A detailed description of a three-year project investigating the kinds of writing produced by Australian students in grades 10 through 12 is provided in this report. The various sections of the report describe the aims, objectives, and rationale for the project; some of its major assumptions and influences; a description of the student and teacher…

This is one in a series of eight discussion pamphlets produced by the Writing Across the Curriculum Project dealing with some of the issues connected with writing in the schools and their relation to learning. This pamphlet focuses on project work in the humanities. It uses examples of the writings of 14- to 16-year-old students to demonstrate the…

The purpose of this paper is to show teachers that composing is the conveying of "knowing" and that students' growth in writing is frequently stunted by teachers' stress on correct spelling, word choice, and syntax in student writing. Topics discussed in the paper include the following: the presence of "memories and experiences, cinemas, radio…

Lev Vygotsky, in his book "Thought and Language," explores the relationship between thought and language. In school, children discover that there is a code (writing) that represents words. Writing is often difficult for students because it is an abstraction in which words are replaced by images of words, it is speech without an…

Argues that the educational system should encourage "down to earth" language by including oral recitation in the curricula, particularly recitation of popular poetry with accompaniment. Using the shuttle disaster as a striking example, claims that the modern media overuses conceptual language to disguise the hard meaning of what is being…

Using protocol analysis, a study concluded that high school and college writers have similar writing styles. Also asserts that protocols are an excellent research tool for analyzing the composing process. (SRT)

Examines the attitudes of students to several aspects of the writing process. Concludes that the process approach to writing improved students' attitude toward composition. (SRT)

Describes a content analysis of the journal entries of six college freshmen in developmental reading courses, which indicated that students' metacognitive awareness of both reading and learning processes increased over time. (HTH)

Discusses findings of a survey of 1,021 college English students about personal habits associated with the composing process. Reports many students use or used marijuana (36 percent) and alcohol (49 percent) while composing their papers, and that similarly high numbers compose while listening to music or watching TV. Suggests students should learn…

The value of using a word processor and its features which help English as a second language students improve their writing are discussed, including student assessment, possible teaching methods, and possible learning activities. (CB)

Reviews the use of computers in the teaching and practice of writing in university courses. Highlights include hardware considerations; software options for grammar, punctuation, stylistic analysis, and prewriting (or invention) skills; artificial intelligence, composition, and literature; collaborative learning; and faculty development. (LRW)

Proposes a creative writing workshop model to shift the focus from the product of writing--the finished poem or story--to the process of writing by engaging students in the imitation of writing processes used by published writers. (MS)

Information-structuring courses offered at the Asian Institute of Technology (Bangkok, Thailand) present concepts, patterns, hypotheses, and procedures for discussion on the basis that their consideration can contribute to better idea organization, text production, and text interpretation for engineering and other technology students learning…

Research-based recommendations for an effective writing instruction program for exceptional students include, among others, allocate a sufficient amount of instruction time; expose students to a broad range of writing tasks; integrate writing with other academic subjects; develop the processes of planning, sentence generation, and revising; and…

Investigates the quality of 800 business letters using 43 business communication and writing deficiency criteria placed within one of the following categories: form, grammar, content, sequencing, and style. (NKA)