In order to study the complexity of sentence combining in college students, 32 students from five basic composition courses were asked to perform three writing tasks at three distinct times during the eight-week instructional period. Each student was asked to rewrite a passage of kernel sentences, to write a composition in the argumentative mode,…

Since it was believed that proper instruction in basic grammar skills requires systematic treatment, a separate elective course in grammar, spelling, and vocabulary was added to the curriculum at Wichita State University. Students enrolled in beginning composition courses receive a diagnostic language skills examination, with those scoring below…

A total of 194 students, eight intact classes of ninth and tenth graders, were examined for changes in their writing skills after it was determined that significant changes in reading skills had occurred in the experimental groups (four of the eight classes). When the writing samples were analyzed for overall quality, syntactic density, T-unit…

Students' abilities in manipulation and control of syntax may be increased through a sequence of instruction involving the use of exercises termed "Non-Sentence Practice,""Nonsense-Sentences Practice," and "Syntactic Patterning Practice." The final step in the instruction sequence is to make the syntactic exercises pertinent to students' writing…

Seven of the articles in this journal contain first-person descriptions of the procedures and methods used by outstanding American playwrights in creating their individual plays. The playwrights explain their own writing habits, working conditions, and revision processes in an effort to clarify the elements that contribute to the unusual…

Many aspects of the teaching of writing are examined in this publication. The seven articles explore the importance of writing and list possible teaching strategies, report on books for and about writing that are currently available, present and discuss children's writing samples, discuss ways of stimulating creative writing in the classroom,…

This study undertook an examination of how specific rhetorical training in visual literacy would improve the ability of college freshmen to clearly state a thesis, to carefully shape an argument, to deliberately substantiate the argument with examples, and to skillfully express ideas with appropriately varied sentence structure. The hypotheses…

During the school year 1971-72, a study of language skills was conducted in the city of Toronto, Ontario. Scores on the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test were analyzed for many students in grades four, six, eight, and nine. Students scored at grade level with reference to the United States norms of this test. The vocabulary and reading subsections of…

There are several practical reasons for preferring syllabic writing in teaching the Eskimo language to non-Eskimos: (1) the use of syllabic writing avoids the Roman letters t, l, n, s, g, and r, which stimulate the pronunciation habits of French or English; (2) syllabic writing is well-suited to Eskimo because of its small number of vowels; (3)…

Small groups provide an ideal environment for developing linguistic security (seeing one's language as acceptable to those with whom one is most concerned about communicating). In a case study of seven students representing a cross section of two composition classes, small groups did foster linguistic security and written fluency. From remarks…

In order to determine whether an increased amount of theme writing in freshman English composition favorably affects a student's performance on a language skills examination (the Regents' Test) administered at the end of the two-quarter composition course, the performance of first-time freshmen in the University System of Georgia was examined.…

The nationwide problem of declining communication skills is evident in the large numbers of students entering college with deficiencies in reading, writing, and speaking skills. This paper discusses the operation of a communication skills program within a college communication skills center which functions as a supportive resource service and…

One way of meeting the goals of the English composition course, both humanistic and pragmatic, is through a combination of individualized instruction and focus on selected aspects of linguistics. Individualized instruction, using in-class tutors and writing notebooks, allows for a variety of activities that make better use of the scheduled class…

Graduate students do need and can benefit from instruction in the basis of composition, but the definition of what each student basically needs will vary so greatly that individual instruction is the only meaningful way to meet those needs. The demand for such instruction spurred the development of a graduate course at North Texas State University…

Twenty percent of adult Americans function only with difficulty with necessary every day literacy skills, almost two-thirds of the 800 million illiterate adults in the world are females, and the number of women who cannot read or write has risen steadily in the past 10 years. The inservice program described in this document involved a team of…