Offers six brief articles, each presenting a particular class activity for high school journalism students, focusing on feature writing, getting the whole picture, news writing, an observation test, sights and sounds, and a reporting exercise. (SR)

Describes an activity in which parents and students write together about their childhoods. States that parents and students offered positive comments about the activity. Notes that the parents were supportive of their students' writing for the rest of the school year. (RS)

Criticizes teaching formal, impersonal writing and argues for teaching that encourages students to write about what they know and love as they discover who they are and why words matter. (PRA)

Discusses the use of computers in teaching basic writing to college students. Offers computer exercises and activities which foster a whole-language curriculum. (PRA)

Provides specific writing activities to be used with seven different books in the context of both primary and intermediate grade level writing instruction. (HB)

Proposes a four-phase plan for a team formal report project in the business and technical writing course. Finds positive attitudes toward both the formal report and collaborative writing among students in 29 formal report groups. (SR)

Describes an exercise for a technical writing course on documenting a problem within a corporate environment, thus giving students experience in appropriate documentation to tackle some of the operational, political, and ethical problems common in the workplace. (SR)

Suggests several high school writing assignments with civic themes. Includes assignments on the Iowa caucuses, the political and economic future of Iowa, and city-administrator government. (RDS)

Surveys faculty of the College of Business at Illinois State University concerning writing assignments given in the functional areas. Finds an average of one research paper per class required in each of the five departments of the college, while the type and format of research varied. Discusses implementing the results. (RS)

Offers five tips from writing teachers on writing activities that work well in their classrooms. (SR)

Describes a collaborative writing assignment devised for a first-year composition class. Outlines how the assignment was undertaken and carried out by the students. Provides background on the theoretical literature concerning collaborative writing. (HB)

Provides the responses of 10 practicing English teachers to the questions, "What is your most successful writing assignment? Or, what is your favorite stimulus for writing?" (HB)

Describes how a writing teacher has his students write about one object in the four modes (description, narration, argumentation, and exposition) as a means of learning about writing and writing to learn. Suggests that students learn about their topics when they write about them in the four modes. (SR)

Describes a number of techniques used in a developmental English class. Notes that listening to colleagues in other disciplines and using writing-to-learn strategies are two ways to make a classroom successful. Suggests that these techniques can help developmental students become active listeners and readers. (SR)

Describes an assignment for a sophomore-level technical-writing course which teaches students to respond to different audiences with different needs by having them analyze and then respond to actual complaint letters (on the same topic but from two very different people). Includes successful and unsuccessful responses generated by the students.…