Describes how expository text structure can be taught to students in fifth through ninth grades by using an adapted version of a process developed by McGee and Richgels. Contains daily lesson plans. (FL)

Finds the use of mapping strategies drawn from current research enhances students' ability to organize, analyze, evaluate, and reason critically when composing from academic sources. Presents five examples. (NH)

The expository writing difficulties of exceptional students are examined in relationship to the writing process, expository text structures, and students' metacognitive knowledge. Approaches to the teaching of expository writing are discussed, and a dialogic approach, involving teacher modeling and a series of think sheets, is described.…

Describes a study designed to determine whether the use of computer word processing would improve both the amount and quality of revision done by high school student writers. The effects of word processing on composition length and revision, and students' attitudes toward writing and word processing are discussed. (47 references) (CLB)

Describes a writing project designed to encourage eighth-grade students to examine their past with specific objectives to: (1) complement the speech and reading components of a theme on childhood and youth; (2) introduce or review basic mechanical skills and basic research skills; and (3) introduce basic tools of expressive writing.(NH)

Draws from the work of J. Kinneavy to identify text superstructures that are considered organizational patterns within larger structures: literary, expository, persuasive, and expressive writing. (HOD)

Describes an undergraduate course in scientific writing and communications designed to improve the science major's ability to communicate with the general public via mass media. (SL)

This experimental, statistical study investigated the effects that Francis Christensen's "Generative Rhetoric of the Sentence" (1967) would have on overall writing quality and the number of subordinate clauses attached to the main independent clauses for more complex sentences in college freshmen's essays. In the experimental group of 42 students,…

Although an Australian educator had taught isolated aspects of functional grammar for a number of years, she felt that she had not put enough energy into building field (topic) knowledge. With the unit featured in this PEN Digest she aims to focus on building a quite extensive knowledge of the topic--snakes. According to the Digest, the educator…

Suggesting that students in grades 4-12 can develop their ear for expository writing and improve their skills by having well-written expository pieces read to them regularly, this book contains a broad variety of sample expository read-aloud pieces with accompanying notes that highlight the techniques each writer has used particularly well. After…

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

Presents two assignments that show (1) how George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" can be applied to business writing and (2) how structured student-teacher conferences can generate enthusiasm for oral expression in a business communication course. (AEA)

Concludes that children could attend to texts selectively when reading or listening to expository prose, and when reading, but not in listening to narrative prose. (FL)

Argues in favor of teaching thesis and the forms of exposition by means of assignments such as personal narrative, autobiography, and observation out of direct experience. Describes one such assignment. (RL)