This paper discusses and makes specific recommendations for teaching freshman composition courses. First, the teacher must introduce the subject matter of the course to the students in an interesting way. Next, the teacher must instruct students in the basic language skills, such as spelling and grammar. Finally, the teacher must instruct the…

This paper argues that the immediate reason for the decline in literacy in our colleges is the shift from an emphasis on the traditional discipline required in construction to an emphasis on spontaneity in writing. Of the four phases of the creative process (preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification), only verification should be…

This paper discusses the inadequacies of elementary and college education, stating that since teachers expect students to write poorly, they do. Four risks which college writing teachers must take are: offering to help teach writing in grade schools and high schools; encouraging their colleagues to relax their standards; encouraging the acceptance…

The purpose of this experiment was to determine if community college students enrolled in a freshmen remedial composition and reading course which stressed practical student skills and vocational skills relevant to their immediate needs could improve their reading and writing skills significantly more than comparable students whose remedial course…

In order to establish the effects of three different levels of writing lab use on the writing proficiency and attitudes of remedial freshman composition students, three instructional modes were used. Writing lab students spent two hours a week in small group discussions and four hours in the lab, using autotutorial materials. Classroom lecture…

The Follett spelling series "Spelling and Writing Patterns" is reviewed in terms of content and method. While descriptive writing plays a considerable role in the series, it is discussed only briefly in this paper. It is concluded that, other than in the first book, spelling instruction does not provide a sufficient basis for learning…

Since its opening in the spring of 1972, the General College Reading/Writing Skills Center has provided students with tutorial help in reading and writing, and communication skills courses for credit. During its three years of operation, the Skills Center has extended its services through satellite centers to student populations other than those…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether different methods of English instruction would produce significant differences in students' ability to write as well as to recognize satisfactory writing. During the first quarter of the school year, 731 students at the seventh and nine grade levels were taught by one of three teaching methods…

This "working paper" offers 16 sample projects (integrated programs of work built around a central situation or idea intended to aid in the development of communication skills and the personal and social development of students) which are divided into five types: (1) minor projects--short projects which introduce the approach, built around some…

Since Students in Freshman English face the problem of feeling that they cannot begin to match the professional writers whose essays they read, an experiment was designed in which instructors used well-written themes of fellow students as examples of good writing on a level more attainable than the professional essayist. Pairs of themes--one well…

When students inductively study linguistic patterns and then apply their understanding to achieve sentence variety, their interest in composition is heightened and their writing styles improve. Through examples in music and in nonsense and model sentences, students became aware of their language's basic structural patterns (subject-verb word…

Students who are taught to understand and apply Korzybski's uses of semantics to their writing will learn to write more concretely. As students locate words and descriptions vertically on Korzybski's scale of abstraction levels, they will become able to perceive how meanings change when descriptions become either more general or specific, to…

This study investigated the preparation of (330) teachers of English in the public secondary schools of North Dakota; their assignments; selected variables of employment; method, time, and extent of professional upgrading; aspect of English in which teachers and students had difficulty in the teaching-learning process; and the major reasons given…

The writing of students at colleges of education about their teaching experiences and the writing done for them by children in infant and junior schools comprise this account of attempts to answer such questions as "What makes children want to write?" and "What is the relation between a writer's experience and imagination?" Excerpts from college…

The nine essays in this document are concerned with "what, ideally, should make well-balanced, efficient programs in English for students in grades 9-12 in the comprehensive secondary schools of the future." James Sledd maintains that leaving teachers free to guide students in reading good books and in writing is more important to a successful…