As background to an argument for purposive reintegration of discourse study, this paper examines the concept of explanatory discourse as it developed within the Western rhetorical tradition. Following a discussion of the rise of a rhetoric of explanation, the first section cites the roots of the explanatory pedagogy developing during the first…

Designed to be used along with a multiple-choice instrument for further assessment of the immediate and delayed comprehension of a 1,300 word expository passage on the Kalahari Desert, the instrument is a 35-item posttest, divided into five clusters, each composed of six to eight lettered phrases. Twenty verbatim phrases from the passage are…

Composition instructors need to emphasize to their students that persuasion is not always announced--it can be forcefully present in so-called "objective" forms of discourse like textbooks and news. News photographs can be successfully used in the composition classroom as a unit of study in visual rhetoric to introduce students to the…

Using an informal writing style, this journal issue describes the "process approach" to teaching composition in the Beaverton School District (Oregon). The first section contrasts the goal approach, which stresses correct grammar and mastery of specific forms, with the process method, which considers the rhetorical context of conveying a…

Three different ways of integrating writing and thinking into the classroom are using double-entry notebooks, literature logs, and process journals. In a double-entry notebook, the writer takes notes on the reading, collects direct quotations, makes observational notes, and writes fragments, lists, and images on the left side of the notebook. On…

In 1984, New Zealand tested 12- and 13- year-old and 15- and 16-year old students as part of the International Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) tests. Although weaknesses appeared at both age levels in the organization of material, particularly in argumentative and expository writing, students could write functional letters competently…

The guide presents information on a creative writing course for verbally gifted senior high school students. Part I of the course consists of general exploration activities on literary forms: the journal, the poem, the short story, and a student selection from among such types as one-act plays, essays or by-lined articles, editorials, and TV (or…

The rhetoric program at the University of Iowa is an integrated skills program based on four assumptions: (1) writing and speaking are modes of communication, (2) writing and speaking are equally important, (3) writing and speaking can be taught together, and (4) the administration, relevant faculty, and teachers must believe that writing and…

A study assessed the effects of the Mason program (a supplementary language arts program in which expository writing is introduced) on writing skills, such as writing mechanics, expression, and related thinking skills. These skills were measured by standardized tests and by actual writing performance. Subjects, approximately 400 second grade…

As composition teachers, we need to learn to stop evaluating the student writer's values and assumptions, and rather evaluate what he does working from those assumptions. (JH)

This paper explores the need to examine value systems in composition courses concerned with persuasive writing. Values are defined as beliefs used to evaluate or structure experience. When concepts and facts are related to daily life, as they are in persuasive writing, they either reinforce values already formed or necessitate a change in values.…

This in-process report discusses the writing development of a student from first grade through mid-eighth grade. An analysis of the student's T-unit length averages from third grade to mid-eighth grade reveals a leap of syntactic complexity from the fifth to the sixth grade. Among the other findings are the following: two modes of…

The Department of English at Wayne State University is planning to introduce a doctoral program directed to the processes involved in the composition of expository prose. Students admitted to the program will be trained primarily in linguistics and cognitive psychology, though they will also work in communication theory and rhetorical analysis.…

The first-year writing program at Kentucky Wesleyan College includes "The Role of Writing in the World of Work" program, an experimental activity in which distinguished representatives from business, industry, and the professions spend one workday explaining the role of writing in their occupations. Each visitor speaks no longer than 12 minutes,…

Frequently, government writing is filled with complex and obscure jargon, or "gobbledygook." This book was written for Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employees, in order to call their attention to the need for simple, concise writing. The first two chapters provide a formula for judging the difficulty of a piece of writing and show how writers…