Because students in remedial classes often become better readers without becoming better writers, a year-long experimental "change of focus" in a Title I remedial program attempted to close this gap by placing a greater emphasis on overcoming writing skill deficits than on overcoming reading skill deficits. To address teacher concerns…

Northeastern University (Boston) offers an internship program to train technical writers for the computer industry. The program is designed for 20 individuals with bachelor's degrees and writing experience. Students attend classes at night, taking one computer science course and one graduate level writing course per academic quarter. The computer…

Designed primarily for the use of language arts teachers in the secondary schools, this inservice resource booklet provides a consistent emphasis on developing and strengthening skills in functional and creative writing. Following an introduction, the booklet presents a brief guide for the inservice leader, and a self-corrective test for teachers…

Two of the forms used to record pupil progress in learning basic skills under the instructional management system of the Duval County (Florida) public schools are provided and explained in this document. The form for basic skills in mathematics establishes skill levels appropriate to each grade level from kindergarten through sixth grade in five…

Based upon the concept that each step in the development of an educational program for students is directed toward a known goal, this detailed curriculum guide provides program goals, grade and course level objectives, and learning outcomes in language arts for kindergarten through grade 12. The prefatory section of the document briefly presents…

Eighteen fourth grade students and twenty sixth grade students participated in a study to determine if there was a significant difference in the quality of written composition among students exposed to the peer editing process as opposed to those exposed to teacher editing. The control group consisted of 8 fourth grade students and 10 sixth grade…

Intended for use by secondary school English teachers and school librarians, this teaching guide provides lesson plans for instruction pertaining to library and research skills. The first section presents lessons to improve library skills. The five lessons cover (1) the organization and arrangement of the library, (2) the card catalog, (3)…

Observation and investigation indicate that academic writing tasks are generally quite different from those required in standard English composition courses, with respect to both process and product. Writing instruction in English as a second language should prepare students for subject-matter writing tasks, focusing less on pure composition.…

To answer important questions for educators concerning language skills, this paper argues that children must acquire new skills in order to process written language, and that the need for developing new skills stems from differences between oral and written language that are more fundamental than differences in mode. The paper first describes how…

A three-year study on the impact of admitting underprepared community college students on academic standards is reviewed, along with implications for postsecondary education. In summarizing factors contributing to a reduced emphasis on critical literacy at the community college, attention was directed to changes in institutional characteristics…

An experiment was designed to test an instrument that could assist writers and editors in selecting strategies for improving the comprehensibility of written instructions. In addition, the study examined how successful professional writers are in improving passages selected for difficulty. The subjects, 150 experienced writers, were given an…

A review of dozens of journal articles and books on the subject of writing across the curriculum reveals the following basic assumptions that seem to characterize most college writing across the curriculum programs: (1) writing is a complex and developmental process; (2) writing should be used to promote learning; (3) the teaching of writing is…

Drawing upon the processing, distancing, and affective streams of writing research, a study examined the relationships among key variables in the writing of sixth through twelfth grade students: grade level, writing ability, knowledge of appropriate and inappropriate writing behaviors, and writing apprehension. Subjects, 496 students from an urban…

Two studies were designed to investigate the age at which students adapt expository writing to meet the needs of different audiences. In the first study, students in grades four, eight, twelve, and at university level wrote descriptions of geometric figures that would enable someone unfamiliar with a figure to draw it. For all grades, realistic…

This paper presents 111 specific activities to help elementary students develop their creative writing skills. For each activity, suggestions are given for ways to begin and to develop the activity and for follow-up. Other sections of the paper discuss the type of classroom climate which is conducive to the development of creative writing skills,…