This text, written for students and teachers of English Composition, incorporates writing instruction with concepts of transpersonal psychology in a holistic and cosmic approach to writing. The text comprises nine units, which include teaching materials, group and individual exercises, and writing assignments. Unit I presents techniques of…

While close analysis of individual composing processes has been the major accomplishment of recent writing research, this research has not yet sufficiently considered how students develop as learners. The work of William Perry, a developmental psychologist, can contribute to an understanding of that development. Based on an analysis of interviews…

Researchers in many disciplines dislike writing and view it as an additional and unnecessary irritant. Teaching researchers to write for administrators who must make decisions about highly specialized topics, but who lack the specialist's knowledge, means inducing a change in the researchers' perspective. They have to learn that they are writing…

This monograph was developed to assist teachers in identifying more precise ways to select materials to use in promoting basic skills development. It is meant to be used primarily by teachers of third and fifth grade pupils who must achieve the skills measured in the State Assessment Test required by Florida. Examples are provided of test…

A study explored the differences in performance of female and male college students in a freshman writing course. SAT verbal score, course grade, and scores on two precourse and two postcourse essays were collected for 180 students, of whom 87 were female and 93 were male. The analyses of the data examined the interactions among sex and various…

There is a serious lack of interest in and concern for the training of graduate students (TAs) who teach most of the sections of college composition. Setting up a teacher training program in English departments still dominated by literature specialists is not an easy task, but there are some ways to change the negative climate. First, the…

The format of the Instruction Dialogue Author Facility (IDAF) computer program has been applied to teaching clause analysis in college writing classes. The IDAF program exercises a great deal of control over a writing student's progression through lessons. Each of the writing lessons consists of one or more exchanges between the instructor and the…

Produced as part of a collaborative research project in which classroom teachers teamed with university-based research assistants to explore questions raised by the teachers in the course of their work with students, this monograph deals with the issue of "occasion." Following a review of theory and research about aspects of occasion…

West Chester State College and the intermediate units of Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties joined in 1979 to develop the Pennsylvania Writing Project (PWP) as a National Writing Project site. The William Penn Foundation provided initial funding for the project, and a number of schools and school districts have also contributed funds. Each…

Seeking to involve students more actively in their writing assignments, two teachers developed a group of sequential writing assignments with an interdisciplinary emphasis for students in an advanced writing course. The goal of these writing assignments was to give students who had solved most of their mechanical writing problems a chance to…

Based on a review of the research and theory on cohesion in writing, it was hypothesized that developmental students could improve their writing competence and their use of cohesive ties by studying the mental process, meaning, mechanics, and rhetorical purposes of cohesive ties. To test this hypothesis, the persuasive and expository compositions…

An experienced second grade teacher participated in three two-hour planning sessions in which she planned for the course of instruction for the school year in mathematics, science, and writing. The teacher "thought aloud" as she planned, and two researchers present took written notes. In general, her yearly planning was aimed at setting…

The basic communication skills of prospective teachers at the University of Georgia were assessed with knowledge and performance instruments. The knowledge instrument was a criterion referenced test in communicative arts (logical reasoning, library research, composition, language, communications media and careers, literature, reading, and oral…

A study exploring the effects of teacher comments on student compositions sought to identify specific, effective teacher responses in order to begin the development of a model of teacher intervention during the writing process. Because a review of the literature revealed that previous studies on the subject had been inconclusive regarding the…

The five chapters of this report describe the development of a descriptive model of writing instruction in grades three through six. Data reported came from a study that included observations of 160 classes of writing instruction in eight classrooms throughout one school year. Following the first two chapters, which offer an overview of the study…