Teachers can create talented writers in their classrooms by designing a course in which students are given the tools and the techniques they need to develop their talents. Writers need (1) an overview of the writing processes, which includes choices about language purposes, register (such as formal, informal, or casual), patterns of organization,…

A study was conducted to determine the effects of word processing on the correctness of student writing. Student papers produced on the word processor were compared with those produced without the word processor in two classes of freshman English--an experimental and a control. The teacher attempted to keep the teaching methods and curriculum in…

Noting that the writer's journal is both a memory bank for observations and a nonthreatening means of exploring language, this guide offers individual classroom strategies for making the journal a valuable writing instruction tool. Following an introduction, the guide is divided into sections as follows: (1) philosophy of journals in the…

A study was conducted over a two-year period to investigate the idea-generating strategies of six professional writers and their implications for students. Because finding an idea that leads to a journal or newspaper column is so important to a writer, an attempt was made to learn ways professional writers establish working plans and develop a…

Discusses the use of the "Science Journal" by elementary school children as a means of developing effective writing skills and in helping to individualize the science classroom. (JR)

Author attempted to make a few workable suggestions about how to teach English at the twelfth grade level so that students will acquire some of the skills in reading and writing that college requires. (Author/RK)

The aim of our investigation was to see whether the previous findings of consistent social class differences in language usage held good when writing and not speech was the mode of communication and a more rigorous control was exercised over the influence of essay topic upon language. (Author)

Evaluated the use of the T-unit in the scoring of spoken and written work by children learning a second language. (RK)

A sample of 500 misspelled words was drawn from compositions written by students in third, fourth, and fifth grade. Errors were analyzed to indicate the type of misspellings that occur in writing connected discourse, to identify phonemes that cause particular spelling problems, and to identify typical error patterns. Results indicated that most of…

A freshman composition course taught to a group of science majors at Case Institute of Technology was based on the premise that learning to write involves a stylistic response to style. This book presents, through the eyes of the course's teacher, a novelistic account of teaching and learning. Thirty assignments that were given to the students are…

A growing body of research indicates that formal discovery, or heuristic, procedures can enhance the composing process of sophisticated university students. Other studies suggest that below-average and average students can benefit from a similar approach. Specifically, the introduction of a model based on tagmemic heuristic theory in an adult…

Many of the problems that confront students in creative writing courses are similar to those experienced by students of other types of composition. This discussion delineates three problems that seem to be at the core of the difficulties for both groups of students: preconceived notions of what an essay, poem, or short story should be; inability…

This paper stresses the need for composition teachers to develop not only student writing skills but also the discourse theory by which those skills are taught. Several assumptions of current discourse theory are discussed, and with each assumption the author proposes research questions and procedures by which teachers themselves can evaluate the…

Describes a new writing course in which the professor teaches only one class a week as a lecture to the entire first year class, and the class emphasis is on practice. (Author/KE)