A practicum involved the creation of an instructional unit that used a microcomputer and a graphic writing program, Transportation Transformation, to motivate at-risk learners to write (focusing on creative stories) as well as to increase their writing. The target population consisted of fourth graders who were attending Birch Lane Elementary…

Four hundred faculty members in the six different colleges at Murray State University, Kentucky, were surveyed to determine students' attitudes toward writing, faculty members' perceptions of student writing ability, and faculty members' use of writing in their own disciplines. Tentative conclusions from survey findings suggest that faculty…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) administered a writing task to nationally representative samples of 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students in order to assess their abilities to use the conventions of written English. Approximately 2,000 students at each age level completed this task as part of NAEP's 1984 writing assessment.…

A study was conducted to identify patterns in the development of college basic writers' revision skills which could have implications for curriculum development and teacher training. The questions addressed were: (1) What instructional and/or other experiences aimed at improving revision skills do basic writers perceive as promoting meaning-making…

This monograph contains one-page profiles for 49 language usage tests for the assessment of writing. These tests are indirect measures and evaluate students ability to recognize standard English usage. The profiles are arranged alphabetically by test name. The profiles contain the following elements: (1) name of the test, (2) date of publication;…

The articles in this journal issue examine the characteristics of student writing apprehension, and teaching methods to alleviate it. The titles of the articles and their authors are as follows: (1) "Writing Anxiety: Reasons and Reduction Techniques" (Helen R. Heaton and Pauline M. Pray); (2) "Writing Anxiety and the Gifted Student…

To broaden the scope of a letter writing unit for seventh graders, a real-life component brought together two groups who could learn from one another, youngsters (who usually did not have living or nearby grandparents) and the elderly in a convalescent home. Students selected their pen pals on the basis of biographical data and similar interests…

Although law professors often say that first year law students need training to "think like lawyers," many law students survive law school by practicing the "skill" of rote memory. It is when they take the bar examination or actually begin to work in a law office that they need the faculty of analytical thinking, for notes must…

A study investigated the effects of writing in a personal and a formal mode on students' understanding of literary text. Formal text-based and personal reader-based writing samples produced by 65 tenth grade students in response to two stories from D. Sohn's "Ten Modern American Short Stories" were analyzed for quality of response,…

A study examined whether computers equipped with speech synthesis devices could facilitate children's writing. It was hypothesized that children using the devices would write longer stories, edit more, and produce higher quality stories than children not receiving feedback from a speech synthesizer. Subjects were 48 children, three girls and three…

The teaching activities presented in this pamphlet present some ways of helping children acquire a few "mechanisms" to support exploration, growth, and search in language learning and, more specifically, in spelling awareness. The pamphlet begins with a discussion of the context for learning strategies to use in exploring language. Then…

Spelling practices, processes, and implications can be analyzed in terms of three conceptual models: the bottom up, the top down, and the interactive compensatory model. Spelling instruction from post-colonial America into the 20th century reveals a preoccupation with the bottom up philosophy, which emphasized rules, word lists, and rote…

A study explored (1) whether children demonstrated growth in writing ability through the experience of writing two or three times a week without direct teacher instruction; (2) what changes could be observed over time in the writing samples of second and fourth graders; (3) whether written language growth was a continuous progression of upward…

By investigating the similarities and differences between speech and writing, teachers can help students mature as writers. The difference between speech and writing in conveying meaning is explained by the degree of context dependence of the utterance or passage. Speech is highly context-dependent because a speaker depends on a listener to assist…

Developed at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) for use in teaching basic research paper skills in English composition classes, this handbook consists of 11 chapters. Chapter 1 tests the student's research IQ, while Chapter 2 presents techniques for choosing a topic. Chapter 3 guides the student through the use of sources (working…