Word processors have been shown to favor a local perspective over a global perspective on the text during writing. Recently, advanced outline processors or "idea processors" have appeared that allow the writer to represent and handle structural aspects of a text so that the writer may compose the text within an outline and experiment with…

Through classroom observation and examination of literature on adult learning, second language teachers can learn to adapt teaching styles to adult needs. Research on maturation suggests that in course planning and teaching, adults should be included in formulating learning objectives and designing learning experiences, taught to exploit their own…

The purposes of writing in the foreign language classroom are similar to those in other disciplines. The process approach to writing instruction is useful in any language. Selection of writing topics is based on vocabulary and available skills, and careful sequencing and control of range of topics helps develop proficiency. Writing assignments can…

The "writing workshop" approach to teaching creative writing, virtually unchallenged throughout the United States, has recently come under fire. Two schools of thought, while agreeing that the traditional workshop needs a thorough overhaul, differ in approaches to that overhaul. One approach, using the theories of Harold Bloom, argues…

Reading and writing have traditionally been treated as separate processes, but some research on the relationship suggests that the two processes should be taught together. It is also proposed that skill in recognizing a text's main idea is a summarizing skill, demanding the cognitive and linguistic prerequisites appropriate to the text type. Good…

A study investigated whether a change in focus, viewing student writing as a process rather than a product, would have a significant positive effect on writing skill development. Secondarily, the study examined the effectiveness of actual teaching techniques, including a series of writing tasks interspersed with student-teacher interaction and the…

The need for the liberal arts curriculum to incorporate new technology in order for education to reach its potential is examined in this paper, which also looks at the potential for computer-based telecommunications to extend continued education for professionals. A survey of applications of computer-based telecommunications in reading and writing…

Almost 600 questionnaires were sent to private and public colleges and universities in a nationwide survey of their revision practices in advanced composition courses. Among the results were the following: (1) the teacher figured most powerfully in any revision activity; (2) a single mode of revision was the prevailing practice; (3) private…

One proposed model of the writing process describes writing as a dynamic, three dimensional, interactive process. It is dynamic in that it changes in intensity proportionate to the sophistication of the student and the teacher. It is three dimensional and interactive because, similar to the gears within a clock, it is composed of a number of…

To determine if using visual patterns can help technically oriented people create coherent papers, 97 students enrolled in a beginning composition class were given five hours of instruction in the use of the "hub and spokes" (central idea supported by examples), "S-curve" (pro-con), and pyramid (inductive or deductive) formats. Holistic…

Using data collected from 44 college faculty members, a study investigated the personality characteristics of writers, the ways in which highly productive writers differ from less productive ones, differences in writing strategies, and underlying motivations to write. The subjects were all male, tenured faculty members of a midwestern university…

To identify the means by which scientific discourse achieves any degree of success in representing nature, an examination was made of Arthur H. Compton's and Alfred W. Simon's paper, "Measurements of Beta-Rays Associated with Scattered X-Rays," which originally appeared in 1925. Analysis reveals that the rhetorical choices of Compton,…

One approach to teaching organization to a writing class is to subdivide the organizational processes. One subdivision recognizes that certain compositions have a predictable format--they put expected parts in predictable places. Following a format at appropriate times is a skill that should be taught, or at least insisted upon, at the beginning…

Readers as well as writers compose meaning. Using the same characteristics essential to effective writing--planning, drafting, aligning, revising, and monitoring--readers react creatively with the text. In response to the author's intention and their own knowledge base, they decide what they want to get from their reading. Constantly renegotiating…

Concerned with improving text readability in the content areas, this report first draws upon Linda Flower's writing steps and strategies in its description of writing as moving from planning to generating ideas in words, designing for a reader, and editing for effectiveness. It also presents nine more precise steps in the writing process along…