Describes a high school teacher's successful experiences with minority students pursuing their interests in journalism classes. Gives examples of how minority students, through the support, patience, and opportunities provided by the teacher, ultimately perform just as well as honor students and campus leaders. (KEH)

Argues that, especially in culturally diverse classrooms, students' stories can be a rich source of information about their worlds, values, and linguistic styles. (RS)

Describes a nationwide pilot project to incorporate intensive journalistic writing into honors or Advanced Placement English courses. Discusses how 15 experienced high school journalism teachers and their classes participated in the project, which focused on improving students' writing and helping them prepare for the College Board's English…

Describes the author's experiences when she added an intensive journalistic writing component to an honors English class. Details how the course can be designed to prepare students for the Advanced Placement Language and Composition Test. (MM)

Describes the author's experiences teaching two semesters of an advanced placement intensive writing class. Discusses problems encountered in the course, and notes curriculum differences between the first and second semester classes. (MM)

Presents the second article in a two-part series on HyperCard materials (computer software used to build structures that create patterns and connections) designed for English and language arts classes. Suggests assignments for use with early HyperCard software that can be adapted to a variety of nonverbal "stackware." (MM)

Compares the teaching of writing to shipbuilding, where no craftsman would be expected to teach and evaluate shipbuilding had he never built a ship. Maintains that writing teachers must be writers. Describes seven essential writing skills which are also the basis for both instructional strategies and evaluation practices. (SR)

Summarizes linguistic research on the sound, shape, and meaning of phrases, and describes several classroom procedures for helping students become aware of the phonological rules underlying spoken English and incorporate that knowledge in developing a written voice. (MM)

Examines the writing-across-the-curriculum approach to teaching writing skills. Reports the results of a study involving classes at Southwest Texas State University (San Marcos). The papers in 10 sociology, 2 English, and 1 general studies classes were assigned with varying frequency and graded more or less rigorously. Results do not support this…

Argues that, from a transformational-generative perspective, errors in writing mechanics (such as run-on sentences, comma splices, and errors in subject-verb agreement) persist because writing instructors do not exploit students' language ability. Describes how transformational grammar is useful in correcting errors in sentence mechanics. (MM)

Relates the author's experiences with literacy in another medium during 18 months of concentrated music study. Describes how this experience produced insights about the student/teacher relationship, about learning, and about the writing process. (SR)

Closely scrutinizes the social constructionism and, more specifically, the collaborative learning approach to composition theory and practice. Discusses the history, philosophy and theory, classroom implementation, and advantages and disadvantages of collaborative learning. (RS)

Asks whether concerns over helping students enter the academic discourse community are not at odds with the pedagogical aims of the interpretive community of the classroom. Suggests that teachers engage students in a dialogue that respects the complexity and value of both student and academic discourse. (RS)

Brigham Young University's first-year legal writing course uses professors of small sections to develop and grade assignments and shifts primarily to others the tasks of lecturing on legal writing and teaching legal research. It also provides teaching assistants to lighten the workload. Dividing duties avoids burnout and interference with other…

Suggests that error analysis can be manageable for teachers and instructive for basic writers. Explains five critical principles of error analysis in basic writing: understand students' intentions; set consistent priorities; analyze for clarification of intentions; encourage students to set their own goals; and help students objectify their…