The first section of this paper discusses the sentence combining approach to teaching writing and includes illustrations of sentence combining problems. The second section describes a program in which the sentence combining approach was used with low ability seventh graders in an inner-city junior high school. Among the benefits of the program…

The Practical Industrial Communication (PIC) program is a form of individualized instruction that teaches communication skills to students in vocational/technical curricula at Red River Community College, Winnipeg, Manitoba. A placement test determines whether students begin with all or part of a ten-hour writing skills review or proceed directly…

The teaching of poetry can be used as a language experience approach to develop good writing skills in elementary and high school students. This paper discusses the techniques a "poet-in-residence" employed to help students create poems and, indirectly, to teach the function of such writing skills as parts of speech, punctuation, and…

This paper describes individualized learning, a form of individualized instruction that emphasizes students' self-paced learning progress within a tutorial teaching structure, as it was used in a freshman composition program. The teachers first determined the composition skills that their students should have acquired upon completion of the three…

This self-instructional packet, developed for use in two 50-minute class sessions, is designed to teach students about editorials and editorial writing. Lesson One includes a list of behavioral objectives for the project; a pretest; a discussion of purpose, structure, and types of editorials; and an exercise in writing an editorial based on an…

Content analysis was used to determine the evaluation criteria of high school and college teachers and college seniors in grading essay tests. Content analysis is defined as a way of asking a fixed set of questions unfalteringly of all of a predetermined body of writings, in such a way as to produce quantitative results. Four reponses to a…

All English teachers share an occasional uneasiness about whether English really matters. Three major sources for this uneasiness are: (1) English teachers are uncertain about their basic purpose. Historically, the emphasis in the English profession has shifted from sharing the best that has been thought and said, to literary history, to rigorous…

Cultural and dialect differences affect the writing style of black college students in several different ways. Some stylistic features, such as hypercorrection that involves confused word choice, grammatical deviation, or incorrect word order, are undesirable in spite of the fact that they indicate a knowledge of the formality of writing and a…

Suggested topics, beginning sentences, and illustrated ideas can motivate young writers, stimulate their imaginations, and give them reference points for the development of their thoughts on paper. This document offers illustrated questions and seasonal topics as writing ideas for students in the primary grades. Creative ideas for students in the…

As an alternative to the traditional freshman composition course, a one-credit research skills module has been organized to help students develop competency in reference work and organization for research papers. Designed as part of a three-credit composition course, the eight week module concentrates on developing competency in the following…

This study was undertaken to measure the reading, writing, and numeration of 10 and 14 year-old students, and to collect information on teacher perceptions of the nature and extent of any learning difficulties experienced by individual students. A sample of 7,000 students was tested at each of the two age levels. Reading, writing numeration, and…

Through an understanding of learning theories, both those that are cognitive in focus and those which rely on a stimulus-response paradigm, educators may come to a fuller knowledge of what is involved in languaging acts and to a more complete understanding of how to teach necessary communication skills. This paper provides a brief overview of…

The metaphor of the writing "coach" is used to explore a writing-process approach to the teaching of freshman writing. This approach allows for personal discovery leading to the same sense of accomplishment that the superior athlete enjoys. The mastery of higher levels of skill similarly leads to the potential for higher levels of performance. To…

Both the cognitive and affective domains of learning may be combined in an integrative model of education which joins awareness of values, feelings, and self with the knowledge and skills necessary for expression and communication. This manual consists of four fantasy exercises which help to develop awareness of personal events, as well as…

An attempt is made to answer these questions: (1) whether writing practice has a place in foreign language instruction; and (2) if so, what kinds of writing pupils should learn. Suggestions are proposed as to content and procedure of a continuing course in writing skills for Dutch secondary schools. (AM)