The duty of conscientious writing teachers is to evaluate the kinds of feedback they are providing students, and to determine if it helps students to present ideas meaningful to them effectively in written discourse. Almost universally, the traditional way of providing feedback on student writing is by the red pencil method, which has made the…

Many theorists agree that attention to audience in the act of writing is a very crucial component whether product or process oriented. Audience to the classical rhetorician is an audience to be persuaded, a weak-minded audience that needs someone to direct its thinking to a point of decision. Some high school teachers use this approach as they ask…

This book examines ways to improve the writing skills of older elementary school students and junior high school students, with particular emphasis on grammatical errors concerning anaphora, connectors, and information gapping. Chapters 1 and 2 discuss the common syntactic errors which regularly appear in essays written by pupils of 10 to 14 years…

This ERIC Digest briefly profiles the approach to emergent literacy used by the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation; comments on the process of understanding the connections between drawing, writing, and reading; and offers guidelines for supporting children's writing. It is argued that the process of learning to write begins in infancy,…

One use of television in the two-year college classroom is to help students to deal with inferences. An inferencing exercise that students have generally enjoyed is watching television for a certain length of time at home and taking accurate notes of the commercials. Then, each student pretends to be a space creature who has just landed and seen…

A response to the educator's confusion over how to teach critical thinking skills through writing, the writing process model described in this paper underlines the close ties among cognitive, language, and writing skills. Guiding writing assignments in all content areas, the model involves students in reflection and discussion as they move from…

Noting that the University of Illinois' Special Options Rhetoric program is designed for special admit students who score 15 or below on ACT tests, this paper investigates the efficacy of the program to help marginal students, and also includes information on writing programs at the University of Michigan and Ohio University. An introduction…

Extensive research efforts in the past decade have measured academic proficiency and progress in both theory and practice of large-scale writing assessment. The following major situational variables were identified in these investigations: (1) topic variables such as writing prompts, subject matter, mode of discourse, length, and rhetorical…

Recommendations concerning the reading, writing, and mathematics skills that are needed by students entering degree programs in Minnesota postsecondary institutions are offered by a Minnesota Higher Education Coordinating Board task force. In addition to describing reading skills that students need for most college degree programs, conditions…

A study examined the effects of treatment (guided vs. nonguided prewriting assignments) on the quality of college freshmen's interpretation of the character/setting relationships in two short stories. Subjects, 52 students in two college freshman composition classes, were randomly assigned to an experimental group (required to make inferences…

A study was conducted by the Student Development Center of the University of Hawaii at Hilo to develop a writing placement procedure in a community college setting which would be practical, reliable, and valid. The key to this procedure was an English composition placement device that could help readers rate, holistically, writing samples written…

Designed to assist educational researchers in utilizing microcomputers, this paper presents information on four types of computer software: writing tools for educators, statistical software designed to perform analyses of small and moderately large data sets, project management tools, and general education/research oriented information services…

A research project investigated the relationship between cognitive development in college students and their rhetorical maturity. Viewing the problem of audience in composition instruction in terms of cognitive development reveals that it may not be enough to tell students that they must consider audience if they do not have the cognitive maturity…

As part of an effort to encourage parents to help their children in school, this home learning guide, which can also be obtained in taped versions, provides parents with learning activities with which to engage children at home. Based on research findings, the activities are divided into the following categories: curriculum of the home, reading to…

As part of an effort to encourage Hispanic parents to help their children in school, this home learning guide, which can also be obtained in taped versions, provides parents with learning activities with which to engage their children. Based on research findings, the activities are divided into the following categories: curriculum of the home,…