IN THIS COLLECTION OF SIX SPEECHES FROM THE YALE CONFERENCE, EACH AUTHOR DISCUSSES THE MEANINGS OF SPECIFIC WORKS OR IDEAS IMPORTANT TO ENGLISH TEACHING. SPEECHES ARE BY (1) SCOTT ELLEDGE, WHO PROPOSES COMPOSITION ASSIGNMENTS WHICH ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO "EXPLAIN" IMAGINATIVELY, (2) JAMES FOLSOM, WHO DISCUSSES THE WAYS IN WHICH A SHARPENED…

THE ASSOCIATION OF DEPARTMENTS OF ENGLISH COLLECTED INFORMATION FROM DIRECTORS OF FRESHMAN ENGLISH FOR A REPORT ON COLLEGE PROGRAMS IN FRESHMAN COMPOSITION. THE FIRST SECTION OF THE REPORT, A DISCUSSION OF TRENDS IN FRESHMAN COMPOSITION, INDICATES THAT LINGUISTICS AND THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE HAVE NOT BECOME A PART OF THE FRESHMAN ENGLISH CURRICULUM.…

FOR A REPORT ON COLLEGE PROGRAMS IN FRESHMAN COMPOSITION, THE ASSOCIATION OF DEPARTMENTS OF ENGLISH OBTAINED SYLLABI AND COURSE DESCRIPTIONS FROM DIRECTORS OF FRESHMAN COMPOSITION AT 66 COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. AMONG THE DATA ASSEMBLED FOR THE FULL REPORT (AVAILABLE AS TE 500 190) ARE THE DESCRIPTIONS OF FRESHMAN ENGLISH PROGRAMS AT TWELVE…

The language the Negro child brings with him to school has a linguistic structure which is clearly distinguishable from that of standard English. His language is not a defective form of speech. There is, however, what Labov calls, "reciprocal ignorance," a mutual lack of comprehension for the other's language system. Writing is a secondary symbol…

In this collection of 18 essays drawn from reports of the Yale Conferences on the Teaching of English, high school teachers present ways to handle problems relevant to all English classrooms. Essays on the teaching of language include a discussion of grammar, a definition and illustration of language study, and a consideration of the kinds of…

Attempts to combine language and composition in the freshman English course at Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, Minnesota) should interest all teachers of English. One project utilized a single key word for several assignments. Students were asked to (1) think through the meaning of the word for a week and write definitions and associations,…

To supplement an experiment at the University of Northern Iowa on the effectiveness of college-level instruction in freshman composition, the University of Iowa conducted its own experiment on the evaluation of freshman composition. This experiment was designed to determine (1) which method of rating papers is more reliable--the "general…

This University of Nebraska study proposed to discover (1) the types of changes occurring in syntax as children mature, (2) the age at which children begin to use certain structures in their writing, (3) the differences in syntax between children's and adult's writing, (4) the relationship between syntactic patterns and intellectual ability, and…

The composition teacher in the primary grades should emphasize content and ideas, not form and properly written expression, to develop the students' interest in writing. By surrounding the students with fine literature, by presenting them with model stories to imitate, and by letting them make up alternate endings and illustrations for stories,…

This paper demonstrates the compatability of Aristotle's Four Causes (material, formal, efficient, and final) and George Campbell's Four Forms of Discourse (description, narration, exposition, and argumentation) and synthesizes them to form an ordered yet flexible writing model that can be used in composition instruction. Within the context of…

This study examines eight evaluative abstracts on grammar instruction, to determine the effects of such instruction on student writing and to trace the development of sentence-combining instruction, which helps students write with increased syntactic maturity. On the basis of the evaluative abstracts, the study concludes that traditional grammar…

Addressed to teachers of composition and to other professional students of prose, this book develops a philosophy of composition based on the nature and history of writing. Chapters discuss distinctive features of written speech, the normative character of written speech, progressive tendencies in the history of language and prose, refinement of…

A study of four unusually competent high school writers was undertaken to determine the reasons for varying durations of pause in writing. It was believed that a writer pauses during transcribing to rehearse, plan, and reformulate and to make a number of crucial decisions about syntax, semantics, and discourse. Each student spent a total of 12…

In 1963 the National Council of Teachers of English published a major summary of research in composition, sometimes referred to as the Braddock Report, which included 24 questions that addressed areas in which further research was needed. This paper describes more than 100 published and unpublished reports of research conducted since the Braddock…

Comments of experienced teachers suggest that writing may be avoided in school not simply because of its inherent difficulty, but because its undertaking typically lacks connection to anything else in the lives of students or teachers. It is possible that teachers can best serve the acquisition of writing skills by structuring the social occasions…