Attributes the decline in student writing ability to the conflict between society's demand for standardization, caution, and escapism and a writer's need to be subjective, adventurous, and self-centered. (HOD)

Defines five modes of writing found in freshman readers, lists percentages of the total selections in 11 current composition readers that fall into each of the five categories, and concludes that few readers are suitable for the kind of service freshman English classes should be providing. (DD)

From his own teaching experience, the author presents his views on the essentials of effective writing instruction: diagnostic testing, student grouping, meaningful assignments, and the teacher as model. He also presents some of his techniques for teaching observational skills, exactness, and logical sequence. (SJL)

To interpret research, teachers should learn how to study the studies, particularly the methods by which findings are measured and interpreted. (DD)

Suggests an exercise to help students stop using incorrect word forms, which involves students in choosing a word, defining it, using it correctly in a sentence, and finding five other words using the original word as a root. (TJ)

Considers the situations of "interdisciplinary writing," writing done in correspondence with subjects other than English. Describes some methods and experiences in teaching interdisciplinary writing in a college level "Writing Science" course. (JT)

Describes the Writing Tutorial Service at Carleton University, Ottawa, which provides individual tutoring for students who want help with their writing. Outlines some of the teaching techniques used, showing how they vary according to the stage of the composing process at which tutors are required to intervene. (GT)

Muses in journal entries on the differences between teaching writing and administering a writing program--missing the ego rush and the "power thing" of teaching, and feeling "like a traitor" in having gone over to the "other side." Suggests that the essay might serve as a archival document. (PA)

States that persuasion as a discourse mode in composition classrooms tends to emphasize conflict and polarize students' positions. Proposes a "negotiative" mode of writing, focusing on the reader to achieve a cooperative settlement to opposing argument positions. Uses strategies including dialogic styles and structures that address issues of…

Suggests that part of the problem with instruction in mechanics has to do with the intuitively unappealing nature of most of the "rules" that have remained unchanged for a century. Discusses problems with current rules on the use of the apostrophe. Presents a one-page reproducible handout that summarizes a technique to teach usage of the…

Points out that there is an enormous amount of material from the world of art that can help people see and, therefore, help them write. Notes the connections between writing and visual art as expressed in the work of many writers, including the author. Offers suggestions on how to explore the connections between writing and art. (SR)

Uses six students' writing to detail classroom revision techniques that have students write alternative sections of their essays, generate new aspects of their topics, and see other possibilities in their work. (SR)

Details typical charges against expressivist rhetorics, while sketching a version of expressivism underwritten by the principles and procedures of ordinary language philosophy. Suggests that the teaching and learning practices that emerge from this analysis compete with the vague, sometimes grandiose ambitions of expressivist practitioners as they…

Argues for the theoretical and practical appropriateness of using "reading" as a means of teaching "writing." Enters an ongoing debate about the appropriateness of reading in the composition classroom. (TB)

Demonstrates how the work published in "English Education" between 1994 and 1996 figures within the larger body of what has come to be called post-modern scholarship. Defines postmodernism and then considers how the work published in "English Education" contributes to postmodern thought and to the study and teaching of…