The purpose of writing is to communicate with an audience. Teachers need to move heaven and earth to be sure that every child knows what it is to become a published author. Criteria for selecting a piece is important. In this article, the author explores why the criteria that children use for selecting poetry to share with an audience differ from…

Improving students' writing achievement begins by creating a community of writers among teachers. These practices help staff learn more deeply.

I developed writing assignments for an introductory ecology class to encourage nonmajors to improve their writing skills and gain an appreciation for environmental issues. Statistical analyses suggest that during the semester, students' writing skills, their ability to write accurately about the environment, and their environmental behavior all…

This paper reconsiders the functions of the traditional English grammar teaching and the communicative language teaching. Through analysis and practice, we think that they are not opposed to each other. In order to improve the students' ability and gain better teaching results, the two kinds of teaching approaches should not be used respectively.…

Whether you are returning to studying after a break, or need help adjusting your writing skills to meet the needs of your education course, this practical, down-to-earth guide will help you improve your literacy skills. Aimed specifically at students in education courses, this book uses examples of students' work to highlight common problems, and…

AP Potential™ is a data-driven tool offered by the College Board that uses scores from the PSAT/NMSQT® to identify students who have the potential to succeed in Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) courses (College Board, 2007). Research showing a moderate-to-strong correlation between PSAT/NMSQT scores and AP Exam scores serves as the basis for this…

The teaching of highly valued scientific writing skills in the first year of university is challenging. This report describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a novel written assignment, "The Personal Response" and accompanying Peer Review, in the course, Human Biology (BIOL1015) at The University of Queensland. These assignments were…

The media role model was recently developed to frame how science faculty members can teach their students to write more effectively to lay audiences (14). An Opinion Editorial (Op-Ed) was introduced as a novel assignment for final-year physiology and pharmacology undergraduates. This second phase of this study, reported here, demonstrated the…

In the past few years, an explosion of user-generated content has flooded the Internet. The dramatic drop in the cost of digital video equipment and the increased accessibility of the Internet create a unique opportunity to allow youth to create meaningful content. Today youth around the world can leverage technological tools to give voice to…

Two kinds of scoring templates were empirically derived from summaries written by experts and students to evaluate the quality of summaries written by the students. This paper reports students' attitudes towards the use of the two templates and its differential statistical effects on the judgment of students' summarization performance. It was…

Business professionals and instructors often view writing skills as one of the most important qualifications that employees should possess. However, many business employees, including recent college graduates, have serious writing deficiencies, especially in their ability to use standard English. As a result, American businesses spend billions of…

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the publication of Mina Shaughnessy's groundbreaking book, "Errors and Expectations," a roundtable discussion was held at the March 2007 Conference on College Composition and Communication in New York City. This article, based on the earlier discussion, examines the question of CUNY's multiple…

Imaginative writing is a great vehicle for creative thinking and risk taking as children structure a reality in a story. However, the author believes that American children are untrained for this sort of work and progress. They need connected experiences. This insight intensifies the author's resolution to seek collaboration with artists in other…

The study reported in this paper explores issues of motivation and learners' identity in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing classroom in Vietnam from the perspectives of the learners. It was conducted with thirty English-major students at a university in central Vietnam. While relevant literature appears to place much emphasis on…

Possible integrated and independent tasks were pilot tested for the writing section of a new generation of the TOEFL[R] (Test of English as a Foreign Language[TM]). This study examines the impact of various rating designs and of the number of tasks and raters on the reliability of writing scores based on integrated and independent tasks from the…