Classroom teachers and administrators often see the writing lab as a simple extension of the classroom experience, rather than as the tutorial practice that it should be with interactive one-to-one teaching. Students should be acting participants, spending at least 50% of lab time talking, questioning, trying out, practicing, and composing. Tutors…

To determine whether basic writers revise more successfully using word processors as opposed to pen and paper, a study investigated the quality of revision of approximately 100 college basic writers in three classes at a southern university. In the fall semester, word processors were used in each of the three classes once every two weeks. In the…

Teachers can use the process writing format for many assignments to teach and refine more skills than are often incorporated in older methods, and this is exemplified by a teaching unit comparing two short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Peer conferences and peer editing in the revision stages, which are features of the process model, can lead to…

A pilot study explored what children between the ages of 8 and 11 focus on when they write about writing: how children define writing, what features they believe constitute the act and product of writing, and what kinds of writing children consider important and why. During a half-hour period, 36 students in grades 3 through 5 were asked to write…

Literacy implies the ability to read and write, but for educated persons it also involves special skills that are fundamentally cognitive or intellectual. This ability to think critically should be taught in college composition classes, since studies have indicated that over half of the undergraduates in the United States are at the concrete…

In response to teachers' requests for specific information about implementing the curriculum in the Expository Writing Program (EWP), this manual presents the instructional methods and materials used during the Teaching Expository Reading and Writing Project. First, the lines of research that formed the basis for the instructional program are…

A study examined whether the use of word processors would enhance the amount and quality of students' revisions. Subjects, 28 high school sophomores and juniors enrolled in a special class for interested writers, met twice a week for 60 minutes in either a computer laboratory (experimental group) or in a regular classroom (control group). Findings…

An examination of the journal writing of 14 second graders during one school year reveals the evolution from egocentricity, with the work of one student serving as a model against which similarities and differences in the growth patterns of the other students are measured. The students' drawings and writings reflect their learning about the world…

A study analyzed the interaction of one freshman composition teacher and four students who met for a series of six conferences during a freshman composition course. The conferences, which were taped and transcribed, provide evidence of the benefits of the conference method of teaching composition. Analysis of the data included identifying the…

A study examined the relationships between the quality of writing on composition examinations and topic selection, outlining, rough drafting, and revision. A sample of 1,372 grade twelve students' essays was examined. Among the issues examined were how topic selection affects the final essay score, if and how selection of topic affects the type or…

Using the file approach in freshman composition gives students experience with the selection and utilization of a range of sources for writing, the awareness of writing as a learning activity that is by nature a process, and the opportunity to write and read across the curriculum. In this approach students are expected to keep a file of…

In a study to determine the effects of writing on the computer versus traditional writing by hand, 22 fourth grade students were randomly assigned to samples using either a computer or paper and pencil. The study hypothesized that (1) children are not more willing to revise and improve their writing using a word processor when compared to the…

Intensive peer review is a method of teaching expository writing developed two years ago by A. N. Doane and now used extensively in freshman expository writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Students meet regularly in groups of four three times a week over the course of the term to share and critique each other's writing. The instructor…

Working with a word processor changes writers' behavior. They compose more easily, less anxiously, and more prolifically. The word processor makes them want to sit down and write and makes them feel good about their writing. It does this by encouraging prewriting and invention, by providing a sense of control and mastery over the actual writing…

A first-hand account of eighth grade students' experiences in learning to write, this monograph, written by students, provides teachers and students with a model for talking about the writing process. The comments in the monograph reflect the students' belief that people can learn to be good writers by writing frequently, sharing their writing and…