Process writing and communicative-task-based instruction both assume productive tasks that prompt self-expression to motivate students and as the principal engine for developing L2 proficiency in the language classroom. Besides this, process writing and communicative-task-based instruction have much else in common, despite some obvious…

Recent brain research demonstrates that the left hemisphere of the brain processes information in a linear, organized way. The right hemisphere processes the same information as a whole, with a focus on nonverbal, spatial components. Current educational practice is inordinately skewed to develop only the left hemisphere of the brain. Data from…

The 18 articles in the first section of this journal issue provide information about the National Writing Project, while the 22 articles in the second section discuss classroom writing projects. Among the topics discussed in the first section are the National Writing Projects in Arizona, Northeast Texas, and Boston; teacher behavior during…

This paper describes an ongoing literacy research project involving writing samples and observations of workers in a state social service agency, a large labor union, and several scientific laboratories. Procedures discussed are: (1) selecting participants who were willing to give 16 hours of interview time over the course of a year; (2) selecting…

This booklet is one of a series of teacher-written curriculum publications launched by the Bay Area Writing Project, each focusing on a different aspect of the teaching of composition. After a brief introduction in which the writing concepts of fluency, shape, and correctness are defined, the rest of the booklet presents the work of three…

This booklet is one of a series of teacher-written curriculum publications launched by the Bay Area Writing Project, each focusing on a different aspect of the teaching of composition. The booklet traces the growth of a reluctant writer through a semester of a remedial writing class program, using samples of the student's writing to illustrate…

Ten six- and seven-year-old British children were chosen for case study investigation of the importance of children's interactions with each other and with their teacher in launching writing through sustained speech. The school was identified by educational experts as one of the "progressive" or "informal" variety, where…

An 11-step process may be used by freshman composition students to help them write effective prose in a series of clear steps. The steps are: (1) select a topic (for the first assignment, usually a place about which students have strong feelings and vivid remembrances), (2) individually brainstorm the topic, (3) categorize the details that have…

Illustrates how each of the five phases of book production (identifying ideas and audience, pre-writing, first draft, editing and rewriting, and assembly and dissemination) were applied to an English-as-a-second-language student-developed book of interviews with citizens. (Author/CB)

A study examined the relationship of writing method (cognitive strategies, tools, work scheduling, environment, and rituals) to productivity in 121 science and engineering faculty when writing technical documents such as journal articles. (MSE)

Explores why it is both difficult and vital to model nonauthoritarian, student-centered, collaborative learning in a teacher workshop on writing. (SRT)

The Association for Business Communication Graduate Studies Committee presents a curriculum based on a survey of recent Masters of Business Administration recipients. A general bibliography and sample syllabus are included. (SRT)

Shares the experiences of a teacher educator who, upon teaching language arts every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon for a year, observed numerous reading and writing language experiences. (HOD)

Discusses nine orthodoxies, including the idea that spelling, grammar, and punctuation are unimportant, that decrease teacher effectiveness. (DF)

Addressing major themes of the commission's "Open Letter to the American People," this article discusses reading and writing skills development, and the cognitive skills involved in these processes. An effective teaching method, the Language Experience Approach based on aural/oral language with reading and writing combined, is detailed. (MBR)