This book presents teachers with easy-to-use strategies for engaging students in writing about subject area content. These strategies will help students build a rich vocabulary, gain a deeper understanding of concepts, make connections between ideas, and develop organized thinking processes. This updated edition offers: (1) A thorough discussion…

This article examines writing conference discourse in one English as a Second Language (ESL) basic composition course. The study is based on a 25,000-word corpus of 10 writing conference interactions between the instructor and seven students. Through a microlevel analysis, the authors demonstrate how and to what degree the writing conference can…

A study investigated the effects of instruction in metadiscourse on composition students' writing skills. Subjects were students in two 100-level college composition classes. A Control Class (CC) was taught using a process approach, and the Experimental Class (EC) had direct teaching of metadiscourse. The CC students worked on the propositional…

This report describes a program for measuring student growth in the reading and writing process in order to improve achievement. The targeted population consisted of first- and second-grade students in three schools serving two suburban communities, located near a large midwestern city. School enrollment figures were 350, 399, and 669 students.…

This book provides a comprehensive guide for parents who want to help their children develop an important skill, writing, in a fun and creative way. The book shares with parents successful classroom and workshop teaching methods. It also provides guideline for home schooling parents. The book helps children become less intimidated by the English…

A study investigated how a second language (L2) learner's writing skills develop in a second-language context. The three research questions addressed the effect of: (1) first-language (L1) literacy skills, (2) L2 proficiency, and (3) the instructional context on L2 writing. Subjects were 70 university French students. Data were drawn from 300…

Drawing from the personal experiences of faculty members from Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC), this paper presented by three panel members explores methods of publishing student work, some of the problems and rewards inherent in doing so, and ways in which other composition instructors may provide a broader audience for the writings of…

Describing the numerous changes that have occurred in language arts instruction within the past few years, this book explains these changes, as well as modern concepts, materials, and instructional techniques to assist language arts teachers. The books describes several innovative approaches to instruction, such as how to teach phonics and…

A planned 3-year joint project of the Nordic research council for the humanities that focuses on writing development in school-age children is described. Four Nordic countries are involved in the project: Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. In the study, discourse-level performance analyses of student writing in English as a Second Language are…

The continuation of an earlier study examined to what extent students change in their use of evaluative criteria in writing between the fifth and sixth grade. Twenty-five students were interviewed in fifth and sixth grade. In the fifth grade, all students were taught writing by the same teacher who emphasized student choice of topic, recursive…

This bibliographic essay and research review investigates four areas: (1) the characteristics of elementary writing instruction prior to the 80s; (2) the factors which changed writing instruction in the 80s; (3) the characteristics of elementary writing instruction in the 80s: and (4) the place of elementary and pre/in-service textbooks in the…

The first volume of a three-volume study on the relationship between writing research and instruction, this report is divided into three sections covering discussions among researchers, practitioners, and instructional experts; studies of writing research; and instructional applications. The first section describes a series of five…

To understand the nature of talk in small group writing workshops, including the way talk changes over time and the use students make of such talk, a study analyzed the conversations of 17 inexperienced college writers as they composed and revised self-selected pieces during a one-semester composition course. A student from the course who did not…

A college student of intermediate to advanced English as a second language (ESL) is still constantly trying to identify the rules governing the language and making and correcting mistakes. Sociolinguistic theory can help to understand this type of active, advanced learner and the instructional strategies that complement this learning style. Four…

The implicit assumption behind personal writing assignments given at the beginning of a writing course is that personal essays eliminate the writing apprehension of having nothing to say. However, college freshmen find it very difficult to write about themselves and their own opinions because this writing involves abstract mental processes and…