Although the acts of reading literature and writing are closely linked, literature study and composition instruction remain distinct pursuits within college English departments. Style seems to be an interest that unifies the two pursuits. The most common view of style equates it with acceptable rhetorical and grammatical conventions. A second view…

To examine the effect of placement in freshmen English classes on the way students perceived themselves as writers, a college English instructor conducted an informal comparison of the attitudes of freshman English students with those of tutor-trainees. Both groups of students were asked to write a description of themselves as writers with no…

Several articles of interest to teachers of English as a second language (ESL) are included. The teaching of literacy skills in migrant classes is considered in "An Approach to Reading and Writing for the New Language Learner" by Pat O'Brien. Gloria Keil demonstrates how news of recent events can be brought to the notice of migrants in…

A study was conducted to test the proposition that the act of oral reading would be significantly different between competent and incompetent writers and the corollary proposition that the act of oral reading closely approximates the act of writing. A writing sample was devised that included three major features: all the common marks of…

In addition to helping students revise thoughtfully by placing them in situations where revision matters, advanced composition instructors can use the complementary method of discourse analysis scales. These scales provide advanced writers with ample data for making decisions about revisions, and for identifying relevant semantic, syntactic, and…

A kindergarten/first grade writing curriculum was developed that used literature as a model for writing and that was based on learning theories and assumptions. The curriculum was developed in a five-step sequence: (1) a theoretical base was established based on cognitive developmental, psycholinguistic, and metaphoric mode theories. Teaching and…

The twenty-four articles in this collection focus on the problems presented by the increasing numbers of exceptional students with whom the English classroom teacher must deal: physically, emotionally, and mentally handicapped; nonnative speakers of English; nontraditional students; speakers of nonstandard dialects; the gifted and talented; and…

This booklet offers teachers of mainstreamed educationally disadvantaged and learning disabled students some practical strategies for tailoring general writing assignments to meet individual needs. The concept of mainstreaming is discussed in part one, and general strategies for composition teachers are listed in part two. Part three describes 13…

A variety of components that operate in tutoring writing are examined in this paper. Discussed are (1) the importance of the tutor's language, tone of voice, and verbal interaction with the students; (2) active listening techniques; (3) establishing an atmosphere of trust and acceptance; (4) helping students develop a framework for understanding…

This booklet is one of a series of teacher-written curriculum publications launched by the Bay Area Writing Project, each focusing on a different aspect of the teaching of composition. The first part of the booklet describes a college writing center and the tutorial teaching that takes place in the center. The second part reports a case study of a…

Described are over 100 activities designed to improve students' reading and writing skills by using the environment as a stimulus. The school, local community, family, and inner self serve as lesson topics. Learning strategies include word games, poetry, art projects, peer-produced mini-texts, and gardening. Also used are a word builder booklet…

Eight teachers in two-year and four-year colleges discuss in this book their effective methods of teaching writing based on the process of composing. The articles deal with the following topics: (1) the constant interaction of collecting, connecting, writing, and reading in the process of making meaning on paper; (2) the integration of prose…

The main intentions of the two-day teachers' conference on language disabilities held at East Carolina University were to provide background information on how children acquire linguistic habits, to identify and suggest remedies for certain socioemotional problems which interfere with learning, to isolate problems arising from diversity in…

Compositions of 1000 words were collected from 32 eighth-graders and 32 twelfth-graders in Manitowac, Wisconsin. In each grade, 16 males and 16 females were equally distributed into two ability groups based on IQ. Data from the writing samples were analyzed with an analysis of variance in which the factors were grade, sex, and ability level. The…

In contrast to language-teaching systems which stress conversation, this system for teaching Arabic starts by presenting the written language. One reason for doing so is that knowing how to write Arabic characters helps students to remember the unfamiliar sounds of this language. A computer-assisted instruction (CAI) program was felt to be more…