Offers advice and illustrations of ways to make high school news and feature stories timely, relevant, newsworthy. (RL)

Guidelines and advice are given on writing for scholarly journals, including planning article content and format, writing, editing, selecting a journal, submitting the manuscript, and corresponding with the publisher. (SJL)

The expansion of legal writing programs, justification for such action, and the elements of legal writing are outlined. The place of legal writing in a modern law school and special difficulties in program design are addressed. The USC program is described. Available from Union University, 80 Scotland Ave., Albany, NY 12208; $2.50, entire issue.…

Contract grading is seen as a way to enable instructors to assign written work and respond to it helpfully so that their students will learn from the experience. Experiences with contract grading in a sophomore literature class are described. (MLW)

Reviews research discussing early writing and invented spellings of young children as indicators of their readiness to learn to read and write. (MKM)

The relationship between scores on objective tests of language skills and on free writing tasks was analyzed for third and eighth graders. Correlations between scores were of the same magnitude as reported for college students. Differences in relationships between free-writing performance and objective test scores are discussed. (Author/RD)

Recounts the rationale and design of an ongoing attempt to use sentence-combining as a basic component of an effective instructional technology and to integrate that technology into a course in technical exposition. (TJ)

Notes that the brief but crucial appearances of Prince Escalus in "Romeo and Juliet" offer a key to the understanding of how plot proceeds in any dramatic or comedic work. (FL)

Reports on the positive effects of free writing that is followed by rewriting. (RL)

Efficiency and effectiveness are desirable qualities for business writers. Although message effectiveness is obviously important, efficiency should not be overlooked. Teachers should make students aware of efficiency expectations and encourage them to improve their writing efficiency, especially in the planning and organizing steps which should…

Outlines a basic writing skills course and provides statistics drawn from an existing course at San Diego State University concerning students' performance in the areas of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. (FL)

Included among the 10 commandments for good writing are: (1) Write with verbs and nouns; (2) Write for yourself and other people; (3) Do not write in jargon; (4) Read aloud your writing; (5) Do not write cluttered sentences; and (6) Use concrete words and phrases. (JN)

Research studies underline the differences in backgrounds for proficient writers and for nonproficient writers. Proficient writers tend to have had role models in family members whom they had observed engaging in composition. In addition, "good writers" tend to receive more encouragement in their efforts at composition from parents and teachers.…

Describes ways that word-processing computers can be used to teach writing and editing skills and related attitudes. Explores the advantages and disadvantages of using computers in writing programs, as well as some misconceptions about computers. (HTH)

The negative relationship between the structural rules usually taught in composition classes and writer's block is explored. Suggestions for helping a student with this writing problem are given. (HTH)