This paper discusses the role of a Distributed Technology Coordinator at the University of Colorado at Boulder in helping faculty (particularly composition faculty) utilize technology as part of their teaching. It begins by discussing how the Distributed Technology Coordinator establishes relationships with and acts as liaison between university…

Interactive writing is a term coined by a research group of faculty members from the Ohio State University and teachers from the Columbus Public Schools. The group examined Moira McKenzie's (1985) work in shared writing and adopted the approach as having power in helping children understand the writing process. They varied the approach with a…

This study, which was primarily experimental in nature, sought to determine whether cooperative argumentative writing, in contrast to competitive individual writing, has positive effects on student performance and attitudes. A brief qualitative analysis using student questionnaires, journals, and interviews (n=73) was conducted to assess students'…

Involving students in drawing activities prior to writing helps them to visualize what they want to express in their writing. Drawing before writing makes writing an easier process. In this lesson, K-2 students learn story elements, use graphic organizers, and access the Internet to gather factual information about frogs and toads. During the two-…

Students draw a series of pictures that tell a simple story that includes character action, problem and solution. They "read" their story to others, transcribe it into writing, and create an accordion book with the drawings and writing. The activity supports the transition from oral to written storytelling. During the four 30- to 40-minute…

Letter poems make poetry accessible, meaningful, and fun. Letter poems are also an apt medium for exploring a defining characteristic of poetry--line breaks. Students explore letter poems and experiment with writing letters as poems, using the placement of line breaks to enhance rhythm, sound, meaning, and appearance. During the two 40-minute…

The issue of personal writing is hotly contested in composition studies. Some believe that personal writing has no place in academic writing. In a discussion with Peter Elbow regarding personal versus academic writing, David Bartholomae argues that "academic writing is the real work of the academy." Elbow, on the other hand, argues that…

Student/initiates into visual, textual, and theoretical Web-based self-constructions do not necessarily wish to be gender, race, class, or ethnicity invisible or neutral. To best teach writing and critical thinking according to her departmental objectives, one instructor felt she had to broach student's assumptions about themselves as they…

The writing skills of 71 college seniors were assessed at a medium-sized public university. Blind scoring, a standard scoring guide, and trained graders were used. Curricular writing emphasis was assessed through a syllabus study, yielding a curricular emphasis score. The academic records of these students revealed the number of courses taken in…

Argues against requiring students to prepare formal outlines before writing papers and recommends instead that students prepare the rough, idiosyncratic lists that working writers use before they write. (AEA)

Addresses these questions in terms of the adult learner: (1) what is the relationship between writing and learning? (2) is the decline in writing skills a particular problem for the adult learner? (3) can writing be used as a teaching method to enhance learning? and (4) what are the implications for the adult educator? (JOW)

Describes typical sentence, paragraph, and discourse level sentence combining exercises using material appropriate for technical writers. (HTH)

Describes the characteristics of legalese--inflated and obscure legal language--and suggests strategies for helping present and future document designers create understandable prose. (MM)

Suggests that children typically unsuccessful in planning at global levels might improve their writing by paying attention to the local coherence constraints of sentences. Local coherence is a quality of written language achieved through the use of local connections (such as "also") that relate ideas across several sentences into a coherent…