In the spring semester of 1997 an ethnographic study of the teaching of personal narrative at Boston College was conducted. A doctoral student worked with an undergraduate who wrote a personal narrative about her alcoholic father. Two issues arise when teaching autobiographical writing: potential problems with psycho-cognitive distance between…

A practicum addressed the problem of students' lack of fluency in standard English despite the traditional paradigm for formal grammar instruction and the emphasis on process writing in most English classrooms. Nineteen (English 2) high school students participated in peer editing groups in a collaborative learning environment. The solution…

A study investigated one major aspect of the process of writing in a second language (L2), surface error correction, and two related issues. The main research questions included: whether (1) L2 writers were preoccupied with surface error correction during the generation of text; and (2) whether this regular interruption of the composing process…

This module provides materials for a course in business writing, including the writing process, letters, memos, and resumes. The material is designed for three 1-hour classes in a seminar format. Section 1 consists of an introduction, a list of class objectives, and a course outline. The course outline details teacher activities and student…

The process of change and the resistance to change experienced by teachers and students during implementation of a new instructional approach is examined. The specific situation described is implementation of a process-oriented approach to writing in English as a Second Language, as experienced by eight Hong Kong secondary school teachers and…

A study investigated the oral and written language used in college student groups working on draft revisions. Subjects were 19 freshmen in a composition class. Data were gathered in two speech situations: (1) students and instructor engaged in revision; and (2) a three-student peer group revision session with no teacher present. The use of…

This booklet outlines the California state guidelines for writing which assert that students should be carefully taught to read and compose many types of discourse to prepare them for higher education, the job market, and citizenship in democracy. The booklet summarizes the purposes for which the California Assessment Program (CAP) was developed,…

First year writing students were asked which kinds of writing they enjoyed, and why. Their responses indicate a preference for "creative" writing, where "creative" is defined as "personal." The students in the research sample reacted against a form of knowing that requires them to place more emphasis on objects (human…

Originally developed as part of a project for the Department of Defense Schools (DoDDS) system, this learning package on writing strategies for gifted children is designed for teachers who wish to upgrade or expand their teaching skills on their own. The package includes an overview of the project; a comprehensive search of the ERIC database; a…

This paper describes the senior honors thesis (a multigenre research paper), and narrates the process by which a senior English major at the University of New Hampshire and her project advisor worked together on this semester-long project. In the first section, the multigenre research paper is defined as a work that combines poems, monologues,…

A series of computer programs have been developed at Michigan Technological University for use with technical writing and technical communications classes. The first type of program in the series, CURIE II, includes process-based modules, each of which corresponds to one of the following assignments: memoranda, resumes, feasibility reports,…

Most educational computer software currently available severely restricts the kinds of interaction that can take place between the student and the computer. In fact, an examination of 317 language arts programs listed in a directory of educational software shows that 60% of the programs were of the drill and practice type. In response to this…

Twenty countries are participating in the IEA International Study of Written Composition, for which this is a background report. school-based writing in particular, this report discusses the functions of writing from the point of view of culture, cognition, and child development. It also presents a usable model for constructing and evaluating…

The protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown" misinterprets experiences that befall him because he cannot escape what Jean Piaget calls "egocentrism"--lack of awareness of anything outside one's immediate experience. Today's college students, reading Hawthorne, misinterpret the story, since they too…

Because graduating high school seniors and college freshmen have difficulty writing persuasive arguments, elementary and secondary school writing curricula must teach students how to create a persuasive argument by producing evidence or support for their claims. One strategy for teaching persuasive writing that has proven to be successful is a…