Noting that the principles of writing process instruction typically offered to elementary teachers are less readily adaptable to intermediate classrooms emphasizing content area learning rather than basic skills, this paper explores two key themes important to the successful implementation of writing process instruction: (1) teachers' needs to…

Four studies by the Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing project at the Institute for Research on Teaching, Michigan State University, examined the acquisition of expository writing skills in fifth and sixth grade students. The first study examined the effects of teaching sixth grade students about comparison/contrast text structure. Results…

To explore student facility with argumentative writing, 40 persuasive essays of 5th, 7th, and 11th grade students were analyzed for their relative percentage of reporting (narrating), interpreting, generalizing, and speculative sentences. Fifth and seventh graders were found to use significantly more narrative and fewer generalizations than older…

This monograph presents the case study of four fifth grade boys involved in a writing program designed to teach reading skills and to address the following questions: (1) Are reading and writing really related in any practical sense? (2) What effects might humane, process-oriented writing instruction have on student achievement, self-esteem, and…

A study investigated one way in which teachers can focus on more than children's products and writing processes by examining their social processes as well, specifically the health of the classroom communities and the individual children's comfort within those communities. Under the supervision of the same teacher, "journal time" in…

A small scale research project involving teaching writing skills to slower learning students in three different Scottish schools is the focus of this volume. Chapter 1 discusses the context and nature of the project, while chapter 2 presents teachers' accounts of their professional practices in teaching writing, including their perceptions of…

Integrating reading and language arts at all levels is the focus of this journal issue. The articles and their authors are as follows: "Reading and Writing: Close Relatives or Distant Cousins" (Kathryn A. Koch); "The Reading-Writing Relationship: Myths and Realities" (Timothy Shanahan); "The Classroom Teacher as an Action Researcher: Beginning…

Compiled from responses to a survey of 36 universities offering doctorates in rhetoric, composition, language, or technical communication, and updated using research and dissertation indexes and bibliographies, this bibliography summarizes doctoral research in technical communication since 1975. The 35 titles deal with a variety of topics,…

Nine selected papers presented at the Texas Writing Research Group's 1981 conference are offered in this collection. The papers discuss (1) sources of linguistic interference among American minorities; (2) contributions of discourse analysis to composition; (3) emerging notions of heuristic (investigative), eristic (controversial), and protreptic…

Focusing on both the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching children and adolescents to write effectively, the papers in this report originated as speeches delivered at a conference on English and language arts instruction. The 12 papers deal with the following topics: the composing process as communication, the cognitive and biological…

Originally presented at a symposium on cognition and written language, the 14 papers in this collection discuss research findings regarding reading and writing processes, ways that the development of effective reading and writing can be abetted by instruction, and research needs in the area of cognition and written language. The papers focus on…

Recommends the use of Charlotte K. Brooks' book "Tapping Potential" by English teachers who deal with minority students. Discusses how the book treats everything from language development to reading and writing to literary criticism from the Black aesthetic point of view. (NKA)

Provides annotations of research studies in the areas of language, literature and media study, writing, and English teacher education. (HOD)

This 9-week curriculum workshop, "Buddy Books," is a creative art and writing partnership between middle and elementary schools. The workshop offers eighth-grade students an opportunity to use writing workshop methods to draft, revise, confer, edit, illustrate, and publish children's books with first-grade students at a neighboring…

This book offers guidance on how teachers can help their students write about sensitive topics or provide pragmatic suggestions for developing the skill and sensitivity necessary to venture into such difficult terrain. The book addresses students' need to articulate their thoughts and feelings about violence, anger, drug use, peer pressure, and…