This paper looks at the need for a better understanding of the impediments to critical thinking in relation to graduate student work. The paper argues that a distinction is needed between two vectors that influence student writing: (1) the word-level-sentence-level vector; and (2) the grammar-inferencing vector. It is suggested that much of the…

Interactive writing is a powerful tool to help students of all ages master writing skills in a purposeful way. During this process, students deepen their understanding of language, conventions of print, and how words work. Interactive writing helps teachers and students collaborate in the construction of text, and meaningful writing is created in…

Currently, 20% of Gardston High School's K-12 students are Latino, the overwhelming majority from small "ranchitos" in rural Mexico with populations of less than 4,000-5,000 residents. In this way, the presence of Mexicans in Gardston means that there is, numerically, the equivalent to a "ranchito" living right within this…

This study compared the frequency, structure, and purposes of laughter in writing tutorials between 46 acquainted and unacquainted tutor-student pairs. Of particular interest were instances of shared, or coordinated laughter, which took the form of sequenced, simultaneous, and extended laughter. Familiarity, viewed as a continuum, was also…

In this article, the author traces the life of Andy Warhol, an American artist. Warhol, who became ill with a nervous condition, had spend most of his childhood in a bed littered with comic books, paper dolls, coloring books, a camera, cap gun, and his Charlie McCarthy doll. Warhol was the only Pop artist who was not a professionally, academically…

This article examines Yale's "Awkward Squad" of "basic" writers between 1920 and 1960. Using archival materials that illustrate the socioeconomic conditions of this early, "pre-Shaughnessy" site of remedial writing instruction, I argue for a re-definition of "basic" in composition studies using local, institutional values rather than generic…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of TRALE (Technology-Rich Authentic Learning Environments) on children's writing development by tracing the logical sequence of how TRALE fostered goal-directed behavior and planning that resulted in initiating and maintaining cognitive components until a written product was completed. The…

This article presents a pedagogical experience that addresses the use of an instructional strategy called screenwriting aimed at improving the teaching of writing in an educational context. This pedagogical intervention took place in a private English language school, where three adult students willingly participated to create their own short…

This study documented the writing practices of students in a Mexican elementary school and identified participants' attitudes toward different forms of writing. Data included observations in two classrooms as well as interviews with six case-study children and their parents. Results revealed copious writing in the school including dictations,…

This study was performed in order to gain a deeper understanding of the experience of nonnative English speaking students in college composition courses, including residents (citizens, refugees, and immigrants) and international students. The design of the study is largely qualitative, but it also includes quantitative data on success rates of…

This research study employed the contemporary focus-on-form approach blending grammar instruction and communicative language teaching by means of journal writing to maximize language learners' grammatical ability in formal education. This research study aimed to (a) investigate the effects of journal writing on grammatical ability of the…

Writing centers are places not only of practices and policies but also of inquiry. Increasingly, research conducted in writing centers is informing the theoretical bases as well as the day-to-day goings-on in our various local contexts. In turn, the situated daily activity of each writing center as well as the theory or principles behind it…

Much has been made by early childhood educators about the importance of activities that foster early reading--and deservedly so--but studies show that reading and writing are skills that children develop simultaneously. Early reading is supported and improved by early writing. Young children need reading to help them learn about writing, and they…

Composing text is an essential skill for students. Assignments, tests, and emailing are a few examples of the many tasks which require students to generate thoughts and put them into prose. For many students, choosing a topic, creating an outline, generating an initial draft, and making edits to produce a final copy is a fluid process which poses…

Trained peer review, as illustrated in a plethora of peer review or peer response scholarship, has a positive effect on students' writing in general and on improved revision quality in particular (Berg, 1999; Hu, 2005; Min, 2006; Paulus, 1999; Stanley, 1992). From these studies, it is evident that trained peer feedback does have a significant role…