The teaching activities presented in this document focus on motivating students in the classroom. The paper describes (1) using stick figures to teach the use of adjectives, (2) using pen names in a covert letter writing project to teach writing skills, (3) increasing creativity in composition topics by brainstorming about ways to use bricks, and…

Good writers, as compared to a randomly-chosen comparison group, spent more time in both prewriting and writing, revised more, re-read more often during writing, and were more concerned with the purpose of their writing. (JH)

Students made increased, but statistically non-significant, use of invention procedures taught them over the span of a one-semester composition course. (JH)

Intended for the adult who needs writing skills for career purposes, this three-part book presents principles rather than mechanical rules for achieving effective communication through writing. The first section of the book offers specific guidelines on communicative attitude, content, perspective, theme, organization, and revision. The middle…

This paper describes a classroom game designed to help students overcome their fear of writing. Two classes of top- and middle-ability adolescents were divided into pairs to work on a single composition. After the teacher proposed the initial sentence, the partners took turns writing sentences to complete the story. Although the collaborative…

This book explores the many visually oriented activities that can be used to teach the composition process. Chapter one outlines the format of the book and discusses the composition process in terms of visual perception and reaction to visual stimuli. Chapter two introduces the general aspects of composition that are pertinent to all types of…

This paper discusses reasons for combining the composition and speech courses required of college freshmen. Observations about the traditional division of speech and composition instruction indicate that teachers with less experience are merely giving students "busy work" to exercise skills those students should have prior to college enrollment,…

In contrast to many books that outline in a general way the "best" method for teaching composition and that suggest a few exercises to implement it, this guidebook on expository writing attempts to be comprehensive and emphasizes practicality. Chapters deal with how to organize a composition program, how to mark student papers, and how to teach…

During each fall quarter, some of the freshman English sections at Georgia Institute of Technology are taught by an experimental track method. The mechanics of English composition are categorized into specific areas of competence; these categories form the basis for three tracks, taught simultaneously throughout the quarter. Students are assigned…

The University of Minnesota's rhetoric department surveyed other Big Ten universities for the procedures used by those schools to exempt students from the required freshmen writing course and analyzed data about students in their own required rhetoric courses (Rhetoric 1101/1102). The school survey shows that nine Big Ten schools have required…

This paper discusses strategies for teaching college composition, emphasizing "mechanical-meaningful-communicative" (M-M-C) sequencing. Under the M-M-C sequence, a student performs the following exercises: mechanical exercises, which build success in stimulus-response learning; meaningful exercises, which provide stimuli for problem-solving tasks;…

This booklet is a collection of Mullah Nasruddin tales that are commonly enjoyed in Afghanistan. These tales have been adapted to form a course in controlled composition for students studying English as a foreign language. After reading each tale the student is asked to carry out certain tasks. In addition to the simplest task, copying the passage…

Five articles examine outdoor experiential learning for the handicapped. Articles have the following titles and authors: "The Minnesota Outward Bound School and the Physically Disabled" (S. Kaplan); "Breaking the Cycle of Failure through Experiential Education" (R. Burton, B. Blakey); "Hiking with Troubled Kids" (K.…

Competency in the three skills areas of reading, writing, and mathematics is a requirement for high school graduation in the state of New York. The writing competency requirement consists of two tests: the Preliminary Competency Test in Writing, given to students in the eighth or ninth grade, and the Regents Competency Test in Writing, given to…

The Santa Fe Community College (Gainesville, Florida) offers courses to prepare students for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The two classes--one intermediate and one advanced--meet three times a week for three hours each session. Grammar explanations are presented during the first two classes each week, and students are offered…