Drawing on psychological, sociolinguistic, and discourse theories, this book shows how students use writing not only as a vehicle for participating in the academic world but also as a means of fashioning their own private and public identities. It presents case studies of four students during their years at a large, public university. The case…

Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) programs can improve writing instruction and student writing overall by training teaching assistants (TAs) from all disciplines to better teach and assess writing skills. According to a 1998 Brigham Young study, 1,505 TAs were used by professors from all disciplines to help with teaching duties ranging from full…

This paper grew out of the collaborative relationship that emerged from in-class modeling of student-centered writing approaches as participating teachers and a consultant/researcher began to explore ways to increase the length of fourth-grade writing. The paper reports on a small study in fourth-grade writing aimed at increasing the length of…

This paper focuses on the writing process and young children, suggesting prewriting activities and discussing writing, revising, and publishing in the classroom. The paper also enumerates what children like, such as interesting topics, self-selection, listening to stories, reading their writing to peers or younger children, and special formats for…

Writer's Workshop is a program that teaches children the conventions of writing. Students not only learn proper grammar and punctuation; they also come to learn and value the importance of drafting, revising, and editing their pieces of writing. Writer's Workshop is a process that needs to be consistent. It is composed of three parts. The first…

Family Message journals, notebooks in which first-graders write a message to their families and receive a family reply each day, provide a fertile context for instruction and practice in writing for real-world functions and authentic audiences. Observation of classroom instruction, qualitative analysis of case-study children's and families'…

This paper reports the results and educational implications of an experimental, comparative study evaluating the gains in overall writing quality in two groups of college freshmen composition students. The experimental group of 45 students learned to compose their first four of eight essays on the computer, while their professor intervened with…

Designed to help teachers empower students to become thinkers, writers, and especially authors, this book helps teachers develop a writer's mindset in grades 2-6 students. It supports and guides teachers from the week before school through the spring Young Author's Conference that recognizes writing achievement. Chapters in the book are: (1) Kids…

Both first-order creative, intuitive thinking and second-order critical thinking can and should be encouraged in writing instruction. The first helps generate ideas, and the second is useful in refining expression. The two kinds of thinking enhance different writing skills and can be mutually reinforcing. (MSE)

Describes the interrelationship of reading and writing and proposes a full-school program for reading and writing development that builds on the full range of personal use of written language. (JL)

Presents the formula for writing poetry as containing three elements: the content of the poet's mind; the poetic medium--language; and the creative spark that fuses experience and language, or content and medium, into poetry. (MM)

Examines the differences between writing research conducted in England and that conducted in Canada and North America. Discusses how educators and researchers have used their observations to derive a pedagogy and have done so much too rapidly. (HTH)

Reports the methodology and results of a survey of professionals who write on the job to discern the problems they encounter. Indicates that fear and avoidance of the writing task, little or no advance planning, and an inability to organize content were at the root of their writing difficulties. (HTH)

Presents a formula for essay writing that forces the student to adopt a point of view from which to analyze and evaluate an author's argument. The format also addresses the problem of organization and mechanics. (HTH)

Presents poetry written by children to illustrate the valuable qualities that result from children's lack of sophistication and their inherent freshness of vision. (JL)