This study examined the pedagogical practices of interdisciplinary faculty teaching single-subject approach writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) courses at a research university (University of Texas) to determine the extent to which the faculty practice the process approach to writing instruction. Data were gathered from course syllabi, assignment…

To remedy the English composing problems of young deaf writers, 43 teachers were trained to teach writing as a process in a 2-year intervention program. Teacher workshops focused on developing a rationale for writing instruction, teaching writing as a process rather than as a product, promoting writing through dialogue journal writing, using…

Fifty-six Toronto (Ontario, Canada) seventh-grade and eighth-grade learning-disabled students whose handwriting was very difficult to read were randomly assigned to either an experimental or comparison group. Experimental group students were loaned a portable computer to use freely at school and at home during the course of the experiment.…

As part of an examination required by the Alberta (Canada) Department of Education in order for 12th grade students to receive a diploma in French, this booklet contains the composition component of the January 1987 tests. Divided into three essay questions for a total writing time of two and one-half hours duration, parts one and two of the test…

The decontextualized nature of literacy has been a recurrent issue in discussions of the consequences of literacy over the last twenty years. The central thesis of these discussions is that the nature of written discourse itself leads directly or indirectly to changes in cognitive processing, linguistic progressing, cultural development, and/or…

While the populations of students learning writing in English as a second language (ESL) are diverse and have widely varying needs, three general recommendations to nonspecialist teachers of ESL pupils are to: (1) organize courses according to thematic unity; (2) limit the number of formal, polished essays assigned; and (3) encourage students to…

In spring 1984, the Language Arts Department of University College, University of Cincinnati, began requiring all third-term Freshman English students to pass an exit test in order to receive credit for their final English course. The exit exam, which was part of a joint effort with the other five English Departments within the University,…

Most discussions concerning whether literature should be taught in the composition classroom have concentrated on the pedagogical theories of learning how to write, instead of the economic and political reasons for the initial separation of the two disciplines. To help make people more employable in the rising service economy universities have…

The cognitivist view of composition suggests that if students are supplied with a set of writing strategies, they will learn to think in more complex and powerful ways, observing their own ideas and writing from another person's viewpoint. On the other hand, some social critics argue that composition teachers need to help their students enter into…

To determine how writing, as compared to other learning activities, affects both good and poor writers' ability to remember factual information and transfer learning, a study (1) investigated the effectiveness of a writing activity requiring students to develop compositions by synthesizing information read, and (2) explored the correspondences…

This study was an examination of the usefulness of a statistical regression approach to identify prospective Engineering and Information and Computer Science (ICS) applicants most likely to succeed at the University of California at Irvine (UCI). The specific purpose was to determine the extent to which preadmissions measures such as high school…

While artificial intelligence is far from producing a computer program that can understand English, there are computer applications for teaching composition that go beyond the electronic flashcard and other limited applications. A number of programs designed for use in college freshman English as a second language classes based on the artificial…

This investigation of the effect of typing skill on using a word processor for composition hypothesized that students who had learned keyboarding skills would: (1) write longer essays when using a word processor; (2) revise their essays more when using a word processor; (3) feel more positive about typing when using a word processor than students…

As part of an examination required by the Alberta (Canada) Department of Education in order for 12th grade students to receive a diploma in French, this booklet contains the composition component of the January 1988 tests. Divided into three essay questions for a total writing time of 2.5 hours duration, parts one and two of the test require…

One of a series of Parallel Alternative Strategies for Students (PASS) packages developed to provide Florida teachers with modified approaches for presenting content courses to mainstreamed exceptional students, this guide was designed as a supplementary text and workbook for a high school English course. The guide is divided into eight units of…