Examines the relationship of textbooks and writing instruction in America, showing that composition textbooks as they developed since 1820 have always responded to the preferences of the teachers cast up by the culture, meeting their perceived needs and recreating these and other needs in later teachers shaped by the texts. (HTH)

Shows how Walter Ong's interpretation of the history of literacy helps explain the split between individual orientation and social perspective as it influences modern writers, applies historical patterns to current literacy problems, and discusses the teaching implications of the theory. (EL)

Argues that the power of language and the possibility of the freshman English movement is the power of coming into language aware of its problems, but empowered, too, to claim its recreative capacity. (HOD)

Discusses using ungraded, uncorrected journals focusing on academic and class-related concerns as a nonthreatening way for students to practice writing English. Proposes that teachers should become participants in the writing processes by writing journals to the class. (EKN)

An elementary school reading teacher describes how she restructured her teaching methods by encouraging children to read and write as part of an integrated process, rather than teaching reading alone as a set of fragmented steps. (GC)

Describes a teaching technique that capitalizes on the individual meanings a piece of literature can have for different students. Explains how it encourages students to concentrate first on facts that they notice in a text and in the inferences they make based on those facts. (FL)

Describes a writing skills program intended for pre-professional students preparing to enter Texas Wesleyan College. (FL)

Argues that any teaching method will work in a writing class as long as the teacher and student are serious and the teacher's knowledge is transmitted passionately. (HOD)

Argues that the process-conference approach to writing has handed back control of the learning process to the learner and is likely to have far reaching effects on the reading program as well. (HOD)

Relates Frank Hardy's and Bruce Pascoe's advice to students in a writing class concerning what they believe to be the necessary qualities of a good short story from the editing and publishing standpoint. (HOD)

Argues that judgments about scientific or technical facts are no more objective than any other judgments. Characterizes the objectivity of such judgments, exploring the consequences of that characterization for writing instruction, and concludes that objectivity is not particularly important in technical writing but is symptomatic of a deplorable…

Presents a criticism of Evan Carton's description of a writing assignment, noting the contradiction between the assignment's real purpose and the rigid writing restrictions inherent in the assignment that preclude the purpose. Presents Carton's response. (HTH)

Twelve elementary children with reading and writing difficulties substantially improved their reading and writing skills and strategies through a microcomputer project. Four software factors in successful applications were noted, including the use of microcomputers to lower risks encountered in making errors. (CL)

Introduces the topics of the journal articles and briefly explains how each relates to personal teaching style. (CRH)

Suggests that humans discover who they are and become what they are by communicating with each other; thus, the process of communicating becomes far more important than any particular product. Advocates a rhetoric of assent that takes these assumptions into account. (other, thusBW)