Discusses performance appraisals in business. Describes a performance appraisal assignment that involves written assignments, role-playing an appraisal interview, and subsequent discussion of issues that arise. Includes several figures describing assignment activities. (SR)

Describes three approaches to writing a persuasive sales letter that require the student to either taste a product, try out an item, or touch an object before writing the sales letter to a prospective audience. Describes preassignment activities, the assignment, and student reaction to the activities. (SR)

Discusses the rationale and uses for personal or personalized writing in composition, literature, and content-area classes, and in curriculum conceptualization, research, and assessment in writing. Discusses relevant research studies and pedagogical criticisms of these kinds of writing assignments. Suggests that an excessive emphasis on personal…

Describes using music with eighth-grade students for generating story ideas to write about. (SR)

Advocates the application of writing-across-the-curriculum type assignments in mass communication and journalism courses. Offers an overview of transactional and expressive writing assignments used in such courses. (SR)

Describes how one English teacher developed an approach to teaching writing that was based on asking students to write memoirs or personal narratives. Presents an amalgam of letters written to a newspaper and to three co-authors of an article published in "The Chronicle of Higher Education" regarding the use of personal writing in freshman…

Describes the experience of a teacher and his students on Writers in Electronic Residence (WIER), a computer network available to schools in which students post their creative writings which are then discussed by professional writers, students, and teachers. Makes a case for using computer technology in language arts classes. Discusses some of the…

Describes the experience of helping a student revise a personal, expressive piece of writing into a transactional essay. Discusses the pros and cons of such guidance. Concludes with a strong defense of conferencing. (HB)

Describes a writing assignment for high school English in which students argue persuasively on a current issue of their choice. Extends this assignment by having students revise the papers into letters to periodicals or politicians. Urges introducing students into active social discourse. (HB)

Presents two journal exercises teachers can use to help their students develop and apply their cognitive skills. Asserts that the exercises help students to integrate what many consider to be dichotomous and frequently contradictory activities--feeling and thinking. Cites G. Lakoff and M. Johnson's "Metaphors We Live By" for the theoretical…

Describes the activity of soliciting material for and publishing a student-generated literary magazine. Demonstrates the ways in which the magazine was later used by various teachers for their class activities. Argues for the benefits of publishing student writing. (HB)

Annotates 17 conference papers, theses, and journal articles (published between 1989 and 1992) from the ERIC database that discuss the advantages and disadvantages of journal writing at all levels of education. (RS)

Discusses microwriting activities, which focus on the problem, the process, and the product of typical communication assignments. Describes how microwriting is used in class, and types of microwriting activities. (SR)

Examines the writing assignments and instruction in 30 introductory literature textbooks. Finds three types of writing assignments: the "ever popular" critical paper, the expressive paper, and the literary paper. Presents excerpts of student papers to demonstrate that writing on expressive and literary topics can help students see the…

Describes how one English teacher stumbled on the idea of having student peer groups write scripts. Outlines a variety of ways that script writing assignments can be made. Advocates having such scripts created by student collaborative groups. (HB)