The author is pleased to have the opportunity to respond to "Measuring Students' Writing Ability on a Computer-Analytic Developmental Scale: An Exploratory Validity Study." The authors of that article have undertaken a challenging project and seem to be on track to developing a technically adequate, practically useful writing…

Most students avoid the reflective nature the writing process requires. Their resistance to meta-cognition, thinking about one's thinking, often means they are incapable of capitalizing on their strengths or improving upon their weaknesses. The author believes students who are familiar with writers' lives and habits will be that much more…

In this article, the author talks about the use of punctuation and describes a study that confirmed her growing sense that all students need exposure to and instruction on the full repertoire of punctuation. In an attempt to assess how much of the eleventh graders know about the way professionals use punctuation, all teachers at Webster Thomas…

Students often attain memorable experiences from cadaver dissections through reflective writing. For many, facing a dissection for the first time elicits a wide range of emotions. These may include thoughts of their own mortality to the sheer admiration of knowing that someone cared enough to help others learn about the body, even in death. Poems…

Recounts the diverse reactions elicited by a college writing teacher when he asked his students to compose using his copy of Keats' life-mask as a resource. Discusses how the life-mask acted as a stimulus, turning in-class writing into an exciting and useful composition experience. (NKA)

Argues that the perennial problem of boring student writing is solved when assignments provide writers with target readers, enabling students to find their appropriate voice. Discusses a sample assignment in which students explain how to do something they do well to readers who don't know how to do it. (JG)

Drawing on his own experiences as a student and as an English teacher, the author considers the learning value of the marks and comments teachers make on students' compositions. (SJL)

Discusses research and theory related to journal writing and provides a rationale for including it in the language arts classroom. (FL)

Discusses procedures for applying journal writing to learning study skills. Focuses on conditions for learning; offers guidelines for teachers in getting started and providing feedback; discusses typical student reactions; and lists the advantages of using journals for self-monitoring and communication. (DMM)

Describes a poetry writing assignment that teaches students the importance of place and objects in expressing emotions about a childhood memory. (RL)

Offers a writing pedagogy maintaining that the content of any particular knowledge is largely a function of the language in which that content is expressed. Argues that each of the many languages available within a given language is representative of an approach to knowledge. Discusses the theoretical base for the pedagogy. Offers a sequence of…

Suggests a way to stimulate students' interest in writing that involves learning trivia about famous people and integrating it into classroom lectures in the form of anecdotes. (SRT)

Tells how to develop ways for students to share writing with others both inside and outside the classroom. Discusses possibilities for publishing within the school and in the community, as well as how to submit entries to writing contests and national publications. Contains tips about submitting manuscripts. (EL)

Presents opposing views on the wisdom of teaching student writers to write for an "audience." (JL)

Argues that asking students to write in concrete images about specific events and places serves to emphasize the importance of writing from detailed personal experiences. (RL)