Suggests guidelines for observing young children's developing control over their thinking and text-making knowledge. Presents evidence of distinct, observable differences between at-risk and non-at-risk preschoolers' knowledge of what a literary piece should be and how to monitor the product to make sure it meets an audience's needs. Discusses…

Evaluates the reader-protocol method of teaching writers to anticipate readers' comprehension needs. Involves asking writers to predict readers' problems with a text and providing them with reader responses. Finds that writers taught with the reader-protocol method improved more than writers in control classes, and increased in their ability to…

A number of colleges and universities with widely varying sizes and missions have used direct mail techniques to improve fund raising. Methods include use of fund-raising themes, checklists of reasons for donating, gift clubs, and challenge grants. Attention to direct communication, image, and repetition of the message are success factors. (MSE)

Describes a study of the reactions of 5- to 7- and 9- to 11-year-old children to frightening films. Reports that prior knowledge of happy outcomes for such films reduces enjoyment, as do unresolved endings. Suggests that the ability to enjoy fear-inducing media increases with age. (SG)

Relates a classroom teacher's observations of how students, working in pairs, help each other to move forward in the writing process. Describes the experiences of an English teacher using journals to teach writing to inner-city teenagers. Outlines the teacher's expectations, the steps of journal writing, and goals for becoming a better teacher.…

The American Indian teaching tale "Jumping Mouse" is used to illustrate how storytelling can provide a learning experience--the listener's active participation in the storytelling process through emotional engagement and creative imagination, and the resulting change in perspective and clarification of values. (SV)

Explores the implications of the interrelationships that exist among the narrative paradigm, children's television, media deregulation, epistemology, and education. Pays particular attention to the concept of narrative fidelity and the impact of television's "first stories" upon the evolution of that concept in children. Addresses…

Describes a writing assignment in which students from two different first-year composition classes evaluated and graded each other's papers. Discusses how this established a genuine audience, empowered students, and generated enthusiasm. (SR)

Provides analysis of the various kinds of audiences for whom technical materials are written. Describes the functions of the "watchdog" audience, who oversees the written transaction between the author and primary audience. Provides data from an ethnographic case study of engineering authors in a technical setting. (HB)

Analyzed think-aloud protocols of elementary teachers as they composed language arts report cards. Found that teachers wrote report cards for specific purposes (to motivate, inform, change behavior, etc.) and audiences (students, parents, teachers, administrators), and that these considerations influenced the information included on the report…

Considers how readers form impressions of writers' personalities while reading their texts. Reports on a series of studies which asked readers to respond to college application essays by high school students. Concludes that responses to texts concerning personality are highly predictable and, thus, can be influenced by the writer. (HB)

This study surveyed the effects of cable television on Israeli parents' mediation of their childrens' viewing. Results indicate the introduction of cable television changed strategies of parental control and mediation and parents' assessment of television's influence on children. Active parental mediation was closely related to the attribution of…

Scrutinizes an academic lecture in the subsequent question and answer period in order to decompose the speech roles associated with this speech event and to increase understanding of the factors influencing the participants and the event in order to design a useful framework for language teaching. (14 references) (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for…

Replicates C. Haas and L. Flower's 1988 think-allowed reading study. Finds that, when reading a passage on a topic more familiar to first-year students, the undergraduates generated substantially more rhetorical comments than they did with the Haas and Flower passage. Cautions researchers and teachers to avoid hasty assumptions about underlying…

Presents three differing perspectives from American Bar Association members on whether television cameras should be allowed in the courtroom. Contends that cameras should be allowed with differing degrees of certainty: cameras truly open the courts to the public; cameras must be strategically placed; and cameras should be used only with the…