Argues that business writing is not compatible with currently fashionable process approaches that are adapted to personal, expressive writing. Claims that good business writing is transactional and requires a formulation that cannot be reconciled with the pedagogical theories, assumptions, and techniques of current process writing. (JD)

Describes a technical proposal writing assignment modeled after the conditions in industry. Provides a paradigm of government project proposals and then outlines the stages of the assignment that allow student to rework and revise, thereby discouraging students from writing formulaic and superficial proposals. (SRT)

Discusses three principles germane to the idea that writing is a response to its function, compares school writing with home writing, and suggests specific functions of writing that are frequently used in classrooms. (DF)

The article suggests that English literacy can be acquired by deaf children through developmental reading and writing activities that refelct principles of first language acquisition as students relate these activities to experiences which they have already linguistically represented. (Author/CB)

Outlines research done by teachers on writing apprehension and concludes that teachers are natural researchers because they continually pose questions about the nature of their students and the effectiveness of their teaching. (SRT)

Claims that the term "process writing" is used indiscriminately to describe both the naturalistic approach to learning how to write and the process of selecting a topic, drafting, conferencing, and publishing. Suggests that writing to publish should not be the only writing children do. (SRT)

Maintains that the unfettered process approach to writing instruction has been just as artificial as the traditional skill training approach and that students need structure, models to practice from, and improvement of mechanical skills, as well as time to think through their ideas, to revise them, and to write for real audiences. (EL)

Relates how a microcomputer with word processing capabilities can facilitate and enrich a student's writing. (HOD)

Points out that readability indexes can serve a useful role in the teaching of writing when used as they were intended to be used. Focuses on Gunning's Fog Index. (EL)

Describes a writing assignment in which students must complete a page of coherent prose using only one word containing the letter "n." The exercise serves as a prelude to the concepts of revision and of passive and active vocabularies. (HTH)

Discusses student responses to and interactions with a professional children's writer who visited a fifth grade writing workshop. Describes the emerging confidence as writers of the children and the classroom teacher as a result of the author's visits. (HTH)

Recounts observations of a bartender working in a lounge patronized during a rhetoric conference and notes that the composing processes the bartender exhibited are similar to those needed by writing students. (DF)

Humorously discusses the problem of discerning when students are being honest in their writing and how to deal with the problems their honesty sometimes presents. (DF)

Explains how journal writing, taught with some direction, can guide students' writing and provide them with a sense of self-discovery. (HOD)

Examines the relationship among writer, context, and text (1) by exploring the notion of context-independence as it pertains to writers and texts, and (2) by placing the issue of context and composition within a wider framework of context and language use. (FL)