Explores ways in which an expository writing class can encompass training in both professional writing and in the humanities. Presents a writing assignment that combines research in the humanities with writing for decision makers. (HTH)

Variability in the grammatical profile of finite verbs in English is examined in 20 Master of Science theses in biology, chemistry, and physics. The use of verbs with respect to voice, tense, aspect, and modality is examined in five rhetorical sections of the theses--introduction, review, methods, results, discussion. (SED)

Reports a study designed to answer the question of whether English as a second language (ESL) reading can be facilitated by explicit teaching of text structure. Results indicate that training on the top-level rhetorical organization of expository texts significantly increased the amount of information that 25 intermediate-level ESL students could…

Explains how photographs were used to generate language and to teach the form of expository prose to inner city sixth-grade students. (FL)

This report is designed for educators who are involved in teaching, developing, or evaluating curriculum in Florida's high schools. It describes the content and application of Florida's 10th grade writing test, and it offers suggestions that might be helpful in preparing students for the assessment. The 1990 Florida legislature mandated the…

A preprint from a forthcoming pamphlet of the National Conference on Research in English. (Editor/SW)

Suggests the importance of George Orwell's "1984" for today's students and recommends specific analytic and descriptive writing activities to develop critical reading skills. (MM)

Uses personal experience to show how writing instructors can help students articulate their audience and purpose, use written products purposefully, identify the intellectual demands of their task, and then consciously formulate their ideas in light of these demands. (MM)

Examines the pedagogical approaches and problems attendant to the development of English writing programs for foreign students. Discusses the skills necessary to handle course work, such as essay tests, term papers and reports, theses and dissertations, and focuses particularly on diagnostic problems and acceptability criteria. Societe Nouvelle…

Describes the Twelfth Annual International Essay Olympics, a popularly-formated closed-circuit instructional television program to teach answering essay questions to first-year university students. (CMV)

Selects the major demands in the new general syllabus for second-language learning in the United Kingdom and suggests ways in which teachers and learners can successfully fulfill them. These criteria center around vocabulary requirements and writing, speaking, listening, and reading tests. (10 references) (Author/CK)

Reviews previous research on the effects of signals (structural cues that announce or emphasize content or reveal content relationships) on readers' comprehension of expository prose. Concludes that inconsistent results are due to inadequate methodologies that fail to control for confounding variables, such as text length and difficulty, topic…

Describes a course in which students were assigned to read magazine articles, label sections according to informative discourse types, mark cohesive ties and cue words, and pick out details. Reports that, by reviewing the articles, students gained an understanding of the "general audience" and of how to read their own writings more objectively.…