No greater challenge currently faces the schools than articulating what a literacy curriculum for sociocultural diversity might look like. And yet the literature on young school children's composing has dealt only peripherally with this issue. In this theoretical essay, it is argued that, even for young children, the composing of both oral and…

John Swales, well-known proponent and definer of genre theory, sees the writing process as recursive as well as heuristic, emphasizing that the text is created by a writer, who is a member of a discourse community, influenced by that community's traditions, discourse conventions, textual and topic requirements and constraints. Debate among genre…

For the second-, third-, and fourth-year education students (all of them English majors) enrolled in a course about the psycholinguistic basis of the writing process, each 3-hour class involved writing about writing, free writing, discussing readings on writing, trying out writing activities, and reflecting on writing about learning. The course…

Noting that many beginning students in urban public colleges and technical schools are members of minority groups, this digest offers a six-step approach to teaching these students how to write effectively. Steps in the approach described in the digest are: (1) instruct students to consider the purpose of writing, write a central idea for the…

An instructor who teaches composition, poetry, and creative nonfiction at Delta Community College in central Michigan language makes connections and helps people imagine their way fully into subjects. People have a deep, if unconscious and unfocused, need to discover and tell the truth. For one semester his students act like writers. They keep…

This paper briefly explores the related enterprises that assisted Virginia Woolf in her effort to re-form the English novel to include, not only the deeds, but the thoughts of her characters. Among these enterprises were Woolf's diaries, which she utilized to practice writing, work out her writing philosophy, and collect observations which would…

A 3-year project examined the cognitive effects of word processing on writing processes and products. In particular, the project examined effects on writers' planning, reviewing, and revising in a series of six assessment studies. Among the most important results of the project were that writers using word processing alone--both student writers…

A case study examined assumptions of current written language pedagogies, particularly the links between oral performance, literacy pedagogy, and the use of the explicit, analytic language valued in school. The subject, a young African-American child enrolled in an urban K/1 classroom, used school writing activities and the music of language to…

This conference proceedings reflects the substance of the 3-day Conference on Written Communication, sponsored by the Ohio Department of Education and designed to provide professional growth opportunities for more than 350 school administrators, teachers, and university and state department personnel. The papers in the proceedings present a review…

Linguistically inclined scholars such as Ragnar Rommetveit and Michael Halliday offer a sociocognitive understanding of writing that challenges current writing theories, which focus attention on processes to the virtual exclusion of the writing product. These linguistic scholars provide ways of understanding context, not as fixed or concrete, but…

Noting that emergent literacy and technology are new educational fields that are just beginning to develop, a study explored the connection between emergent writing and technology by examining the effects on kindergarten children learning to write using a microcomputer. A group of kindergarten students attending North Star Elementary in Nikiski,…

This collection of materials, a summary of a workshop, is divided into five sections, framed by introductory and concluding remarks. The sections are: (1) a panel on "What Is the Domain Beyond?"--panelists discussed their particular interests in areas that could not be traditionally classified as "cognitive" and related those…

A study sought to determine whether the experience and quality of writing changes when novice writers who compose on computers are supported by a more interactive guided-writing program. Subjects, 143 seventh- and eighth-grade students in San Diego were assigned by intact classes to one of five versions of computer-guided writing software. The…

This book presents the essentials of good writing in an easy-to-follow 4-part process. The first step discussed in the book, "Using Your Noodle," guides the student through the preparatory thinking process (audience awareness, brainstorming, grouping thoughts). The second step, "Following a Format," presents the challenge of…

A practicum was designed to increase the writing opportunities of 37 prekindergarten children in three classes through staff development. Formal and informal surveys of prekindergarten teachers confirmed the need for more information on child development, the development of the writing process, and prekindergarten whole language. A series of…