This study investigated the pattern of growth in syntactic fluency of college-preparatory students in grades 7-12. Its primary purpose was to examine the syntactic structures employed in samples of narrative writing by the 12 different groups (totaling 216 students) that comprised the study sample. A secondary purpose was to determine which of…

National results for writing, one of the three subject areas assessed during the first year of data collection by National Assessment, are presented in this volume. National results for the other two subjects, science and citizenship, are presented in separate volumes. The purpose of this project is to explore whether an assessment of educational…

This annotated bibliography in 11 categories is designed to provide instructors with the means of identifying resource books needed for a Journalism Bookshelf in their school libraries. The 11 categories are Advertising and Public Relations, Analysis--Press and Society, Broadcasting, Communications Theory and Mass Media, Graphics--Design,…

Compositions based on a picture as stimulus and written by fourth and sixth graders were studied for syntactic and lexical deviations. From the corpus of data, eight interpretations were made: (1) comma fault, sentence sense, and coordinating conjunctions were the most frequent syntactic problems encountered--all could be eliminated by oral…

An experiment was conducted to find a better method of marking English composition than that which is in general use. The method tested was one in which each composition was assessed independently by three markers who judged the general impression of the writing, and by a fourth marker who applied a code of penalties for mechanical errors. Brief…

The essential elements of grammar required to write business letters, memorandums, and reports are covered in this quinmester course. The course consists of a complete grammar review and the learning of proofreading skills for students in the Cooperative Business Education program in Dade County High Schools. Instruction techniques include group…

Addressed more to the working creative writer than to the literary student, this book is intended to be a collection of "hints, tips, provocations, and scoldings--all of it intended as tonic." The author, who writes from personal experience as a creative writer, attempts to share some of his speculative insights about the writing process and the…

A justification is offered of a professor's belief in the importance of teaching the art of being articulate and the contention that a person who cannot express himself clearly in speech or writing cannot think clearly. The difference between good and bad writing is objectively demonstrable and not dependent upon sociology, morality, or relevance.…

A guide for a quinmester course designed to help students identify how various types of paragraphs are developed and to provide experience in composing a variety of both oral and written paragraphs is provided. The guide presents performance objectives, course content, teaching strategies, and lists of student and teacher resources. (DB)

FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FICTIONAL PROSE STYLE WERE STUDIED THROUGH SYSTEMATIC AND OBJECTIVE ANALYSES OF NOVELISTIC SYNTAX AND VOCABULARY. SAMPLE PASSAGES FROM THE MAJOR NOVELS OF JANE AUSTEN, THE BRONTE SISTERS, AND GEORGE ELIOT AS WELL AS NOVELS BY 13 OTHER AUTHORS WERE ANALYZED. INFORMATION ON PASSAGE SENTENCES, CLAUSES, AND WORDS WAS…

In order to determine if there is a significant difference in the capitalization skills, punctuation skills, and word usage and sentence structure recognition skills of students who have had one year of shorthand instruction, two sample groups (shorthand and non-shorthand) were obtained from three English populations (no English or nongrammar…

This book, written for engineering students and young practicing engineers, provides a systematic approach to the design of technical communication: the communication process, audience analysis, and the design and writing of technical reports. Focus is on the questions that a writer must answer in order to compose clear and effective reports: who…

This volume is intended for practicing and prospective teachers at the elementary level through the graduate level who are involved in helping others learn how to write. The 35 articles collected here are organized according to the following section headings: "Introduction,""Motivating Student Writing,""A Reluctant Medium: The Sentence,""The…

This dissertation describes the basic features of four interdisciplinary writing courses at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), explaining briefly how and why they arose. For example, the "adjunct" course featured the conjunction of a writing class and another class on campus (e.g., in political science or history), thus…

The focus in this issue of the Illinois English Bulletin is on student writing in the high school and college years. The lead article reports on a University of Illinois committee on the use of English, which reviewed both the writing abilities of incoming freshmen and the provisions for further instruction in writing throughout the undergraduate…