Discusses students' experiences with learning more about the "craft of writing." Considers ways to teach students to choose their own topics; to research; to organize for writing; to welcome imagination, metaphor, and memorable language; how to draft; how to give and get helpful responses; how to revise their writing to create strong…

Finds that when using e-mail, students made significantly greater reference to documents, their contents, and rhetorical contexts than when using synchronous conferencing; made greater reference to both writing and response tasks using synchronous chats than using e-mail; and students' individual media preferences showed no significant differences…

Examines the contribution of handwriting to learning to write in an experimental training study. First-grade children experiencing handwriting and writing difficulties participated in sessions designed to improve accuracy and fluency of their handwriting. In comparison to their peers in a control condition, participating students made greater…

Relates how the author teaches elementary and secondary school students to write nexus poems--poems that use a nexus, or bridge, to persuade the reader, or to show the reader the link between where something originates and where people use it. (SR)

Reports results of an observational study of museum exhibit design. Suggests eight communication practices from successful museum exhibit design that could be transferred to information design for the Web. (SR)

Examines the theoretical and pragmatic objections to first-year composition courses raised by recent abolitionists who are composition insiders. Assesses four frequently proposed alternative models of first-year composition. Discusses evaluating these alternatives from the perspective of a writing program administrator's dual roles of curriculum…

Argues that looking at students' uses of cliche in context can teach instructors about students' struggles to fashion new knowledge from what they already believe to be true. Examines students' most frequently used cliches. Suggests writing instructors who examine their response to cliche can learn how their pedagogical practices can deafen them…

Notes the relationship between thinking and playfulness. Demonstrates that playful language is a valuable way for adolescents from varied cultural backgrounds to express their thinking. Explores in depth four approaches to writing that encourage linguistic play: choosing playful topics; emphasizing characteristics of linguistic play; selecting…

Discusses the creation of a group from Interplay 1997 (an international festival of young playwrights) that would write a play on the Internet and present the finished piece at Interplay 1999. Suggests that Internet collaboration could be useful to high school theater students and teachers. Presents a list of skills the playwrights taught each…

Describes how an English teacher of disenchanted high school kids made students apprentice writers, and used genre study to bring reading and writing together in the classroom. Shows how students learned to do closer readings, looked at the writer's craft, did occasional sentence-by-sentence analysis, and wrote their own pieces in these genres.…

Discusses the use of case studies to encourage students to examine their own thinking processes. Concludes that the benefit of focusing on metacognitive skills is the increase in students' awareness. Suggests texts and their conventions are no longer rules and formulas, but tools writers use and options they can take; Metacognition allows writers…

Considers how allowing developmental students to incorporate some of their language and culture into their writing helps them become more proficient writers. Suggests that the best way to teach basic writers is through both process and a respect for the social discovery that ensues as one composes. (SC)

Instructional rubrics can help students to improve their writing skills and become self-regulated writers. Clear, accessible instructional rubrics give students repeated practice with planning, revising, and editing. It is also noted that using rubrics for self-assessment and peer assessment will help the students navigate the writing process in…

Effective writing teachers act as models, coaches, assessors, planners and consultants when they establish common objectives and activities, build social bonds, and support students as they grow in their abilities. Managing five roles is very challenging for the writing teachers, but with patience and perseverance, they can help students to become…

This article recounts how a communications and an engineering department developed a collaborative teaching venture--a linked writing course--to provide mentorship for students learning how to write lab reports. According to faculty and student feedback, and to analysis of pre- and post-course writing samples, the students' writing did show…