English teachers, as well as teachers within other disciplines, often boil down abstract principles to easily explainable bullet points. Students often pick up and retain these points but fail to grasp the broader contexts that make them relevant. It is therefore sometimes helpful to revisit some of the more common of these "rules of thumb" to…

Gillis has found a wealth of instruction material within the beloved classic novel (and its many subsequent permutations) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and demonstrates how teachers can "take advantage of the inherent appeal of this classic film and its easy accessibility . . . to introduce and reinforce literary techniques to middle level…

Donald Graves, a retired professor emeritus from the University of New Hampshire, describes about the important things that he has learned from the teachers of writing as well different fundamentals that remained unchanged in the teaching of writing.

Writing and analytical skills of students can vastly improve when picture books are used and library media specialists and teachers are advised to make use of this effective tool. A variety of books are recommended for teaching students how to analyze character, dialogue, setting, plot, conflicts between characters and in the process hone their…

The critical role played by the teacher feedback on the students' drafts is discussed. The standards-based scales measuring content, organization, and mechanics was used to determine the quality of students' writing and the teachers' feedback commentaries were considered either content level or surface level.

An English writing teacher has helped students acquire control over their writing in varying contexts by focusing on specific strategies that they could apply to different strategies of the writing process. Strategies for inquiry, for drafting and for products can be used with any of the students' writing tasks, which helps them become strategic…

Teaching students to raise their voice by writing about social issues show them the power of writing and also a voice of their own. The writer's notebook, coalitions and action plan, keeping the focus on writing, and the conditions that support writing for social action are some of the procedures that a teacher will have to employ in order to help…

Urban writing programs help frustrated city youth to gain interest and find power through writing. Education leaders and urban writing programs along with classroom teachers will have to work collaboratively in order to motivate and empower students through the written words.

Recent studies on Chinese-English contrastive rhetoric have argued that there is actually little to contrast and the traditional "qi" (beginning), "cheng" (transition), "zhuan" (turning), "he" (synthesis) structure has little influence on contemporary Chinese writing. A comparative analysis of select online instructional materials on argumentative…

This essay demonstrates how the concept of multiple intelligences (MI) can be applied to college composition. Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, published in 1983, started a revolution in education, but the application of this theory to teaching college writing was slow in coming. For the most part, writing teachers are comfortable in the…

This essay frames the connections between punk principles and writing theory in order to re-form what the author emphasizes in his own composition classroom, in particular the do-it-yourself ethic, a sense of passion and fearlessness, the agency to attack institutions, and the seeking of pleasure. (Contains 1 note.)

Teachers of writing know that published writers write sentence fragments, use passive voice, begin sentences with "and" and end them with prepositions, use the first-person pronoun "I," contract their words, and splice their sentences with commas. Even so, most instructors advise students against these elements of style. As a result, school…

"English 401: Composition IV: Theory and Research" is designated in the Elmhurst College catalogue as "a writing course that introduces students to the scholarly field of composition studies." It is part of a series of courses for English majors pursuing a degree with "Writing Emphasis," for students seeking teacher…

English 354: Advanced Composition is a required course for undergraduate majors in English, broadcast journalism, criminal justice, and pre-service English education, among others, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a research-one land-grant institution with a student population of about 24,000. English 354 focuses on "intensive study and…

Writing in the disciplines (WiD) and writing across the curriculum (WAC) are important university-wide intellectual projects often grounded in liberal arts and general education philosophies. In France, WiD/WAC discussions are growing out of the curricular realities of writing as central to success in all disciplines and of a new student…