Intended for use by the teacher of a preparatory writing course at the college entry level, this developmental writing module is intended to provide students with some basic grammatical and organizational tools that will enable students to express themselves in writing well enough to answer coherently short essay questions, and succeed in a…

An insight to be drawn from the writing problems of Harvard University (Massachusetts) students enrolled in a "basic writing" course is that the kinds of problems the students had were different in degree, but not in kind, from problems of less accomplished student writers elsewhere and from those all student writers have from time to…

Argues that the kinds of problems Harvard "basic writers" have are different in degree, but not in kind, from problems of less accomplished student writers elsewhere, from problems all student writers have from time to time, and from the problems experienced adult writers confront in unfamiliar or difficult writing situations. (RS)

Describes the author's approach to student-centered learning through writing workshops. Focuses on a series of class assignments in which students read, write about, and discuss "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" to encourage them to accept responsibility for their own learning. (JAD)

Recommends the use of a fictitious term paper with stringent format requirements, but without content, to enable students to concentrate on format. Emphasizes that the assignment gives students an opportunity to experience school as play. (MS)

Presents an annotated bibliography of new editions of writing textbooks for 1987-88. Classifies textbooks as developmental, freshman, advanced, and professional. (JK)

Suggests emphasizing expressive writing and including fine literature in freshman English classes and combining these elements with projects and techniques found in business communication courses to more clearly define the role of audience and purpose. (NH)

Presents ideas for having freshman composition students keep journals and write responses to class writing exercises, which are then published in a class newsletter. Discusses the benefits students receive from this practice. (SRT)

Claims that writing logs constitute an effective teaching tool in basic college writing courses. Discusses one teacher's success using writing logs to assist the development of students' freewriting skills. Includes sample entries revealing students' comments and progress throughout the term and documenting the teacher's response to these…

Discusses how computer programing and expository writing are both based on the ability to (1) recognize that a complex whole is composed of manageable parts, and (2) identify the necessary steps for achieving a goal or supporting a generality, and (3) concentrate on and summarize a large amount of information into an abbreviated, succinct…

When teachers work to create empathy that transfers or translates the experience of the other into an experience an individual has had, they promote a kind of egotism that dismisses the other or that reduces the other to the category of the self. The key problem with empathy of this sort is that the focus is not on the other, but on the self. The…

Roland Barthes points out in his pedagogical essays that, although students have been filled with horror stories of professorial expectations, at the same time they have expectations of their own. Barthes' points should be considered as a way of examining the classroom space and common writing teaching practices and opening them up to different…

This paper presents the portion of the collaborative project which discusses: (1) the vehicle which was developed for gathering data and the method of implementation; (2) an overview of the general perceptions held by students before beginning the collaborative project; (3) the shifts indicated by the descriptive data; and (4) observations based…

This paper is part of a larger project which explored the impact of writing across institutional boundaries via e-mail on freshman students enrolled in several schools and universities located in Tennessee--Bryan College, Columbia State Community College, and Middle Tennessee State University. The paper explains that in addition to their regular…

Describes how a writing teacher teaches expository strategies to students within the engineering community. Demonstrates that expository strategies can invigorate--rather then suffocate--students when the composition course is linked to a disciplinary course where students can apply the strategies to concrete problems. (RS)