Makes an appeal for corpus-based research with the objective of helping local English-as-a-Second-Language teachers deliver pedagogically sound error correction feedback to their students. Two examples are provided to illustrate how a teacher can use corrective feedback to help learners self-monitor their own written English output. (Author/VWL)

Describes the planning, implementation, and results of an experiment at Brooklyn Law School (New York) to teach legal writing skills by a simulation activity which integrates client interviewing skills with the process of composing the client-advice letter. Experience with this approach over three years is recounted. (DB)

This article describes all the steps and materials necessary to organize and conduct a handwriting club that provides direct instruction in handwriting combined with sensory integration activities. Typical club session format, sample activities, the promotion of social skills, handwriting strategies, and external stimulants are discussed.…

Investigates predicted and unpredicted changes learners undergo as they develop writing skills in English-as-a-foreign-language academic writing courses. Reports on qualitative data elicited from learners' self-reports, which yielded three perceived categories of changes: outcomes in writing in English, outcomes in writing in general, and…

Traces the history of reform in writing instruction and places it in the context of current educational reform initiatives. Examines the dilemmas teachers and teacher educators face as they balance their concern for maintaining and fostering what is known about the teaching and learning of writing with the growing focus on achievement on…

Expresses appreciation to Charlie Duke, long-time editor of this journal, and the author's mentor, for his insistent focus on: how theory might be applied in the classroom; that a teacher foregrounds the student, and not his or herself; and that to be a teacher is to embark on a life-long process of questioning and learning. (SR)

Presents a fictionalized dialogue loosely based on a meeting attended after writing tests had been piloted. Notes that some details have been added and enhanced to demonstrate the impact that state writing assessments with high stakes can have on classroom content. (SG)

Suggests ways of developing an online business writing course that uses technology to simulate features of the face-to-face classroom and that achieves an interactive learning experience for students. Uses the author's online business writing class as an example of one which manages to simulate, through the judicious use of software, the…

Examines young children's communicative competence in schooled narrative and the nature of its development. Analyzes four stories for inclusion of a variety of linguistic markers that embody three essential features of schooled narrative--autonomy, conventionality, and specialized grammar. Suggests that the development of schooled narrative…

Describes Cantonese-speaking English as a Foreign Language (EFL) undergraduates writing on a Local Area Network (LAN) and in traditional writing classes at a Hong Kong university. Determines which context--LANs or traditional writing classes--produced better writing and more improvement in writing. Suggests that LAN classes are no more…

Focuses on fifth- and sixth-grade students writing about music using three types of description: metaphor and emotion, analytic elements of music, and temporal change and sequence. (CMK)

Compares the self-perception (specifically in terms of writing) of fourth- and fifth-grade students whose teachers used a writing workshop approach with that of students whose teachers used a traditional approach. Suggests that individual teachers are more important than strategies or approaches in affecting the writer self-perception of…

Looks at a cross-curriculum innovation in which students engage in reading, writing, problem solving, interaction with simulations and databases, and performing various hands-on activities. Describes a project that provides students with the opportunity to participate in many of the new literacies while teachers learn new skills using these same…

The popular mantra "Every teacher is a teacher of reading" and several decades of emphasis on content-area literacy have not resulted in major changes in reading and writing across the curriculum in secondary schools. In this article, we argue that reading and writing strategy instruction has not focused on what really matters to content-area…

Powerful applications such as Microsoft Office's Excel and Word are widely used to perform common tasks in the workplace and in education. Scripting within these applications allows unanticipated user requirements to be addressed. We show that such extensibility, intended to support office automation-type applications, is well suited to the…