Intended for teachers, this monograph argues that, unlike the structured, formulaic "school" essay, personal essays in the manner of Michel de Montaigne lead students to explore their connections with ideas and texts. The monograph describes several strategies which use writing as a tool for critical thinking. The monograph contains the…

This report describes the Prescriptions for Better Writing Program, a 9-week writing skills curriculum, suitable for seventh to ninth grade levels, developed by teachers in New Jersey's Lower Camden County's Regional High School District No. 1. The program was designed for two purposes: to remediate to ninth grade levels and designed for two…

By using microcomputers, functional learning environments can be created in which reading and writing are arranged for communicative purposes and used as electronic workbooks for basic skills instruction. However, the "Computer Chronicles Newswire Network" goes a step further by giving students a goal for writing: to share their ideas…

This book emphasizes a comprehensive treatment of all areas of the language arts and advocates interrelating the teaching of the language arts and integrating this teaching with the teaching of other areas of the curriculum. The book contains the following chapters: (1) "Language and the Language Arts"; (2) "Teaching the Language Arts"; (3)…

The metaphor of community has become central to discussions about reading, writing, and teaching. According to this metaphor, an individual learns a discourse through entering into the community that uses it, and by accepting the practices and values of those already in it. Yet an argument can be raised for a definition of discourse that is not…

Invisible writing is a technique whereby the composer writes with an empty ballpoint pen on a blank piece of paper backed by a piece of carbon paper and a bottom blank sheet. An informal experiment in which graduate students used the invisible writing technique was conducted to replicate earlier studies indicating that invisible writing is…

Under the leadership of the Language Arts Curriculum Committee, the Greater Albany (Oregon) Public Schools conducted a district assessment of writing skills of students in grades 5, 7, 9, and 11, using the "analytic trait scoring" method (ATS). The testing procedure conformed to the writing process implemented through the district's Real…

Recent research on children learning to write, coming from a mix of disciplines (English education, linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and rhetoric), is described in this volume. The introduction, by Marcia Farr, emphasizes how the research contributes to understanding (1) of research methodology and theoretical frameworks, and (2) of…

A new model of the revision process in written composition, based on the results of thinking aloud protocol studies, is presented in this report. The report begins by discussing earlier observations and theories of revision that establish four points: (1) there are large differences among writers in the amount of revising they do, (2) expert…

Ninety-one college writing teachers completed a questionnaire about the extent of their computer use, computers and the writing process, advantages and disadvantages of computer use, problems encountered and suggested solutions, and future directions. Among the findings are the following: (1) The majority of those involved in computer assisted…

Four overlapping areas of exploration have sparked creative thought about computers and their relationship to writing. The area receiving the most attention is computers and writing pedagogy. Some of the directions taken by research in this area have focused on computers and the composing process; computers, writing instruction, and learning…

Intended for teachers, this bibliography contains 30 brief reviews of recent books on the theory and practice of teaching writing. The first section, on theory, focuses on "Famous Last Words, The American Language Crisis Reconsidered" (Harvey A. Daniels); "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" (Betty Edwards); "The Role…

Noting that the new literary and rhetorical theories are concerned with revealing the constructive nature of productive and interpretive processes, this paper examines the cognitive processes in reading and writing which make them constructive and intentional acts, and how reader and writer "negotiate" meaning in light of context, reader…

A three-stage analytical reading method for the composition of informative and indicative abstracts by authors and abstractors is presented in this monograph, along with background information on the abstracting process and a discussion of professional considerations in abstracting. An introduction to abstracts and abstracting precedes general…

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that recent theories connecting creative problem solving with cerebral specialization might explain why some writers compose much more effectively than others. Specifically, the experiment was designed to find ways composition teachers can help students to transform writer-based prose into…