Shows that grammar teaching fails not merely because of faulty teaching methods or imperfect knowledge of English grammar; it fails because of the inherent nature of language and the nature of the students to whom grammar is taught. Argues that it should not be taught until the last years of high school. (EL)

Math and science instruction now often includes more brief, informal writing exercises, sometimes completed in class, as a means of helping college students think more clearly. While writing skills are not emphasized, student writing often improves as a by-product. (MSE)

Teachers need to develop more effective test-making skills especially on items that test higher-order thinking skills. A reexamination of preservice measurement courses and a thorough critique of inservice and testing activities at the school district and classroom level are suggested. (DF)

The act of writing reflects the mind operating from learned techniques, but learning is also being practiced. Writing instruction includes the study of rhetoric as well as literature, which makes it a liberal art. Understanding the principles of rhetoric allows the writer to know that how something is said is as important as what is said. (MSE)

Presents an assignment in which students are instructed to produce a complete, accurate, and readable collection of rules and sentences that illustrates the multiple uses of each mark of punctuation, in other words, to write their own workbooks. (EL)

Critics comment on three earlier "College English" articles: Mike Rose's "The Language of Exclusion: Writing Instruction at the University," Elizabeth A. Nist's "Tattle's Well's Faire: English Women Authors of the Sixteenth Century," and Patrick Hartwell's "Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar." Contains responses from Mike Rose and…

Suggests that in addition to self-evaluation of individual papers, assessment of one's overall ability to write effectively also plays an important role in the writing process. Includes the results of a study indicating a strong relationship between writers' evaluations of their own general writing skills and the quality of their written products.…

Work of students identified as basic writers was studied and analyzed to determine students' perceptions about composition. Results suggest that progress is linked to the ability to develop and elaborate ideas while writing, to the ability to generate acceptable English automatically, and to the ability to rewrite, edit, and revise. (Author/LMO)

Examines the progress of college freshmen involved in an intensive writing program in changing their attitudes toward the early drafts of their writing assignments. Shows that as students write and develop their writing skills, more use their early drafts for discovering what they really wanted to say. (EL)

Demonstrates that a more useful investigation of the relations between process and product might explore how these models meet in theory and in practice, rather than where they separate. Shows how a less polarized view of process and product might enrich the classroom practice. (EL)

Introduces four instances of the strong possibilities feminist literary criticism presents for the classroom: roles of heroines and heroes in the novel, the casting of women in Shakespeare, the scope of imagery and authorial voice in poetry, and in the pursuit of the voice in the students' own writing. (EL)

Stresses the importance of having teachers of writing participate in writing activities at inservice meetings. (DF)

Points out that revising one's writing on hard copy after using the word processor for composing (1) reduces both computer and writing anxiety, (2) provides greater opportunity for decentering, and (3) is more comfortable to revise on hard copy than to revise onscreen. (EL)

Describes how the structure and size of the freshman writing class was changed to deal with the large demand for these classes and the problems in staffing them. Discusses the university's commitment to writing across the curriculum, the writing center, the student tutor program, the use of a collaborative-workshop method, and the writing…

This article describes a variety of language arts activities for the classroom that can be done without duplicating masters. Children use materials such as the newspaper, telephone book, and advice columns for creative writing activities. (DF)