Contained in this report is a description of the technical assistance and training phase of the Document Design Project, a program funded by the National Institute of Education and intended to address and correct the readability problems posed by public documents. The first section of the report provides background material on the assistance and…

Various aspects of the writing across the curriculum program at Somerset County College (SCC) are discussed in these four presentations. Introductory comments by Myrna Smith trace the development of the writing across the curriculum program at SCC. Angela Bodino's presentation, "Writing as Learning Across the Curriculum", explores the…

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the individualized writing laboratory program at Solano Community College, comparisons were made in fall 1983 among students enrolled in the Writing Skills Laboratory (WSL), students enrolled in English Fundamentals (EF), and students concurrently enrolled in both WSL and EF (WSL+EF). Within each of the…

Stressing the importance of instructional objectives, this discussion explores the relationship of handwriting to child characteristics and societal expectations. The nature of writing is described, and questions are specified for teachers to consider before determining educational objectives pertaining to handwriting. Guidelines for initial…

One pluralistic method for teaching advanced composition reflects the approaches of two texts: Linda Flower's "Problem-Solving Strategies for Writing" and Jeanne Fahnestock and Marie Secor's "A Rhetoric of Argument." Such an approach combines the practical tasks of arguing for consensus proposals with functional rather than…

To develop a theory of invention that would include both generation and selection of material for written composition, the four major current theories of invention were considered. Since only one--prewriting--included a selection component and was limited in several ways, a psychotherapeutic theory--focusing--was adapted to the composing process…

A review of the literature concerning ethnographic studies of writing reveals a number of reasons for the writing that people do. Some studies of writing in the schools found that what is considered "writing" is not really writing at all and that the majority of students consider the teacher to be their sole audience. Other studies…

Because the ability to write reports and make oral presentations is crucial to success, the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California (Berkeley) has set up an in-house, required course that is given every semester to about 60 students. Divided into three sections, one of which is for non-native speakers of English, the…

In a class of eight students, an attempt was made to determine the effects on student collaboration of using the computer as a writing instrument and the influence the computer might have on social relationships in a high school writing class. Student collaboration consisted of several kinds, including: (1) the sharing of technical help for using…

Picture books provide effective models for student writing. For purposes of organization and writing lessons, the models found in picture books may be divided into three groups: (1) language patterns; (2) story structures; and (3) literary elements. Language patterns include repetitive sentence patterns, verse forms, word patterns, and cultural…

There are three dominant conceptions of functional sentence perspective (FSP): (1) a sentence should be analyzed into several segments, each having a different degree of what is called communicative dynamism; (2) a sentence should be analyzed into two segments, the theme and the rheme; and (3) a sentence should be analyzed into two segments, the…

Theoretical thinking is needed to help establish writing across the curriculum as a real field and not just a passing fad. The metaphor of the Three Graces--Giving, Receiving, and Returning--suggests a procedure that could generate and sustain both theories and programs. English teachers usually give the initial impetus to cross-curricular…

Writing problems in the basic college freshman writing course result from the students' misconception that once they get the required number of words down on paper their compositions are unalterable, and teachers' misconception that serving as an editor, correcting errors and rewriting sentences, is an effective teaching tool. Students'…

Punctuation and capitalization are basic, surface features of written communication. However, it was not until the nineteenth century that authorities recognized that punctuation marks should be primarily an integral part of the sentence pattern, not an indicator of pauses. Throughout the literature on punctuation two major purposes recur--to…

The perceived problems of college students' writing and possible ways to improve college writing instruction are the topics of these radio transcripts. In the first script, parents, teachers, and students comment on the state of writing in college. Professionals are interviewed who comment on the difference between oral and written English, the…