Suggests that university computer labs offer the advantages of decentralizing instruction and drawing attention to students' writing. Notes that, although labs require money and instructional space, the benefits outweigh the limitations. Argues that, once a collaborative atmosphere is established and word processing is practiced, students can…

Reports observations made to explore sixth grade students' changing awareness of the characteristics of text, self as reader and writer, and monitoring strategies during the reading and writing of narrative and expository text. (SR)

Examines three English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) student writers and their experiences in two different classrooms to better understand the relationship between writing development and writing instruction. Suggests the need to examine constraints that shape instructional decisions and underlines the importance of investigating contexts in which…

Argues that freshman composition courses should teach students to use writing to develop an awareness and trust in their own thinking processes. Cautions that students who get nothing but directive instruction will be handicapped in learning to think for themselves. (RS)

Talks with students who share their thoughts and ideas about classroom environments which foster writing for learning. Discusses how teachers influence and affect students' writing environments. (MG)

Suggests the use of a taped dictation program to allow children to fully express ideas without initial concern for the mechanical tasks of spelling and handwriting. Offers steps to carry out a writing program with taped dictation. (MG)

Examines the writing processes of six Navajo college students and graduates during academic writing exercises. Finds that all subjects were concerned with sentence-level mechanics of writing and showed little evidence of recursiveness, the shaping of thought by language. Contains 15 references. (SV)

Argues that little is known about the teaching of writing beyond what good teachers have always known: that some students learn without teachers; that some students learn if they are given simple assignments, have their papers read with respect, and are taught the few simple things that can be demonstrated simply. (RS)

Explores one-to-one communication in teacher-student conferences in a college-level technical writing course. Examines whether the need to access their different knowledge bases would foster substantive conversational exchanges between instructor and student. (RAE)

Results on a multiple choice vocabulary test and a final essay writing activity suggest that teaching vocabulary as a writing prompt was more successful than more traditional forms. (RAE)

Describes a demonstration English writing studio for secondary school hearing-impaired students, who modeled the instructor's brainstorming, drafting, and revision writing processes as they created works for a small school magazine. (28 references) (CB) (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse on Literacy Education)

Examines results of a study using the inquiry method in composition instruction. Findings suggest that writing tasks that engage students in specifiable inquiry strategies should be an important part of every writing curriculum. (RAE)

Examines children's story-writing processes as they develop over a two-year period, from kindergarten through second grade. Observes that children reflect multiple worlds in their writing, including their ongoing social world, the imaginary world of their story, and the wider, experienced world of people, places, and events. (MM)

Illustrates that ethnographic research is not antipathetic to controlled experimental or quasi-experimental research. Argues that qualitative and various kinds of quantitative research need to be used in productive symbiotic relationships. (RAE)

Responds to Myra Kogen's article, "The Conventions of Expository Writing" (JBW; v5 n1). Discusses several misunderstandings about models of intellectual development. Argues that developmental schemes are useful when interpreted cautiously, but risky if used to classify a student's intellectual development. (MM)