Based on the premise that planning in writing is a strategic response to both the writing situation and the writer's own knowledge, this paper describes the process adult writers bring to ill-defined, expository tasks, such as writing essays, articles, reports and proposals. The paper also states that in planning, writers draw on (nest and…

Creative problem-solving can be used successfully in the writing classroom, for the problem-solving process involves three distinctive stages of thinking activity that remarkably parallel the prewriting steps in the composing process. Similar stages include: (1) data generation and preparation to write; (2) data manipulation and incubation; and…

A collection of texts in Upper Tanudan Kalinga, a language spoken by about 3,000 people in three villages in the Philippines, includes texts recorded and transcribed from native speakers, edited for clarity and style, and checked for accuracy of cultural content. Four types of discourse-genre are represented: narrative-fiction and…

These guidelines are directed to writers of United States Department of Housing and Urban Development publications intended for public distribution. The primary purpose of the guidelines is to improve writing style and to increase sensitivity to the consumer viewpoint. Section one discusses the following topics: looking at the subject from a…

This survey examined the extent and quality of magazine journalism education in the United States and Canada. Over half of the 200 schools surveyed responded to the questionnaire concerning current teaching practices and facilities. Results indicate that magazine journalism is more widely taught than generally supposed: most schools have at least…

The material reviewed in the 37 articles and papers listed here suggests that responsibility for establishing and maintaining standards for writing among college students is a college-wide burden. The articles are of two kinds: some deal directly with the questions of interdepartmental responsibility for teaching writing; others touch on the…

Differences in semantic recall between students hypothesized as having either a high or a low analytic style were investigated. Styles were determined by the amount of bilateral alpha activity measured from the cerebral cortex of the brain during eyes-open baseline recordings. The results indicated that when expository text was tightly structured,…

A unit is described for teaching audience analysis in a high school expository writing course. The five main sections of the unit are (1) an analysis of audience as part of writing, (2) the writer as a decision maker, (3) testing audience reaction during the composing process, (4) post-communication audience reaction assessment, and (5)…

Since good prose is usually prose that has been carefully edited, devoting a significant portion of class time to editing should improve the writing and attitudes toward writing of college students in expository writing classes. By requiring students to edit their essays in class, writing teachers force the students to break their writing into a…

Misleading headings in documents, which make it hard for readers to find what they need, are common in many types of documents. A review of research on the importance of cues in the reading process suggests that heading miscues might seriously impair understanding. Three experiments were conducted to discover how headings cue or miscue adult…

Various aspects of the field of technical editing are discussed in this anthology. The 18 articles deal with the following topics: patterns for making editorial changes; the editor as generalist as well as specialist; training the editor beyond the acquisition of skills; criticism and creativity; a logical approach to editing proposals, reports,…

This paper discusses the notion that comprehension of language involves an active interpretative process entailing both a generating of expectations and a matching of expectations to the "incoming message." There are, however, two forms of discourse in which the relation of text to message differs from that holding in ordinary language.…

This report describes the nature and function of humanistic interviewing in the exchange of information. This interviewing process recognized the human side of the transfer of information involving insight, growth, and further understanding. The report examines the purposes and types of interviews, questionnaire construction, the interviewing…

Selecting criteria for usage is done in basically the same way for both technical writing and other forms of composition. Similarly, the same rhetorical theory applies to the teaching of both, and proves especially helpful in the teaching of formal report-writing skills in required freshman composition courses. Focusing on the appropriate voice,…

In an English class and a writing laboratory, dictating machines were used to increase skills of composition and to work out methods for the most advantageous use of the machines. Fifteen students out of a class of 100 used the machines for regular class work; in the laboratory, out of 70 volunteers, 35 were taught by tutors, and 35 were put to…