Argues that teachers are not solely responsible for students' inability to write effectively. Points to social phenomena, attitudes, and factors that have decreased the value placed on good writing by society. (WL)

Total School Writing is a comprehensive program which assesses the writing skills of every student. The objectives of this program include: assessing the writing ability of the entire school population; diagnosing weaknesses and strengths in the teaching methods; developing specific teaching strategies; and measuring students' writing improvement…

Describes a method of using writing to improve high school students' reading skills. (AEA)

This article reports the results of an experiment designed to examine the effect on business letter quality of individualized written feedback, rewriting, and group oral feedback. Business letter quality was not affected by whether students received written feedback or symbols representing written comments. (Author/CT)

Teaching students copywriting gives them writing techniques that will help them boil a 100-word message down to 20 for a letter, write a memo that is memorable because of its clarity and word choice, or produce a report that offers findings in a readable, believable way. (HOD)

Argues that the conventional method of teaching the generic research paper as a separately designated activity is ineffective and misleads students as to the nature of genuine research. (JL)

Reports on observations on tense switching in Navajo students' English compositions. Notes several implications for composition teachers working with Southwestern Indian students. (HTH)

Reports on a study of eight corporations to assess the nature of writing done on the job, and how important writing ability was to the employee's career. Results indicated that communication ability was important to their jobs, but most employees loathed writing and considered quality writing beyond their grasp. (HTH)

Decries higher education's failure to teach students to write effectively and think coherently. Charges universities with the abandonment of writing instruction. Feels that the current emphases on classroom technology, management techniques, and gamesmanship serve to distract from the real job of education. (DMM)

The transition from school to university is most usefully seen in terms of cultural adjustment. Language, which is perhaps the most potent and tangible expression of culture, is both the biggest obstacle to successful integration into an alien culture and the most powerful means for unlocking it. (HOD)

Describes a technique whereby students are taught to use information they have gained from secondary sources to write critical introductions to novels they have read. (FL)

Outlines a teaching approach that uses writing exercises as a means of encouraging students to read, analyze, and evaluate assigned literature and to express themselves creatively in light of their readings, analyses, and evaluations. (FL)

Traces the reasons for a de-emphasis on grammar instruction in the English curriculum to the social upheavals of the 1960s. Suggests that grammar instruction should be an integral, necessary part of writing instruction. (RL)

Creative inductive exercises for teaching effective writing skills are presented. Basic objectives of the inductive method include: (1) challenging students with creative options; (2) discovering the basics in sentence construction; (3) interpreting the idea of the "levels of generality;" and (4) focusing on the parallel between sentence…

Describes project to determine whether short video movies could be used to help foreign language students develop their written and oral skills. Movies with no sound were produced by the teachers and played to the students, who then wrote compositions to accompany the films. Completed presentations were then played to the class for discussions.…