Explores practical and theoretical benefits of electronic mail in a creative writing program. Practical benefits include creation of alternative writing space, scheduling convenience, and savings on copies. Theoretical benefits include egalitarian communication, blending of formal and informal discourse, increase in student engagement,…

Discusses how writer Norma Fox Mazer has helped many readers make the leap between reality and imagination simply in the way she handles details in the lives of her characters. Explores the ideas of communicating with detail, experimenting with structure, and playing with time in crucial scenes. (SG)

Explains how Rudolf Flesch writes for elementary school children and recommends having a hero to maintain a point of view using a dialogue method or controversial writing, avoiding using heavy words, and having a strong beginning and ending. (YDS)

The fundamental goal of literacy is to construct meaning from language. Teachers help students become literate by providing opportunities to listen to read-alouds, by persuading them to investigate their writing process, by discussing what they have heard and read, and through other activities designed to attract students to the world of words.…

An English writing teacher has helped students acquire control over their writing in varying contexts by focusing on specific strategies that they could apply to different strategies of the writing process. Strategies for inquiry, for drafting and for products can be used with any of the students' writing tasks, which helps them become strategic…

The author of this article states that, as a fiction writer, he is reluctant to discuss process, yet, at war with a mystical stance about writing fiction, is the belief he imparts to his students that writing is a craft that can be taught, mastered, and understood. This article describes the seemingly subconscious approach to the writing of "The…

Experiential learning is a time-honored approach that can help to "...seal the bond between the learner and the learned." Such learning encourages the making of meaning from individual and shared experiences and helps abstract concepts to become relevant to the learner. The 20th century educational theorist, John Dewey, articulated a…

This article presents a profile of Newbery Award-winning author Karen Hesse, who is best known for her knack for recovering the little-known stories of the past and making them resonate once again in her books. As a meticulous researcher and lover of things from the past, some of Karen Hesse's most well-loved stories have tugged at her sleeve (and…

Many culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) struggle with the writing process. Particularly, they have difficulties developing and expanding ideas, organizing and elaborating sentences, and revising and editing their compositions (Graham, Harris, & Larsen, 2001; Myles, 2002). Computer graphic…

This study examined the writing development of English language learners (ELLs) in a fourth-grade bilingual classroom in Northern California. The purpose of this study was to explore the linguistic and cultural resources the students used to inform their writing and determine to what extent, if any, these resources influenced their writing. The…

Peer-response remains a central process in first-year composition; faculty can make it effective and efficient by "spotlighting"--designing the process as digital, emergent, and distributive. In this article, the author first elaborates on his own use of peer-response terminology. He favors "peer-response" as the descriptive term for…

A writing workshop is a pedagogical tool that can create a more productive experience for teachers and students alike. Business students who have used this technique with experienced instructors agree that a well-planned writing workshop can be useful for dispelling writing fears, furthering understanding of business communication skills,…

While plagiarism is often viewed in terms of ethical binaries, scholars in composition studies have recognized plagiarism as part of literacy practices governing identity construction. In this light, what is at stake is how writers construct identity by positioning stance-claims according to the standards of respective discourse communities. For…

Wiki empowers users in generating, revising, and organizing their own content. In this study, we review literature to gain theoretical support for wikis that impact learning. In a context of student journalists learning news writing, we design a two-phase field study: (1) Phase I--to examine learners' reflections on learning news writing in wiki…

Most state standards refer to the writing process as one that writers use to communicate ideas with meaning and clarity for a variety of purposes and audiences. The writing process includes the stages a writer progresses through to move from a blank piece of paper to a finished piece that will be shared with the intended audience. Many teachers…