A study investigated how and when writing is used at the elementary school level to determine (1) what kind of instructional support elementary students receive, (2) what prewriting support is provided, (3) what support for revising is offered, and (4) what happens to the students' writings. Using preservice teachers as observers, data were…

Noting that teachers in all disciplines and at all educational levels will likely make some use of computers in their courses, this annotated bibliography provides a guide for English teachers wishing to learn how computers (particularly word processing capabilities) can be of use in the teaching of writing. Following an introduction on word…

Recognizing that oral language plays a critical role in facilitating a child's written language learning, a study examined the nature and function of oral language between child and teacher and child and peer as it accompanied the writing processes and written production of young children. Participants in the study were 36 prekindergarten children…

Intended for teachers beginning to integrate the use of computers into the teaching of writing, this manual reports on a computer and writing skills project for teachers and discusses current theory and research in relation to the classroom experience, practical advice, and specific teaching suggestions of the 10 secondary school teachers involved…

Based on constructivist theory (emphasizing meaning generation rather than communication), the study described in this report clarifies and elaborates on the definition of the term "expressive writing." First, the paper offers a rationale for the study and a discussion of the research methodology, which combined analysis of texts and…

A study investigated the effects of using a computer image projected on a large screen to teach revision to college students. Subjects, 19 students at DePauw University, enrolled in a writing intensive literature course in a Writing across the Curriculum program, were divided into test and control groups. It was hypothesized that the modeling of…

There is need for clarification of what is being called "process writing," for, in many cases, children are inappropriately being trained to follow a professional writing model. A serious problem with the use of the writing process approach is that very little is actually known about the writing process. Writing is supremely complex and…

To examine "bluffing"--ways in which conflicts in classrooms and evaluation procedures influence the styles of student writing and teachers' responses to different styles, a study analyzed the placement-test essays of 99 undergraduates entering Temple University (Pennsylvania) in the fall of 1982. Analysis of the texts was based on a…

In order to investigate the effects of computer technology on the composing processes of students in grades 8 and 12, a study compared students' writing in two conditions (writing by pen and writing by word processor), specifically addressing the questions of whether computer use led to an increase in revision and/or an improvement in quality.…

Intended to help secondary school English teachers integrate literature study and composition instruction, this booklet explores the relationship between literature and composition and suggests ways of designing instruction so that students may write effectively about the literature they read. The first portion of the booklet discusses such…

A research project investigated the development of narrative rhetoric in students in grades 3 through 8 in New York City public schools. Two types of tasks were used, the first requiring students to write a story about the events depicted in a drawing, the second asking them to correct rhetorical problems in prepared narratives. A series of…

Building on previous ethnographic research on middle school students' reading and writing activities, a study examined the continuity and change in students' use of, control of, and access to reading and writing resources from kindergarten through grade 8 in an elementary school, a middle school, and the community. Reading and writing resources…

To determine whether college students trained in the independent study strategy PORPE ("Predict, Organize, Rehearse, Practice, Evaluate"), could perform as well as other students trained to create and rehearse their own textually explicit and implicit test questions, a study compared performances on immediate and delayed multiple choice…

Combining linguistics and composition studies in a two-part article (in which part 1 presented the principal concepts of cohesion and information management used in spoken and written discourse) this paper, part 2, describes a model that applies some of these concepts in analyses of the content of samples of published writing in three disciplines…

Recent research on how students perceive the function of writing assignments and the effects of different kinds of writing assignments on learning is inconclusive. Noting that this issue clouds writing across the curriculum programs, a study sought to determine how students perceive their involvement in assignments that require them to present an…