The first goal of a writing-across-the-curriculum program is to convince content area teachers that the movement can aid them in fulfilling their goals. Rather than trying to inspire individual faculty members, the writing-across-the-curriculum program at the Community College of Philadelphia restructures the classroom teaching situation. The…

Based on the perspective on childhood literacy which assumes that listening, speaking, reading, and writing abilities develop concurrently and interrelatedly rather than sequentially, a kindergarten literacy program was implemented in classrooms in San Antonio, Texas, to influence young childrens' writing development. Writing was linked with other…

An approach to writing in a college-level English as a second language (ESL) course is based on recent emphasis in research on the processes involved and strategies used in the various areas of human endeavor. Recent research in writing has indicated that effective and unfrustrated writers carry out the writing task in ways that are very different…

Intended for use in curriculum planning, course development, and program evaluation, this report contains data from a study of the writing abilities of entering freshman students at the University of Texas at El Paso. The first chapter of the report provides background information concerning the need for systematic assessment of the writing…

Building upon the National Study of Writing in the Secondary School conducted in 1981, this volume presents the results of recent scholarly inquiry into the nature of writing. Background information for the study is discussed in chapter 1, while chapter 2 describes the additional data that have been gathered since the national survey: a study of…

The relationship between reading and writing is explored in this book. Titles of the book's essays and their authors are as follows: (1) "What Is the Value of Connecting Reading and Writing?" by Robert J. Tierney and Margie Leys; (2) "Reflective Thought: The Connection between Reading and Writing" by June Cannell Birnbaum; (3)…

Intended for college-level basic writers, the program described in this report integrates selected oral communication training with writing instruction. The first section of the report presents a rationale for the program--which uses oral activities to enhance students' development in the underlying rhetorical abilities of invention, audience…

A collection of working papers examining the underlying principles of language teaching, learning, and research includes the following titles: "Some Notes on Krashen's Learned/Acquired Distinction" (Stan Jones); "How Teaching Writing Can Affect One's Own Writing Process" (Toni Miller); "Sentence Combining: Some Questions" (Aviva Freedman);…

A participant observation study of a primary grade classroom, in which three first grade students were selected as case study subjects, illustrates the range of workstyles of beginning writers. Primary grade teachers are often concerned that their students are not producing writing comparable with their capabilities, but educators' conceptions of…

Noting the powerful influence of writing skills on thinking skills, reading comprehension, and knowledge retention, this concept paper examines writing as it is used in the classroom, focusing specifically on the writing process. Following a rationale for teaching writing is a summary of related research that highlights practice as the most…

A discussion of what functional linguistic research can offer teachers of composition and English is presented in this paper, which provides examples of different levels of analysis (phonology, morphology, and syntax) for the language of a variety of populations (including traditional freshmen, basic writers, English as a second language (ESL)…

The English teacher encountering a student of English as a second language (ESL) with significant writing problems must find an appropriate way of responding, finding a balance between being overly sympathetic and being overly concerned with correctness. ESL students are learning English from many sources, not just the teacher, and the teacher's…

Case studies of six college freshmen enrolled in freshman composition courses that used sequenced assignments addressed to the same topic all term were used to investigate how students define revision, how their teachers define it, and what is important about the differences in these definitions. The students possessed a common theory of revision…

Teacher evaluation of student writing usually focuses on errors or inadequacies of the written product. One method of changing teacher attitudes is to conduct a writing workshop for department chairpersons to show the benefits and share the techniques of making writing an integral part of their particular disciplines. Such a workshop must address…

Writing textbooks are changing to reflect the curricular shift from an emphasis on product to an emphasis on process. The product approach focused mainly on surface features and used an instructional strategy of testing writing rather than teaching it. The process approach focuses on what effective writers do as they move through the stages of…