Noting that computer instruction for teaching composition is generally limited to the component skills of spelling, punctuation, and grammar, this paper proposes a program that can help elementary school students use computers to generate ideas for descriptive writing. The first section of the paper provides orientation procedures designed to…

Research on the composing process conducted from 1946 until the present is summarized in this paper. Concentratinq on research dealing with the process of writing, the paper does not include studies of written products, language development, or the effects of instruction. The research is arranged in chronological order from the earliest to the…

This special journal issue focuses on writing in the elementary school. Topics discussed in the various articles include (1) a technique for teaching persuasive composition, (2) writing in the second and third grades, (3) correlating writing assignments with the study of literature, (4) a problem solving approach to composition, (5) the Virginia…

Presents results of an informal study indicating that (1) external contingencies that force writing productivity regardless of mood seem to facilitate rather than impede the appearance of creative ideas for writing, and (2) productivity precedes creativity. (HTH)

Examines how different types of prewriting activities, teacher motivations, and classroom environments influence the student writing process. (MM)

Briefly reviews survey findings on writing achievement, discusses students' difficulties with writing, and suggests that teachers not only provide more opportunities for writing, but help students develop strategies for solving the problems that all writers confront: planning, drafting, revising, and editing. (SJL)

The use of writing as a process to create a positive learning environment in English-as-a-Second-Language and bilingual classrooms is described from a variety of phases: interviews, prewriting, first draft writing, responding, revising, final draft writing, and publishing. (Contains 11 references.) (LB)

To illustrate ways that students might generate ideas for writing, this article presents a list of 20 suggestions for using prewriting to explore fiction, along with 8 guidelines for teachers to use in responding to students' writing. (43 references) (LB)

Analysis of questionnaires completed by 715 undergraduate psychology students identified four patterns associated with writing term papers: (1) a minimal-drafting strategy; (2) an outline-and-develop strategy; (3) a detailed-planning strategy; and (4) a "think-then-do" strategy. Detailed-planning and think-then-do strategies appeared to result in…

Insofar as students gain clarity by writing statements of belief and meaning, the expressive mode is a vehicle for learning. By expressing in writing their reaction to a bewildering experience, a current dilemma, or a troublesome conflict, for example, they are better able to broaden their views on this personal predicament. The expressive mode…

There are three serious impediments to the acceptance of voice as a practical focus in the college writing classroom: the attitudes and beliefs of educators; the theories guiding classroom practices; and the classroom practices themselves. A means of overcoming these impediments and of ensuring that students will discover and develop the power of…

Intended to help freshman composition teachers develop productive audience strategy in their students, this paper explores useful and functional techniques elicited from expert writers to facilitate the generation of internal audiences for the typical college student in a required writing class. The paper encourages small-group peer discussion to…

This study examined 27 current college textbooks on rhetoric and composition to determine the emphasis placed on invention and the organization of invention material. Results revealed that the average percentage of material devoted to invention was 11%, the lowest percentage in an individual text was 1% and the highest was 32%. The standard…

Although the focus of this issue of the "Virginia English Bulletin" is on making effective assignments, most of the articles also emphasize the importance and power of writing. Articles deal with the following topics: (1) the use of I-search (as explained by Kenneth Macrorie in "Searching Writing") as a form of research paper…

Freshman composition students at a community college in Maryland participated in a study to determine whether the talk-write method of writing instruction would have a more positive effect on freshman writing than would more conventional methods of instruction. Four classes totaling 58 students were randomly divided into an experimental and a…