Intended for use by teachers at both the college and the secondary school level, this booklet describes a method of getting students to write using the motivation theories developed by the psychologist Abraham Maslow. The first chapter of the booklet reviews Maslow's basic principles as they apply to the teaching of writing, but includes a…

Basic writers often experience difficulties when trying to articulate ideas in writing that are more specific, systematic, and fully developed than their speech. The writers must learn how to put their thinking into the appropriate forms and expressions necessary to address an academic audience. Noting that the natural working of the human mind…

Since a high percentage of Native American students who begin college do not graduate, a summer survival program was created to assist Native American students in developing their scholastic abilities. The data establishing the need for such a program were provided by a study that compared the performance of all Native Americans enrolled in…

One of a series dealing with current issues affecting language arts instruction, this paper focuses on writing across the curriculum. The paper begins by observing that schools and colleges across the country are developing school-wide writing programs, the purposes of which are to improve writing, to enhance learning of content, and to develop…

The impact of a writing-across-the-curriculum program on the professional life of a single university department and on the pedagogical life of an entire campus community is the focus of this book. The essays in the first section explain writing across the curriculum and provide a context for collective writing research. This section demonstrates…

A qualitative study examined the revision of writing on the word processor of two re-entering students in advanced composition in comparison to three traditional-age students. Its purposes were to see whether there was any difference in adaptation to the word processor between the two groups and whether each writer had a consistent revision…

Written in narrative form, a study examined the impact of using writing as a learning tool in an upper-division college course in Seventeenth Century literature. The study investigated: (1) student writing samples of both informal and transactional writing forms; (2) the impact of writing-to-learn on course objectives; (3) the impact of informal…

Two studies of integrated language instruction for students of English as a second language (ESL) are reported. The first had two objectives: to (1) investigate the effects of writing activities on the comprehension and retention of content area reading and (2) examine the relationship between the students' ability to select the main idea and…

Reader-writer conferencing was examined as an alternative or complement to the direct assessment of writing. Criteria guiding development of a framework for analysis of reader-writer conferencing were summarized as: (1) achievability; (2) transfer to other domains of writing; (3) importance of the outcomes; (4) inter-scorer agreement; and (5)…

Written by English teachers considered successful in directing collaborative learning, this collection of essays focuses on the effective use of collaborative learning in the English language arts classroom. The essays and their authors are, as follows: (1) "None of Us Is as Smart as All of Us" (Dana Herreman); (2) "Collaborative…

A tribute to the work of Ann Berthoff, this book--a collection of 6 poems and 21 essays--explores issues in the philosophy and teaching of composition. Each of the five sections is introduced with a poem by Marie Ponsot. Essays and their authors consist of (1) "Genre Theory, Academic Discourse, and Writing within Disciplines" (James F.…

This newsletter issue concentrates on the topic of teaching written language skills to mildly handicapped elementary and secondary students, with emphasis on the communicative function of writing. The feature article discusses expository writing instruction, describing essential elements of the expository writing process and characteristics of…

A collaborative effort on the part of teachers from and consultants for the University of California, Irvine/California Writing Project, this guide presents ideas for teaching writing as a process at all levels of the curriculum. Each section of the guide presents an essay introducing the section topic, followed by practical ideas for teaching…

The major purpose of this book is to describe the basis, features, and future of the whole language movement. Topics included in the book include: (1) a description of what is known about language and language development; (2) presentation of a whole language perspective on literacy development, involving both reading and writing; (3) presentation…

The development of a composition segment in a course in English as a second language for graduate students in a Chinese technological university is described. The approach used in tailoring the program to student needs and university requirements under the severe constraints of scheduling and available resources is discussed. Letters to the…