Presents eight separate short descriptions of teaching tips or classroom activities for composition classes submitted by teachers, including tips on writing exchanges, grammar problems, peer evaluation, revision, mock quizzes, critical thinking regarding television news, computer-assisted commenting, and an educational and entertaining end-of-term…

Discussion of learning disabled (LD) law students looks at what constitutes a learning disability and explains circumstances leading to increasing numbers of LD students in law schools. Manifestations of learning disabilities in writing are examined, problems with this in the law school setting are noted, and early identification and interventions…

Effective writing is a typical goal in undergraduate education, especially in general education program. In a survey recently conducted at the University of South Florida, one faculty member said, "I responded [to this survey] because I strongly believe that writing skills are essential for all college students regardless of their major field…

Writing research has long attempted to define and assess coherence in written prose; however the researchers have often ignored or inadequately met the needs of writing students who require a simple definition of coherence that they can use to revise their own prose. One exception is Joseph Williams, author of "Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity…

This article discusses an approach to teaching used at Calexico Unified School District, a California-Mexican border high school, by a group of teachers working to make teaching and learning more relevant to Chicano and Mexican students' lives and to improve their academic achievement in writing. An off-shoot of a training program for English…

It is argued that assessment of student writing can be enhanced by adoption of a functional approach to linguistic analysis; through their research, functional grammarians have provided language teachers with criteria for evaluating the extent to which learners have gained control of the grammatical and discourse features of a variety of…

Noting that primary-school writers are imaginative, and that their writing often reflects a mixture of creative, highly individual styles, this book places teaching ideas and students' writing and drawings in perspective and views the experimentations and playfulness of students as ways of learning. The Six-Trait Analytical Model for Assessing…

In the field of composition instruction, word processors can provide a new writing environment and a wealth of teaching possibilities. Integrating portfolio assessment and its benefits into computer-assisted composition instruction, however, is not easy. Recently implemented at Yavapai College (Arizona), portfolio assessment allows instructors to…

This study identified courses associated with improvements in the writing skills of 455 first semester, freshman undergraduates at a large research university. Secondarily, faculty who taught these courses were interviewed to explore their teaching practices, course designs, and evaluation techniques. The same group of students was invited back…

A study investigated how perception of the reader's age in relation to the age of the writer affects assessment of writing. Subjects were 26 Japanese women college students of English as a Second Language, all of whom had recently participated in a home-stay program in an English-speaking country. They were given the task of writing brief letters…

This study: (1) examined assumptions made about development of second-language writing skills by the teaching profession, as reflected in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines, and (2) investigated the relationship between those assumptions and actual skills development, as reflected in the work…

This book is addressed to those about to embark on the teaching of second language writing as well as to those already engaged in the field. Teachers are dedicated to postering growth in writing; researchers want to investigate the questions that shed the greatest light on the problem in the field. The concerns of both these groups are addressed…

This guide for college teachers, written from a British perspective, focuses on economic and efficient practices for assessing students. The guide groups various practices under 10 major strategies: (1) decide whose interests assessment is serving; (2) avoid over-sampling the course; (3) avoid over-questioning; (4) avoid over-reading student work;…

This study explored the meaningfulness of "student" scores derived from assessment of student portfolios. Nine elementary teachers documented the instructional support they provided for the writing assignments of each of six target students. Support ratings captured dimensions used to assess students' writing progress…

The central role of teachers' interpretive assessments in guiding the growth of young writers is explored. Theories of reader response and literary criticism have been used to design a framework that integrates what is read with what is written. The current context of writing assessment is explored, and some of the other authors' efforts to…