As evidenced by the increasing awareness of metaphorical thought (and other nonlinear and aesthetic thinking structures) in literature on the development of composing and comprehending skills, teaching metaphor as a mode of thinking is an important function of schooling, especially in the English classroom. It is important that the classroom…

Revision, an essential component of the writing process, encompasses two basic elements: rewriting the content to assure clarity, and editing the draft to eliminate mechanical and grammatical errors. It is important for teachers to plan lessons directed specifically toward helping children make more sense of their messages. This document presents…

Designed to demonstrate a variety of ways in which listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities can be built around the study of essays, this collection of materials, lessons, and activities deals with some of the most frequently taught expository essays in New York City ninth-grade classrooms. The document begins with a general…

Designed to demonstrate a variety of ways in which listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities can be built around the study of short stories, the works dealt with in this collection of materials, lessons, and activities include some of the most frequently taught short stories in New York City ninth-grade classrooms. The document begins…

Articles and essays in this journal issue focus on explaining ethnographic (observation taking into account socioeconomic and cultural factors) research procedures and showing how this methodology can be applied to English classes and reported in ways useful to teachers. The first article, by Paul Diesing, provides background on ethnography. The…

The seven articles in this journal issue examine the value of developing audience awareness in student writing. Among the topics and concerns expressed are the following: (1) the importance of purpose and audience in designing assignments, (2) the value of classmates regularly discussing each other's papers, (3) the writing development of one…

James Joyce's use of interior monologue (the interior self of the character is given directly, as though the reader were overhearing an articulation of the stream of thought and feeling flowing through the character's mind) can help basic writers in developmental classes. Students can be given excerpts from Joyce and asked to turn the sentence…

The twelve essays in this collection, selected by leading teacher educators, explore the composition process and composition instruction. The first essay, "Toward Righting Writing" by Arthur Diagon, serves as a prologue while the second section, "getting started," consists of "A Way of Writing" by William Stafford,…

In the spirit of the Texas Hill Country Writing Project and in response to the requirements of the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills, this guide presents writing assignments reflecting a commitment to a unified writing program for kindergarten through grade twelve. The framework for the assignments is adopted from the discourse theory of James…

Subjective engagement and cognitive skills are important for various aspects of writing skills. For the work of writing to be efficient, the student must be able to function in both a rhetorical and productive situation, defined in terms of subject, function, and audience. The processes of writing--defined as planning, translating, and reviewing…

Two teachers of English as a second language composition discuss, in dialogue form, their intuitions about writing and some of the theories of language learning and writing advanced in recent years. Among the topics addressed are the following: self-consciousness; the importance of developing self-confidence in writing; finding a balance between…

This guide contains 15 units designed to help adult basic education or literacy education students write materials used in everyday life. The first section of the guide contains an introduction to the writing/teaching process and suggestions for teachers. The 15 units that follow serve as a workbook for students. They cover the following topics:…

A guide to the use of and rationale for dialogue journal writing for promoting the writing development of limited English proficient students is organized in question-answer format. It answers questions often asked by teachers about dialogue journal writing: What is a dialogue journal? What are the benefits to students and teachers? How much time…

Gender, race, and socioeconomic status are important factors in the experience students have with computers before they reach college classrooms, and these experiences establish the foundation for student and faculty attitudes toward computers. English teachers' attitudes toward computers can be considered in the context of the thinking process…

The writing across the curriculum program at Michigan Technological University was designed to change teacher and student attitudes about course-assigned writing as well as to change writing practices by means of a series of faculty workshops. After four years, a team of seven faculty members from rhetoric and composition, literature, psychology,…