Noting that technical writing is becoming an increasingly important element in the college curriculum, this journal issue presents eight articles that provide information for use by technical writing instructors. The first article surveys resources and strategies currently available, while the second article reflects upon some of the adjustments…

The four articles in this monograph are concerned with why it is important to teach composition and with identifying the characteristics of "good" writing. The first article presents an argument for a curriculum that stresses many kinds and purposes of writing so as to produce writers who respond with freedom and diversity to a variety of writing…

Drawing from research and from classroom experiences, this paper suggests five strategies for use by reading teachers in helping low-achieving students write responses to comprehension questions. The strategies call for the teacher to: (1) analyze questions carefully and sequence them according to difficulty; (2) give students steps to follow in…

Paragraph writing mediated by imagery is richer, more flexible, and more creative than that produced by the somewhat impoverished, predictable, one-process model usually taught in composition classes. Since the writing advice given students differs considerably from the practice of professional writers, students should be given exercises that not…

A survey of 112 editors from magazines, newspapers, and publishing houses was conducted to obtain their judgments about prose style, the best prose stylists, and representative works by those stylists. Of the 112 editors surveyed, only 22 responded with useful data. The results indicated very little consensus among editors, and almost no…

Students in eleventh grade composition classes in an Ephrata, Washington, high school work in groups to evaluate each other's papers, enabling teachers to handle many more papers in much less time than usual and developing students' writing and evaluatory skills. The sequence used for each course assignment is as follows: (1) The class reads and…

Writing labs should have substantive rather than merely cosmetic effects on student writing. Through a 30-minute writing conference, students can improve the assignment at hand and obtain insight into their own development as writers. The writing instructor has three tasks during a conference: (1) to establish focus, (2) to make a diagnosis, and…

It was hypothesized that teacher participation in the New Jersey Writing Project (NJWF) would improve student writing performance. Eight NJWP school districts and seven control school districts contributed data on 225 high school student writers. Postwriting sample scores served as the dependent variable, while type of group (NJWF/control),…

A 16-week study to investigate the effects that two methods of teaching writing had on writing apprehension and on overall quality and length of student writing involved over 100 college freshmen enrolled in English Composition classes. Except for the methods of writing instruction, both control and experimental group conditions were held…

The material in this handbook was developed with the idea of stimulating (presumably adult) students to ask questions in a spontaneous manner. Through these questions, the students elicit the newspaper story from the teacher, who arouses their interest by divulging one leading fact. Fifteen exemplary newspaper stories are summarized to initiate…

As an aid to Miami-Dade Community College's writing instructors, this report describes the use of the Response System with Variable Prescription (RSVP) Program for Immediate Analysis of Writing, a software package designed to produce feedback statements in the form of personalized letters that reinforce student learning and help correct writing…

A university associates program is designed to bring secondary school English teachers in the United States to the freshman composition classrooms of a large university. Upon recommendation by their superintendents and with one-year sabbatical leaves funded at half-salary by their school districts, those selected teach three sections of freshman…

Grace and style are elements of composition rarely demanded by teachers or developed by students. Since both terms are elusive to define and because asking students to make attempts at grace and style can have unappealing results, perhaps vigor is a better element to encourage students to pursue. Vigor does not outlaw graceful flourishes and…

The 17 articles in this journal issue focus on writing and writing instruction. The articles discuss the following: (1) the NorthEast Texas, Texas Hill Country, and University of Arizona writing projects; (2) the necessity of dealing with truth in the writing class, not as a concept to be defined, but as an act that creates and recreates…

The University of Tennessee trains its graduate students to become composition teachers by requiring them to assist composition instructors with the teaching of their classes, to grade papers, to confer with students, to compute final averages, and to plan daily classes. The graduate assistant is also allowed in the course of a year to work…