The complexity of the writing process makes it more useful to isolate a variety of processes or parts of processes that can be taught and learned. A narrow view of writing as product leads to a misinterpretation of the process as a definite sequence--prewriting, writing, rewriting--when in fact it is much more recursive. Proper analysis of product…

Work with 12 students in a basic writing class led to the conclusion that textual analysis alone will not provide basic writing teachers with the information they need to deal effectively with student errors; instead, contextual analysis is needed, an understanding of how students compose and what their guiding concerns and basic problems are.…

Writing teachers can use several techniques to focus student attention on revision and to guide students, revision processes. Asking students to make an outline of what they have already written (after the draft is complete, just before the conclusion is drafted, or when the writer is blocked and does not know what to write next) enables a writer…

The rhetorical inventions of Kenneth Burke can help writers gain new perspectives on their topics and can put new life into the process of learning to write. The pentad, Burke's instrument for interpreting actual and potential motives, can help develop lines of thought that might never occur without some such model. Other inventional systems such…

The change of emphasis from the written product to writing as a process manifests another important change--one from logical to phenomenological consciousness. Phenomenologically speaking, writing is both "immanent" in the writer and "transcendent" outside the writer. It is thinking of general concepts that actually occurred…

An approach to evaluating student writing that emphasizes reformulation and deemphasizes grades teaches students that reworking their writing is a necessary and acceptable part of the writing process. Reformulation is divided into rewriting, revising, and editing. The instructor diagnoses student papers to determine significant problems on a…

This guide contains activities for use in helping elementary school pupils increase the quality and quantity of their written expression. The first section of the book contains prewriting, writing, and postwriting activities designed to develop specific skills. The remaining eight sections offer prewriting, writing, and postwriting activities for…

This paper discusses the use of film in teaching the composing process to students. Beginning with a description of the composing process in general, it continues with a discussion of problem-solving, composing, and film, using "The Shopping Bag Lady" as an illustrative film. This is followed by a consideration of how to use film to generate form…

Classifies the complexity of the mental processes involved in combining kernel sentences, recasting flawed sentences, and composing original sentences based on rhetorical models. (DD)

Presents a poem, "Henry and Edith in Casper," and discusses the composing processes that led to its creation. (SRT)

Uses a single language system--technical description--to illustrate how language systems can now be used as the basis for instruction in technical writing. Provides sample exercises in progressive teaching from simple description to complex continuity devices, showing how they can be used at all stages of the writing process. (HTH)

Analyzes research on the behavior of writers and applies it to the development of writing curriculum. Includes an outline of an example of goals and objectives for teaching writing based on such an analysis. (MD)

Describes a teacher's presentation in the classroom of the drafts, notes, outlines, and other artifacts from his own papers. Recommends that teachers show their students evidence of their own struggle with the writing process in order to encourage them and convince them that all writers hesitatingly begin with a mess. (JG)

Supports outlining as an invaluable tool for teaching students how to prepare to write on subjects of a logical nature and for analysis of writing of like kind. (RAE)

Examines three phases of linguistics' influence on writing instruction. Suggests that the production of context-independent, explicit texts is too narrow a goal and that helping students imitate speech in their writing is a proper goal for an advanced composition class. (RAE)