggestions based on teaching writing to older adults. Addresses such issues as teacher condescension toward students, students' needs for teacher support of their activities, death as a writing subject, displaying emotion in class, and the politics of aging. (RL)

The time is ripe for environmental writers to mobilize for an approach that is more scientific and more statesmanlike in addressing energy issues. Three essential principles should govern writing: (1) objectivity; (2) scientific management of natural resources; and (3) risk analysis. (Author/RE)

Analyzes three concerns to which English teachers must attend during the next decade: writing about technology in simpler, more direct terms; using popular literature as a steppingstone to more meaningful literature; and reintegrating literature and composition study. (JT)

Advocates individualizing remedial writing courses at the college level and describes three programs that emphasize individual placement, focus on student writing rather than on workbook materials, and offer peer tutoring. (MKM)

Presents a short piece of writing by an elementary school student; describes a process in which English teacher education students analyzed the writing, applied James Britton's language model to the text, and discussed possible teaching techniques to use with the student. (GT)

Finds that various aspects of formal reasoning correlated significantly with mean t-unit lengths written by high school freshman boys, but not by freshman girls. Suggests that the reasoning tasks may have been biased against females. (RL)

Discusses negative public attitudes toward writing and English classes and suggests a positive response. (MKM)

Describes the use of an instructional model for composition involving five procedures: a rationale, instructional objectives, pre-assessment, learning activities, and evaluation. (MKM)