Offers an annotated bibliography of 142 dissertations, journal articles, and documents published in 1990 and 1991. Contains material on writing, language, literature, and teacher education. (PRA)

Investigates the effects of letter writing on the writing of sixth graders. Describes the process of establishing a communicative relationship between the writer and the audience. Finds that students' writing improved in the following areas: length, syntax, paragraphing, openings and closings, questions, topics, and borrowed features. (PRA)

Illustrates how electronic outlining is an easy way to empower students through the use of technology. Discusses how electronic outliners provide students with a dynamic medium for recording and organizing their ideas prior to writing. (MG)

The South Metropolitan Association Communication Development Program in Flossmoor, Illinois, developed a language-oriented program that improved reading and writing proficiency of students with communication disorders. The program involves development and reading of language experience stories, role playing, vocabulary development, and other…

Takes the communicative intentions of the writer to a typical type of business letter as the basis for a genre-analysis and suggests that such a perspective will allow English-for-special-purpose practitioners to teach business writing more effectively and economically. Examples from a Singapore government project are used to illustrate this…

Discusses the difficulties with anticipating reader needs and evaluating a text's effectiveness. Reviews current methods of evaluating audience needs such as peer review and audience testing. Describes a reader-focused assignment detailing the class preparation, peer review, reader testing, reader response, and student response to reader…

Argues that study, research, and discussion is needed to determine more specifically how large-scale writing assessment has influenced curriculum and instruction in two-year colleges. Discusses the image of the two-year college, the intent of statewide assessment, faculty attitudes, and the lack of evidence of the impact of assessment upon…

This article describes both portfolio assessment and curriculum-based measurement; offers a rationale for using these two assessment strategies together; and gives specific steps for combining these two approaches, using a case example of a learning-disabled boy with difficulties in written expression to illustrate the synthesis. (DB)

Great writers can help students find their own stories and style. The article includes one activity that can teach younger students to incorporate their own experiences into their writing and another activity to help seventh- and eighth-grade students recognize the elements that contribute to an author's style. (SM)

Presents results of a project examining the effects of writing to learn in elementary social studies. Explains that the research explored journal writing activities as a means of improving social studies achievement, writing fluency, and communication. Concludes that journal writing does increase writing fluency and learning retention. (DK)

Explores three elements of writing programs that keep writing alive: evaluation, reading, and experimentation. Includes teachers from various research projects who experiment in their writing, share it with their students, and enjoy what they do. (RS)

Provides brief accounts of how two writing instructors integrated simultaneous networked writing into their classrooms. Presents actual excerpts from the writing dialogs produced by students. (HB)

Argues that the pedagogical is the personal, and considers the pedagogical ethics of the personal. Claims that, regardless of what the teacher's intentions are, a personal relationship between writer and teacher is inevitable, which makes teaching writing more difficult. (HB)

Presents a rationale for writing in social studies and sample writing activities. Suggests that writing actively involves students in learning, providing another mode for encoding information, and improving writing skills. Includes strategies for writing in social studies. Argues that social studies is an especially rich content area for…

Argues for the value of technology, particularly computers, in the educational setting. Questions whether computers actually help improve student writing skills. Concludes that these questions are fraught with difficulties but that much further research should lead to clearer answers. (HB)