Teachers who restrict their teaching of writing to elements of exposition are likely to fail because there is insufficient content, interest, or challenge in learning simple exposition, and the techniques that contribute to polished exposition are more easily accessible when approached through aesthetic writing. A teaching sequence for using…

An approach to using a student's own birthday as the basis of a library research project for college and high school students is described in this brief article. AUTHOR'S COMMENT (excerpt): I found my students became very excited about a topic that introduced them to the library while exciting their curiosity and interest: to investigate events…

A professional writing course can be both technical and humanistic by incorporating into the course a formal report assignment in which students pick a subject in the humanities about which they wish to know more. Once the students decide on topics to research, they develop a scenario in which they define a person or group who needs the…

The experimental evidence on the value of a sentence-combining approach to improving reading comprehension is still sparse, but the possibilities seem rich.

(Text is in French.)

Techniques for encouraging personal writing in a non-threatening setting are discussed. (JH)

Imitation of organizational and sentence patterns is an ancient technique for teaching rhetoric, but to be effective, imitation must be informed, deliberate, and creative. Students must first learn to recognize the characteristics of a given style and then to appreciate the connection between specific stylistic qualities and their cumulative…

This teachers' guide responds to some of the more frequently asked questions about teaching and evaluating from Kindergarten through Grade 5. The document is a synthesis of the current research on writing and applies this information to the teaching of writing in the classroom. It is comprehensive in nature and addresses such subjects as…

This paper examines children's preferences and understanding of stories and story elements by analyzing an extensive collection of art, writing, and teacher observations of one child, Virginia. The paper traces the progession of Virginia's understanding of character, setting, action/plot, and preference for fairy tale structures as evidenced in…

This description of "Introduction to College Composition," a credit-bearing developmental writing course offered by the Community College of the Finger Lakes, provides an overview of the writing, grammar skills, and reading components of the course. Introductory information indicates that the course adopts a process-oriented approach to…

This annotated bibliography contains 28 references on the ways writing can be used in the study of literature and ways in which literature can be utilized to foster invention in students' writing. The bibliography contains citations from the period between 1982 to 1989 and is divided into three sections. The first section includes strategies,…

This guide to writing material that will be read by new readers focuses on making the material readable, relevant, and effective. The first section of the guide gives an overview of this process, and addresses the following aspects of writing for new readers: (1) determining the audience and its interests; (2) elements of effective written…

Arguing that parents can make a big difference, this six-panel leaflet presents simple and fun strategies parents can use to help their children learn to write well. The leaflet points out that children should have a good place to write, the proper materials, sufficient time, and response and praise from their parents. Strategies discussed in the…

Through an original analysis of letters written by 8 students at 4 grade levels (grades 7 through 13), this paper shows the relationship between individual affective and cognitive development and social awareness. Specifically, their relationships are shown by analyzing the writer, the text, and the instructor. Results indicate that seventh grade…

A practicum provided 10th- grade students in 2 English honors classes with direct instruction in sentence combining. The goal of the program was to increase the syntactic complexity of student writing, to have students express more in each sentence. Instruction was approached from different aspects. The students worked with two textbooks on…