A survey investigated the type and frequency of integrated speaking-writing courses or programs at college-level institutions. The purpose of the survey was to gain a sense of the extent to which courses integrate speaking and writing (where speech is valued not merely as a convenience for conducting classroom business, but as a medium for…

A composition teacher incorporated film into her literature classes with the hope of drawing on her students' familiarity with this medium to promote their interest in reading as well as developing their reading and writing skills, but she found several problems in implementing this plan. She found that the simple instructions, "Read the…

Divided into four sections, this workbook offers assistance to teachers in preparing writing lessons and then in presenting these lessons in their own classrooms. Part 1, "The Writing Lessons," consists of 22 prewriting preparation and instruction lessons followed by 10-minute writing exercises covering various aspects of freewriting,…

Using the "pattern approach" is a means of teaching students to be confident and competent writers. In this method, the writer uses a device called a planning blank to establish purpose, audience, topic, and role as a writer. Then the overall structure can be planned. A good writing plan should suggest not only a beginning, middle, and…

If research into writing, particularly on computers as writing tools, is to assist teachers to improve writing pedagogy, the emphasis should be toward conducting naturalistic and context-sensitive studies. Early studies involved traditional experimental research instruments and looked not at the learning process but at the written product,…

A study was conducted to determine the ability of kindergarten children to match manuscript, cursive, italic, and D'Nealian handwritten letters to typeset letters, their ability to read letters in these five styles, and the relationship of reading and matching abilities. Children were asked to match typeset distractors to lower case letters…

Noting that introducing students to cursive writing just when they have begun to master manuscript does not provide the continuity consistent with the rest of their education, a Montana school district implemented instruction in italic handwriting. The program was evaluated three years after implementation. Writing samples from all students in…

While discouraging using writing as punishment, this pamphlet shows how writing can be a tool to support learning. The pamphlet discusses the following ten ways that writing can be used in any school subject to enhance learning and to develop students' thinking processes: (1) to identify personal goals, (2) to comprehend reading material, (3) to…

Pointing out the relationship between the writing process and business communications should help business students understand the necessity of communicating clearly and efficiently. Students should first learn that adequate preparation before using non-print communications devices--such as telephones--is as necessary as prewriting is before…

Designed to determine how quickly elementary school children can learn to use a text editor and what editing concepts are difficult for them to master, this study presents preliminary data on children's acquisition of text editor skills and on the kinds of revisions they accomplished with the text editor. Observations were made on a total of 25…

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between scores on the multiple-choice General Educational Development (GED) Writing Skills test and scores on holistically graded essays. Secondary purposes included the following: (1) examining the relationship of essay scores to scores on the multiple-choice GED Reading Skills…

Intended for content area teachers and faculty, this booklet provides a coherent program for building a school-wide composition curriculum. The first section contains an explanation of the program and its background, including sequence and classroom processes. The major portion of the booklet is divided into three groups of assignments. Group one…

The relationships that exist among the skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening suggest a need for greater attention to oral communication processes in the formal instructional program. The extent of these relationships is such that four national associations drafted a joint paper stating that oral language competency is the basis for…

There is a simple but effective process for developing public speakers in elementary and junior high schools. After discussing the importance of effective speaking, the teacher puts a topic sentence, on favorite desserts for example, on the board or overhead projector and students think of their favorite desserts and some related words and…

In the writing of Matthew Arnold, integration, one great impression rather than many great individual lines, is the most important goal. In his essay, "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time," the "blocs" of his thought are in sets of two, three, or even four sentences: in effect, he writes much like a poet, in couplets,…