This workbook, designed for workplace literacy courses, contains materials for a business writing course. The course presents the fundamentals of effective business letter writing, focusing on logical organization, word choice, style, tone, and clarity. The course uses students' own examples as well as practice exercises for reinforcement.…

This workbook, designed for workplace literacy courses, contains materials for a business writing course. The course provides strategies for presenting ideas clearly and accurately. Introductory materials include objectives, a topical outline, and information on time for the course and continuing education credits. The 16 sessions of the course…

Writing teachers and theorists face political and pedagogical dangers because of their increasing tendency to align themselves against each other on the side of either rhetoric or composition. As the differences between the two schools widens, writing teachers stand to lose political ground in English departments and their students stand to lose…

Teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL) can use prewriting activities at the earliest stages of instruction to help their students acquire good language skills. Prewriting involves energizing student participation in thinking, talking, group interaction, and skeletal writing activities that become components of a writing task. Concentration…

This proceedings document provides one to two page versions of papers presented on the theme of celebrating diversity in developmental education, focusing on the areas of research, administration and learning assistance, writing, reading, and mathematics. Papers include, among others: "Gender Differences in Variables Related to Academic…

Focusing on ways in which literature can be used in the integration of reading and writing, this book is meant to help teachers prepare a literature-based classroom that encourages reading and writing. The book contains specific practical ideas and activities for organizing a reading/writing classroom, bibliographies of children's books at the end…

A program was developed for improving the reading of first-grade students in a progressive suburban community in northern Illinois. The problem was originally noted by an increase in the need for support services and low standardized test scores. Analysis of probable cause data revealed that students lacked knowledge of the relationship between…

This book probes the possibilities of interdisciplinary learning and integrated curriculum through the structuring and expressive powers of language. The 15 essays in the book explore the issues of bridging the gap between the two cultures of science and humanities, demystifying science for learners, teaching students to construct and explain…

Pupils in the middle school can be motivated to enjoy and write haiku poetry. A student teacher taught two lessons to a sixth grade class in haiku writing. First, the student teacher read three haikus aloud to students. After discovering the characteristics of a haiku from two models, the class as a whole wrote a haiku based on slides from their…

A lesson in essay planning designed for college and graduate students of English as a Second Language is described. The intended audience is a group with varied linguistic backgrounds and levels of English proficiency. The lesson's objective is to develop metacognitive skills for planning well-organized essays. A computer program using graphics,…

A curriculum designed by the Maury, Tennessee, Literacy Council to address deficiencies in English-language skills is presented. Maury County, Tennessee, is a rural area south of Nashville whose automotive industries and ethnic restaurants have immigrant populations in need of English instruction. A state 353 teacher training grant was obtained to…

Research assessing the effectiveness of writing tutorial programs should consider how gender contributes to dynamics of the student tutor relationship. In "On Becoming a More Effective Tutor," Lil Brannon catalogues different postures that the writing tutor may adopt: some are more friendly, concerned with the student's self-esteem,…

A year-long study determined the long-term effects of a comprehensive learning approach to elementary reading and writing instruction on students' achievement, attitudes, and metacognitive awareness. Subjects, 529 students in 29 second- through sixth-grade classes in a suburban Maryland school district, participated in the Cooperative Integrated…

A two-phase study was conducted of home economics teachers' use of writing in secondary programs. In the first phase of the study, quantitative data were collected to compare three populations: (1) 125 home economics teachers who had not participated in university workshops on incorporating writing in the classroom; (2) 129 agriculture teachers…

A curriculum project is described that consists of a unit developed for a writing class in a secondary English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classroom. Although the unit is intended to present an idea of what can be accomplished in the ESL classroom with developing writers, it does not give any specific "recipes" for writing development. The setting…