The composing processes of apprehensive and nonapprehensive college freshmen writers were explored in a case study of two female students. The two students, one a high apprehensive and the other a low apprehensive writer, completed a questionnaire that elicited information about their attitudes toward writing, writing concerns, time spent writing,…

Advanced composition is difficult to define because of the complexities implied by each of the two terms, "advanced" and "composition." The word "advanced" is loaded with positive connotations that generally suggest progress. However, the progress expected of a class of students at one institution may not agree with…

Intended for junior high and high school writing instructors, this booklet provides prewriting activities designed to help students master the thinking strategies essential to effective written communication. The first portion of the booklet discusses theory and research on the role of thinking strategies in writing and gives an overview of the…

Psycholinguistics, with its emphasis on language processes rather than products, is particularly compelling when applied to the search for underlying connections between reading and writing. One such connection is best stated in the following propositions about writing and learning to write: (1) at no time are the acts of reading and writing as…

The underlying structure of meaning in a text is to a certain extent belied by the surface structure, or sequential organization, of the text. The underlying information structures (IS) organize information according to cognitive and cultural factors. It may be demonstrated that just three major IS with various subvarieties can describe any text:…

When the literature and the research results on sentence combining are analyzed, they seem to provide an expanded meaning of sentence combining and reasons for its effects on the writing of some students. Gains in syntactic maturity alone do not explain why sentence combining affects positively the writing of some students, nor does the fact that…

This manual was designed for students with a research assignment who do not know how to begin. Students are required to read each chapter completely and follow the instructions it contains before going on to the next chapter. First, a checklist of necessary materials and supplies is provided. Then, Chapter I helps the student clarify the purposes…

Arguing that to consider only the writer's mental processes is an intellectualist view of the composing process that does not present a fully human way of knowing, this paper takes the position that the writer is more than a mind at work and that an account of the writer as knower must include a consideration of the interaction between mind and…

The design of a program for teaching audience awareness proceeds in a clear and logical order so that it can be incorporated into any writing syllabus concerned with traditional matters of form. The program begins with a brief questionnaire designed to elicit student problems with and feelings about audience. Class discussion of the questionnaire…

This paper addresses the issue of learning to write and the need for defining a means of teaching the process of composing. Following a description of what kind of process writing is not, the composing process is presented as a continuum of making meaning out of a chaos of images, half-truths, remembrances, and syntactic fragments. The discovery…

To develop empirical data relating to the composing process of college basic writers, a study was conducted involving four community college freshmen. Three of the students were basic writers; the fourth was judged by the faculty to have superior writing ability. The study utilized four types of data: interviews with each subject subsequent to…

Describes a teaching technique which involves the writing teacher's using the blackboard in composing a short essay in front of the class. (DD)

A fifth grade student, who is a successful writer, describes the process she goes through in writing a paper. (DD)

Quickwriting, a method for teaching writing to second language learners, features concentrating on content; not worrying about form; and writing without stopping. The process has the key advantage of aiding invention by separating the creating process from the editing process. Other advantages and some disadvantages of this method are discussed.…

Argues for a rethinking of the act of writing as the creation of a work of art. Discusses the implications of how a change in view can affect the practice of teaching writing. (JC)