The Better Teaching--Better Writing program, as implemented in the School District of Webster Groves (MO), has four objectives: (1) by the completion of a 1979 Summer Writing Institute, the 19 participants would demonstrate increased knowledge about the literature and research in the teaching of writing, about teaching of writing approaches, and…

The 34 papers in this volume discuss a variety of technical writing topics. The following are some of these topics: (1) definitions and historical analyses of technical writing; (2) using case studies in technical writing classes; (3) advice to beginning teachers on how to teach graphics in technical communication classes; (4) preparing for an…

Two research projects focused on the nature of verb choice and its relationship to a composition's general effectiveness and reader impact. In the pilot project, 28 fifth grade students received an instructional unit of 27 lessons emphasizing the incorporation of precise verb vocabulary and the elimination of forms of "to be" and "to have" as main…

Observing writers in isolation, pulling them into research settings in neatly designed studies will reveal nothing about the circumstances that enable people to write. Context, or the setting in which writing actually takes place, may be the most enabling circumstance. Many first grade teachers believe their students cannot write or even spell.…

To test the hypothesis that paragraphs composed of sentences with identical or closely related topics (the grammatical subject and its adjuncts) would be easier to read than a paragraph whose sentence topics were only remotely related, two experiments on the readability of paragraphs were conducted. The first experiment involved subjective…

A study was conducted to determine whether a significant correlation existed between an essay's letter grade and five important factors of syntactic maturity (clause length, t-unit length, sentence length, clauses per t-unit, and t-units per sentence). A total of 45 essays--15 A, 15 B, and 15 C papers as graded by five junior college English…

This report summarizes six studies that examined the work of the Swedish Free Writing in School (FRIS) project, which followed the language development of 191 elementary school students from different socioeconomic areas over a three-year period. Following a brief description of the project, the report discusses each of the six studies, which deal…

A survey of faculty at doctoral level universities and at traditionally women's colleges found (1) women and men had the same rate of publication and spent equivalent time writing; (2) women's college faculty devoted half as much time to writing, devoted about twice as much time teaching, and published articles at half the rate of their university…

Examines the relationship between writing and learning in a college-level writing-across-the-curriculum class in philosophy. Results provide a basis for speculation about the conception of the writing/learning relationship and about the viability of further hermeneutical study of student writing. (SRT)

Presents five strategies for helping elementary school students learn to write fiction: (1) stress topic selection; (2) use literature to teach fiction writing; (3) stress main character change or problem solving; (4) emphasize reality-based stories; and (5) encourage students to research their fiction. (SKC)

Explores the social meaning of literacy in communities and suggests that elementary teachers can enhance literacy learning by linking writing instruction to the culture of the community as well as to the functions served by writing in the community. (SKC)

Offers guidelines for instructors designing computer labs to support existing writing programs, based on three main suggestions: (1) design computer-supported writing labs around writers, not around computers; (2) ground lab operations and instruction in current writing theory and pedagogy; and (3) use labs to support research on writing…

Addresses the absence of a diagnostic instrument to help determine if a student is experiencing problems with invention. Provides two diagnostic models, one based on L. Odell's intellectual strategies, the other on the author's extrapolation of criteria from tacit informal diagnostic estimations. Includes evaluation of the instruments by 40…

Offers the results of a survey of business writing students in which they were asked to rate the helpfulness of learning word processing as a part of the course. Concludes that students felt the instruction was very helpful and intended to use word processing in other classes and after graduation. (JC)

Presents the opposing viewpoints on grammar study, phonics and whole language instruction, and the role of information in English language arts. (SRT)