Undergraduate science degrees in South Africa seldom offer explicit courses focussing on improving the disciplinary writing skills required for effectively communicating scientific research. Similarly, most students entering the 'Honours' degree in Molecular Medicine at a South African university have not commonly been afforded opportunities to…

For over four years, students enrolled in remedial writing classes who attended eight writing center tutorials directly linked to their assignments had an average pass rate of 95.6 percent, whereas students who did not attend any writing center tutorials had an average pass rate of 39.4 percent. These correlations are just that--correlations that…

Purpose: Given that there exists in the literature relatively little research into the effectiveness of writing centers at universities, the purpose of this paper is to show the impact of university writing centers on first-year business seminar student writing. Design/methodology/approach: This quantitative study involved 315 first-year…

Despite the critical importance of writing proficiency for success in higher education and the workplace (National Commission on Writing, 2003, 2004, 2005), writing achievement has remained stagnant for a number of years. Despite being firmly grounded in tenets of effective instruction (Graham & Perin, 2002) the widely used writer's workshop…

Discusses the experiences of a writing teacher as she conducts inservice teacher workshops and writing workshops for students. Notes that, when students are invited to write with passion about those things that they really understand and to which they have an emotional connection, teachers may be surprised at what students can do. (RS)

Drawing on findings from psychology, anthropology, and sociology, this book examines motivation for writing and connects writing with the roles each person plays--in the family, the workplace, and in social and cultural groups including school--and with the lifelong search for potential new roles. As a blueprint for changing the writing of college…

Cites results of studies showing that students' language skills are not deteriorating. Suggests using class time for writing workshops to give students feedback on work-in-progress. Considers that difficulty with concepts and subject content may come across as poor writing. Notes that additional writing can be helpful without being graded. (DK)

Describes how, through parent-student interactions in written homework assignments, the author (in her predominantly Hispanic American sixth-grade classroom) has successfully engaged parents in the literacy development of their children, brought parent voices into the classroom, and affirmed and appreciated the experiences, culture, and language…

Intended for both beginning teachers and experienced teachers, this book offers a detailed plan for organizing a successful writing classroom. The book presents teachers with many new approaches for interacting with students and their writing. Following a foreword by Russ M. Burkhardt and an introduction chapters in the book are: (1) The Ten-Day…

A study evaluated the effectiveness of an Instructional Television Program (ITV) designed to model and teach aspects of process writing to second-grade children. Two second-grade teachers and their students (each class contained 24 children) comprised the experimental groups; one second-grade teacher and 24 students comprised the control group.…