Before teachers who trust neither their own nor their students' writing abilities can become proud and self-confident teachers of writing, they need redevelopment in a longterm inservice program based on the trainer's respect for them as learners. The format for such a course is simple: teachers write each week (choosing their own subjects and…

Courses in college composition taught as part of the University of South Carolina's program at the Women's Correctional Center in Columbia, South Carolina, (a minimum security state prison) have proved valuable to prisoners. Despite the problems encountered, including lack of cooperation from the prison administration and inadequacy of available…

This issue of a journal devoted to teaching English as a second language, with emphasis on Israeli public schools, contains the following articles: (1) "The Analysis of Pupils' Errors," (2) "Subject/Predicate Word Order in English," (3) "Some Lesson Plans for Grade 4," (4) "Re-Thinking English in Grade 5,"…

The effects of sentence combining instruction on student writing skills (punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and syntactic maturity) and reading achievement were studied in eight-, nine-, ten-, and eleven-year-old children. The experimental group, which received instruction in sentence combining, consisted of 20 students from each age group.…

Prepared as part of the evaluation of the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP), this report provides results of surveys evaluating four types of BAWP programs (elementary and secondary school-year inservice programs, university extension special courses, and summer invitational programs), showing that BAWP programs have long-term effects on student and…

Prepared as part of the evaluation of the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP), this report examines the costs and funding of the components of BAWP that are primarily responsible for the dissemination effects of the project. Sections of the report contain the following: (1) a cost overview, with analyses of funding sources and project expenditures;…

Twenty-eight composition teachers at a large university, a two-year college, and an engineering college, all of whom had taught composition through both the tutorial method and typical classroom methods, were interviewed regarding advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches. Among the advantages of tutorials mentioned were the chance to…

Looks into the functions of children's writing to determine what children can meaningfully write about. Discusses research on the functions of writing and then suggests assignments where children write letters to different audiences, such as to themselves and to their future children. These assignments help children learn about themselves. (SKC)

Describes how a teacher paired a low-ability, difficult migrant child with a high-ability child for classroom writing activities and how the low-ability child's writing improved measurably as a result. (SRT)

Describes a research paper project for high school students that requires them to incorporate source information into a conversational letter. Builds topic around an imaginary class reunion aboard an ocean liner. Notes that the students internalize the assignment, find a practical reason for using reference books, and actually enjoy the research.…

Describes a writing assignment in which students collected oral histories from Vietnam veterans in their community, edited the transcripts of their interviews, prepared manuscripts for a booklet of ten interviews, and composed cover letters for the final product. Notes positive effects of both the revision work and the primary research. (JG)

Offers basic advice on using a word processor to teach writing, from how to choose the appropriate software before selecting a computer and a printer, to the benefits of using a word processor instead of a typewriter. (NKA)

Outlines the "sandwich approach" to teaching remedial writing--a technique for teaching students the structure of a paragraph that removes the barriers of unfamiliar vocabulary (e.g. topic sentence, unity) and that appeals to the student's sense of sight and taste. Includes sample exercises for practical application. (NKA)

Presents and analyzes the qualifications English departments prefer when hiring faculty to teach business and technical writing. Indicates that most successful candidates are those who have completed degree programs combining the study of literature and composition. Also suggests that English departments should make their degree programs more…

A national survey of full-time instructional faculty (N=208) at universities, 2-year colleges, and high schools regarding attitudes toward using computers in second-language composition instruction revealed a predomination of Apple and IBM-PC computers used, a major frustration in lack of foreign character support, and mixed opinions about real…