Basic writing teachers can make use of the Learning Cycle teaching technique to design exploration and invention activities with which their students can practice analytical writing. The Learning Cycle approach is based on Piagetian theory and involves a three-phase process of exploration, invention, and discovery. In the exploration phase…

The case method seems particularly useful in helping college students to overcome anxiety about writing and even in persuading them that writing is a "real-world" skill that they can master just as they would any other skill. It has the further advantages of integrating reading and writing and of allowing students to develop and use…

Four recently developed computer programs can help students with the composition process. The first, a prewriting program, helps students prepare to write by asking them a series of questions, similar to those an instructor would ask, intended to help them think more deeply about their subject. The second writing program also contains prewriting…

Many college students, unaware of how their writing strikes others and unaccustomed to an audience of college teachers, try to write with sophistication or profundity with little success. These students need the experience of writing for an audience that talks back; one that is diverse, has a strong reason to be frank in its criticism and praise,…

A cognitive approach to the interrelation of writing and reading assumes that production and comprehension of written text depend upon cognitive and affective schemata used in concert by a writer or reader to produce or encode, store, and retrieve text information. Both comprehending and composing are basic, complex, interactive processes with…

Addressing the wave of public criticism of the English curriculum, the six articles in this book cite "basics" that are far different from those of the current "back to basics" movement. The first article surveys the nature of the curriculum attacks and suggests why English teachers may be more vulnerable to public criticism…

Bilingual literacy methods and materials used in Mexico for its linguistic minorities can also be used effectively in the United States. A system based on the techniques of Paulo Freire is being used in that country to create beginning reading materials in all the native languages of Mexico. In this method, generative words concerning foods,…

Reflecting the thought and work of many classroom English teachers, the activities presented in this booklet are a sample of ideas exchanged at the 1980 convention of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) held in Cincinnati, Ohio. The suggested activities are grouped into four categories: (1) a miscellany of writing assignments that…

This text, written for students and teachers of English Composition, incorporates writing instruction with concepts of transpersonal psychology in a holistic and cosmic approach to writing. The text comprises nine units, which include teaching materials, group and individual exercises, and writing assignments. Unit I presents techniques of…

While close analysis of individual composing processes has been the major accomplishment of recent writing research, this research has not yet sufficiently considered how students develop as learners. The work of William Perry, a developmental psychologist, can contribute to an understanding of that development. Based on an analysis of interviews…

Researchers in many disciplines dislike writing and view it as an additional and unnecessary irritant. Teaching researchers to write for administrators who must make decisions about highly specialized topics, but who lack the specialist's knowledge, means inducing a change in the researchers' perspective. They have to learn that they are writing…

This monograph was developed to assist teachers in identifying more precise ways to select materials to use in promoting basic skills development. It is meant to be used primarily by teachers of third and fifth grade pupils who must achieve the skills measured in the State Assessment Test required by Florida. Examples are provided of test…

A study explored the differences in performance of female and male college students in a freshman writing course. SAT verbal score, course grade, and scores on two precourse and two postcourse essays were collected for 180 students, of whom 87 were female and 93 were male. The analyses of the data examined the interactions among sex and various…

There is a serious lack of interest in and concern for the training of graduate students (TAs) who teach most of the sections of college composition. Setting up a teacher training program in English departments still dominated by literature specialists is not an easy task, but there are some ways to change the negative climate. First, the…

The format of the Instruction Dialogue Author Facility (IDAF) computer program has been applied to teaching clause analysis in college writing classes. The IDAF program exercises a great deal of control over a writing student's progression through lessons. Each of the writing lessons consists of one or more exchanges between the instructor and the…