Reports on two studies conducted in college freshman composition classes dealing with gender-based variations in verbal behavior. For an in-class assignment, students described two objects, a metal washer and a piece of cloth; for an out-of-class assignment, students wrote a letter to a landlord asking for a $300 deposit refund which had been…

Discusses the formulation of the "Wyoming Resolution," which decries the working conditions of writing faculty members in postsecondary education and calls for the creation of a grievance procedure for such teachers. Contains a copy of the resolution. (FL)

Discusses the differences between developmental students and their teachers in terms of pragmatism and background. Describes the use of a classroom publishing project, which requires students to contribute articles to the magazine and share editing responsibilities. Discusses the benefits of the approach. (DMM)

Points out that helping the ESL students in the composition class entails understanding the nature of the process by which they acquire their new language, avoiding judgments that underestimate their control of English, and providing a secure, comfortable learning environment. (EL)

Reviews several software packages that analyze text readability, check for spelling and style problems, offer desktop publishing capabilities, teach interviewing skills, and teach grammar using a computer game. (SRT)

The Language Experience Approach (LEA) creates reading materials and writing opportunities through integrated use of the learner's language and experience. Individualized LEA involving a "dictation" approach (child dictates experience; teacher records and reads back experience) is beneficial for hearing-impaired students in terms of increased…

Discusses how the works of Joyce, "Dubliners" and "Ulysses" specifically, can be used to help developing writers learn about the process of writing and as material for writing exercises. (SRT)

Describes a three-week seminar for education students that simulated the environment of the classrooms in which they will eventually teach and focused on the writing process, the reading process, and the reading-writing relationship. (SRT)

Presents three activities designed motivate student journal writing as a way to help students confront personal fears and open dialogue between troubled students and teachers. (HTH)

Recounts the difficulties and rewards of designing and establishing a computer-based writing lab--including problems with planning, funding, staffing, and expansion of physical space. (NKA)

Exploration of concepts crucial to development of new computer-based learning environments focuses on process rather than product and the computer's ability to record, represent, and communicate the underlying process. Cognitive, pedagogical, and sociological issues relevant to creation of learning environments in five domains (empowering…

Explains the importance of competence in standard American English in a developmental writing curriculum and reviews several theories of basic writing instruction. (EL)

Replies to an article that raised questions about whether the case study approach helps students address complexities faced by practicing writers by agreeing with its broad goals for writing instruction but disagreeing with its conclusion. (DF)

Describes an experimental project implemented in a language school in northern Italy in which students, using a poem as a basis, created a cast of characters and expanded the poem's story line to create a world in which the characters could interact. (SED)

Describes a research study on the effects of word processing use in teaching writing to four fifth-grade boys in a special education program, and reviews other studies on word processing use with learning disabled students. It was concluded that word processing offers great promise to the special needs student. (MBR)