The potential contribution of mentoring to educationally disadvantaged students was examined at Brooklyn College. The students were part of a program called "SEEK," which admits low income students regardless of their high school grades and which provides counseling, tutoring, and remediation. A major goal of the mentoring project was to…

A study provided the initial test of a multidimensional instrument based on the idea that syntactic language choice might predict writing apprehension. The test measured six factors: (1) blank page paralysis, (2) general affect toward writing, (3) positive/negative business affect, (4) alternative modes, (5) attitude toward writing competence, and…

Argues that grammar correction in second-language writing classes should be abandoned because it is ineffective, harmful, and unhelpful in any interesting sense for theoretical and practical reasons. The article also considers and rejects a number of arguments previously offered in favor of grammar correction. (122 references) (Author/CK)

Self-evaluation is unfamiliar to most college students. Teachers can use varied approaches to support students in overcoming unfamiliarity with self-evaluation, lack of confidence in describing learning, writing difficulties, evaluation difficulties, discomfort discussing academic problems, cultural bias against self-evaluation, emotional…

Describes a study of undergraduates at West Virginia University that was conducted to investigate the effects of computer-based instruction on writing performance and writing apprehension. Computer anxiety is measured, appropriate software is discussed, and the quality of pretreatment and posttreatment essays are compared with essays written…

A study examined the effects of peer evaluation on writing performance and attitudes of ninth-grade students. Data were collected from 11 teachers in eight different schools. Each teacher taught two ninth grade English classes, one according to traditional methods and one with the experimental condition in which students taught each other by…

When students do not write well in stressful situations, traditional instruction such as grammar exercises, sentence combining, and imitation of sentences will not be especially useful. Students are not often aware of their linguistic insecurity or of how insecurity affects language usage. The writing lab, however, creates an ideal setting for…

Reflecting changes in the focus and methodology of writing research over the past 20 years, this book provides a meta-analysis of studies on teaching approaches and focuses on composition instruction at the elementary, secondary, and college levels. The first chapter of the book examines general studies of the composing process, studies of process…

The experience of a writing teacher who taught fourth and fifth graders how to take notes, describe what they observed, interview, write quickly, amd edit their own work are presented. Searching for ideas, gathering and sifting, finding a focus, rethinking and correcting, and reaching an audience are discussed. (MLW)

Describes a study of 189 elementary and secondary school educators with accounts on Tenet (Texas Education Network) whose logins and online time for one year were correlated with nine variables: writing apprehension, oral communication apprehension, computer anxiety, age, teaching experience, telecomputing experience, gender, professional…

This study investigated the effects of the WebQuest Writing Instruction (WQWI) program on Taiwanese EFL learners' writing performance, writing apprehension, and perception of web-resource integrated language learning. Participants were students from two junior college classes. One class received traditional classroom writing instruction and the…

Beginning college writers often approach the writing classroom with attitudes of fear and alienation. Fostering partnerships between instructor and students allows these writers to extend their private selves, affirm their identities, and connect to larger audiences. Letter writing can help establish an authentic connection between instructor and…

A study examined differences in writing self-efficacy beliefs among high- and low-apprehensive writers. The Daly-Miller (1975a) Writing Apprehension Test was administered to 43 developmental writers in 3 freshman composition classes. Students scoring plus or minus one standard deviation from the mean for that population were selected for further…

A study was conducted to determine whether manipulating the classroom environment to be either apprehension producing (AP) or apprehension reducing (AR) could significantly change the level of students' dispositional writing apprehension. Five student teachers and one secondary education supervisor volunteered to participate in the experiment and…

A study investigated whether the makeup of peer editing groups in a Japanese junior college Academic English writing class had an effect on students' writing apprehension or grades over the course of a 10-week semester. Subjects were 29 first-year students from an intact Academic Writing class, with similar levels of English proficiency. Students…