Explains the use of templates in teaching developmental writing students about the physical structure of the traditional expository paragraph. The template approach offers a space corresponding to a 150-word paragraph with structural suggestions in the margins (e.g., Do you have a strong opening sentence? Do you need a transition?). (DMM)

Examines prevailing definitions of coherence in text. Cites writing samples from the National Assessment of Educational Progress to illustrate how coherence at the paragraph level must supersede coherence between sentences. (HTH)

A principal components analysis was conducted to determine whether the measures of essays made by the computer could be grouped into factors. Six factors (fluency, spelling, diction, sentence structure, punctuation, and paragraphing) were identified. (Author)

Suggests that teaching students to achieve coherence involves teaching them what it means to plan and to move up and down a hierarchy of abstraction as well as teaching them to build cohesive links into their writing. Describes a program for teaching coherence. (RL)

Argues that generative rhetoric can lead technical writing students to produce more effective and better developed business reports. (TJ)

Illustrates how a controlled writing exercise for students of English as a second language can be used to help native speakers of English learn paragraph development. (TJ)

This exercise is intended to teach the sense of sentences and their place in the larger fabric of paragraphs as they are woven into organized papers. Based on the five-paragraph theme (introduction, three body paragraphs, and conclusion), the exercise divides "What I Haved Lived For," the prologue to "The Autobiography of Bertrand…

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: LEVEL: College. AUTHOR'S COMMENT: When I first began as a college composition instructor, I gave a standard explanation that definition was necessary if students wished to argue logically or to explain an unfamiliar subject. I showed examples of definitions, discussed ones in the text, and then sent…

Article investigated many features, both cognitive and linguistic, of the processes involved in understanding what is read as well as effective teaching methods for developing reading comprehension. (RK)

A technique for assisting students in selecting and organizing data for compositions is explained. (JH)

To avoid confusing children, a reading approach from the very beginning should stress logical relationships based on experiences. Drilling words, sounds, or even sentences should be avoided since these practices lead to deviant schemes. A lifetime scheme involves teaching a child a process. Children need to learn a process by which they can…

The two essays in this booklet reflect the spirit and ideas of Francis Christensen, specifically his exhortations to composition teachers, illustrated by his own practice, to approach the teaching of writing inductively, to look always to the writing of professionals for models, and to behave as scholars. The first essay, on sentence modelling,…