In this study, four sections of a beginning speech composition class were assigned randomly to two instructors, each of whom taught one section using a conventional syllabus and the other section using a unit on organization of ideas which contained the Rhetorical Jigsaw Puzzle (RJSP) technique. Using this technique, students reassembled the parts…

This anthology presents a selection of children's writing collected and discussed by ten teachers from Great Britain. Part one presents a variety of different types of children's writing. Part two includes examples of creative writing. Part three includes examples of informative writing. Part four presents the writing of four pupils, ages seven,…

The chief insistence of the educational reform that Peter Ramus initiated in the sixteenth century in England was that the liberal arts should exist as separate and distinct disciplines, divided from one another. He split the old rhetorical laws to avoid duplication between dialectic and rhetoric and thus influenced the style of preaching found in…

Poetic writing involves thinking processes which are partially, and perhaps totally, different from the thinking processes involved in transactional writing and which are useful in learning across the entire range of organized knowledge, including the typical subjects in the school curriculum. This paper defines expressive, transactional, and…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is an information-gathering project that surveys the educational attainments of 9 year olds, 13 year olds, 17 year olds, and adults (ages 26 to 35) in ten learning areas, one of which is writing. This report focuses on persuasive and explanatory letter writing, representing two basic aims of…

Recording, narrative, exposition, and argument were hypothesized to present writing tasks of increasing cognitive and verbal complexity. This was investigated by obtaining writing samples in each mode from a stratified sample of 128 Australian sixteen year olds. The cognitive-complexity hypothesis was supported by data concerning the relative…

The teaching technique described provides students practice in developing the skills necessary for good social studies essay writing. (DB)

Concluded that freshmen entering the University of California, Los Angeles; were more likely to meet the university's freshman writing standards if they had more opportunity to learn expository writing during high school. (DD)

Suggests ways to interview sports figures. (RL)

Discusses ways to define, describe and evaluate plain style. Provides results of T-unit and stylistic analysis of several authors, including Orwell and Swift. Distinguishes between scientific ideals of plain style as depersonalized clarity and plain style essayists' cultivation of personal voice. Applies theories of F. Christensen and J. Williams…

Suggests that informal reading inventories (IRIs) should include both narrative and expository passages. Describes a study of several reading inventories indicating that some current secondary school IRIs have been constructed with some consistency of text types, but failed to reveal a clear picture of text structure for the inventories. (HTH)

Evaluates the efficacy of heuristics in the composition classroom, the importance of theory in teaching invention, the application of heuristics to stages of writing besides prewriting, and various heuristic systems. Describes the development of a theory of invention and pedagogy based on classroom experiment and the writings of other theorists.…

Describes an assignment that urges expository writers to pursue their own interests and create a fully developed prose project that they will be eager to share. (HTH)

Offers pointers for establishing a college-sponsored essay contest for public school students in grades five through twelve and enumerates the benefits of such a program. (NKA)

Describes the kinds of difficulties experienced by less able writers and how content area teachers can help these writers produce better expository text. Provides writing activities that shift the writer's attention from language forms to language content. (SRT)