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)

Presents an excerpt from Katherine Neville's best-selling novel "The Eight," and discusses how the excerpt could be used in a mathematics class. Includes possible class activities and reading and writing assignments. (SR)

Suggests that awkwardness in writing (like good writing) is an interactive nexus of writer, text, and reader and is a matter of subjective judgment. Argues that awkwardness in student writing is a positive sign of a writer's grappling with language complexity. Concludes that awkwardness is rhetorically motivated and therefore complex but…

Describes using the process method to teach news writing. Emphasizes its usefulness in writing for the reader and editing. (SR)

Demonstrates the prevalence of the problem of educators consensual, conventional characterization of language. Suggests an alternative, more dynamic way to describe social groups, and shows how this alternative can be used in the writing classroom. (PRA)

Describes a project in which preservice teachers and sixth grade students exchanged correspondence. Notes that the preservice teachers learned important things about the writing of sixth graders. Finds that the students' abilities in letter writing developed without direct instruction. (RS)

Describes a spur-of-the-moment curriculum development activity involving primary-school students researching the "real" Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo behind the names of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Notes that the products of the research were shared during a classroom pizza party. (RS)

Discusses a letter-writing assignment in which students write five letters over the course of the semester to anyone they wish about material they read in their U.S. literature class. Describes how the assignment elicited writing in which the students were personally invested, leading to their greater involvement in the class as a whole. (SR)

Describes how a teacher integrated an audio cassette version of a Ray Bradbury story into a computer-supported creative writing project in her seventh-grade literature class. (SR)

Describes a method of teaching professional expository writing skills in which a teacher wrote to real professional people, some famous, and asked them to become "clients" for first-year student researchers by requesting specific information. Argues for the feasibility and success of this project. (HB)

Describes how, through oral story telling, writing biographies, autobiographies and creating fictional characters, adults with mental illness were gently directed to focus and explore one significant person or period of their own lives, to develop their sense of self and ego strengths, and to connect to important others in their lives. (SR)