Intended for teachers of college composition, this history of major and minor developments in the teaching of writing in twentieth-century American colleges employs a taxonomy of theories based on the three epistemological categories (objective, subjective, and transactional) dominating rhetorical theory and practice. The first section of the book…

The recent influx of computer programs to aid students in writing has created some confusion between the linear, directed process of problem-solving and the less directed, more chaotic process of putting words down on paper. Though problem-solving and writing-as-process have some points in common, they cannot be taken as equivalent, because…

This study investigated student preferences for either teacher-written or computer-generated marking of written compositions. Ninety-seven high school students typed assigned compositions on a word processor. Three skills pre-selected by the teacher were checked on each composition. Students were randomly assigned to treatments so that, on the…

A survey assessed the accomplishments of the first required freshman interdisciplinary studies course at a small, private liberal arts college. In the fall of 1988, 12 instructors from 7 disciplines began teaching the course which included the teaching and application of reading, writing, and study skills. At the end of the 1988-89 academic year,…

This short 3-page article presents four examples of innovative higher education programs that failed because the ideas were imported from other institutions without understanding the substructures that were needed for success. In the first case study, a Writing Across the Curriculum program was implemented through writing-intensive courses…

This collection of articles focuses on the use of word processing software programs as instructional tools for students learning writing composition. Section 1 discusses the use of word processors as a composition tools within the process model of writing instruction and includes articles entitled "Should Students Use Spelling Checkers?,""A Recipe…

Students enrolled in the 1988/89 College Bound Program of the New York City public schools met evaluation criteria in writing and mathematics but did not meet reading evaluation objectives. The Program, funded under Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act, is designed to improve the reading, writing, and mathematics skills of…

At Southerland Institute (a pseudonym), in spite of the teacher's strong statements in favor of encouraging students to think for themselves and to work together, the writing program Southerland's teachers outline is formulaic with its required modes, prescribed five-paragraph-like essay form, and bell-curve grading practices. A new rhetorician…

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…

A case study examined one college student's poor performances during timed-writing sessions to develop a method to allow students to maintain the quality and ease in writing they achieve in other writing situations. The student, assigned to write a movie review, volunteered to participate in two 90 minute talk-aloud protocol sessions to examine…

This paper describes an audio teleconferencing system enhanced with a microcomputer-based telewriting system and examines its application in the delivery of university courses in statistics, microcomputer applications in special education, nursing issues, introductory writing, and staff development for teachers. The actual application of the…

A mainstreaming project was carried out in Toronto, Canada, in which four deaf students, ages 5 through 8, were integrated into a classroom of hearing students in grades 1 and 2, for 1 hour, 5 days a week, to participate in a writing program adapting the Graves-Giacobbe process writing model outlined in Donald Graves'"Writing Teachers and…

Intended for language arts teachers at the junior and senior high school level, this curriculum guide provides a framework for literature, language, and composition instruction for grades 7 through 12. Course curricula are presented on four different levels for each grade, and include objectives and prerequisites for literature study, language…