Linguistic cohesion involves the semantic and syntactic relationships that link sentences together. Research on linguistic cohesion is related to readability and to developmental and ability-level issues in reading/writing. Instructional strategies for low-ability readers/writers include predicting comprehension problems through cohesion analysis…

Investigates the thinking processes students employ and the text structures they produce in analytic writing. Contrasts eleventh grade students' analytic and summary writing using think-aloud protocols and examination of genre conventions governing students' writing. Concludes that in analytic writing, students employed more varied and complex…

Addresses how word processing, with its prevision, writing, and revision tools, facilitates connections between reading and writing. Suggests that with or without electronic tools, students need to be critical readers of their own writing. (JK)

This paper describes a program that systematically increases the composition productivity of disabled students who are inexperienced writers. Program features include building discourse units, using student-generated language, and incorporating self-evaluation. Procedures for small group instruction focus on constructing and testing clauses,…

Describes a 50-minute session designed to improve students' writing of science laboratory reports. Using an improperly worded description of how to make a peanut butter sandwich, the students work in groups to improve "point of view" and "voice." The changes are then used to create better reports. (TW)

The experience of a writing teacher who taught fourth and fifth graders how to take notes, describe what they observed, interview, write quickly, amd edit their own work are presented. Searching for ideas, gathering and sifting, finding a focus, rethinking and correcting, and reaching an audience are discussed. (MLW)

How the computer can be used to support and improve the following teaching and study methods in geography is discussed: lectures, reading, tutoring, small group teaching, simulation, educational games, model building, problem solving, field work, written work, and exploratory data analysis. Educational problems involved in each application are…

Investigates the relationship between topic-specific background knowledge and measures of overall quality, coherence, syntactic complexity, audience, and function in the expository writing of tenth grade students. (HOD)

Background: There is limited research on the FL composition writing of Egyptian experimental secondary students. Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of the Whole Language Approach on developing the required composition writing skills in English for experimental secondary students. Setting: Salah Salem…

Background: Over the past twenty years, many investigations have been carried out to identify factors influencing second language (L2) learning. Specifically, investigations of the relationship among first language (L1) reading skills, L2 reading skills, and L2 proficiency have been variously conducted, to contribute to the overall growth of L1-L2…

Articles in this publication address the writing process, teaching writing, and research on the teaching of writing, and take the form of personal experience or opinion, or explore the work of others who have contributed to the field. Articles in first issue in this volume include: "The Now of School" (Rochelle Ramay); "Revising Revision: How My…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of analytic corrections and revisions on college composition students working in a portfolio assessment setting. Subjects were 19 community college students enrolled in a transfer-level class in composition. Three of these students were from the English as a Second Language/immigrant/refugee…

An American instructor taught a 5-week course on the family in American drama to a group of graduate English majors on the campus of Hebei Teachers' University in the People's Republic of China. The instructor learned as much about Chinese culture as the students learned about American culture. Lecture is the standard pedagogy even in graduate…

The description of achievement levels is important to the process of reporting student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). A process was designed to develop achievement level descriptions (ALDs) for writing and civics. To begin, focus groups were conducted in each of the four NAEP regions for both writing and…

Learning to write is difficult, especially for those beginning the process at the university level, such as dialect speakers of English and speakers of English as a Second Language. Recent pedagogical experimentation with external dialogues involving instructors and peers to provoke critical thinking have not been very successful. One explanation…