Researchers use images of outsiders and insiders to distinguish basic writers from students more proficient with the demands of academic discourse and academic culture. For example, David Bartholomae examines how outsiders rely on unelaborated commonplaces to define their interpretations while insiders elaborate and work against their…

Understanding why mistakes are made in a class of ESL students not only helps teachers emend the mistakes, but also enables them to better explain to the author how to correct mistakes in future writing. When a teacher shows some understanding of a writer's native language, it makes the writer feel more comfortable with, and less alienated from,…

Using children's picture books, Deborah Dean provided frameworks for student research papers that avoided the pitfalls leading to voiceless an encyclopedic writing. Research guide sheets; class analysis of text organization, sentence variety, stylistic choices; and peer review all contribute to interesting final papers. (Contains 2 figures.)

The reader-response journal has proven useful in the literature-based composition class; it is also useful in the literature survey at the sophomore or junior level of college. Survey courses have a standard protocol that students have come to expect. In these classes, the teacher is an expert who lectures on historical background, trends, and…

Part of a series of books written and illustrated by the students of Northland School Division, Alberta, Canada, this anthology of senior high school student writing honors the spirit and authentic voice of young people. The writing selections in the book are made accessible to educators so that a bridge of understanding can continue to be built…

In a Purdue University English 101 class, students were told to identify an audience outside the classroom for each paper they wrote. The central challenge to composition teachers is preserving elements valued in teaching academic writing in the context of ill-defined problems to be addressed outside the classroom. Most useful for instructors…

This guide takes the student step-by-step through the writing process in preparing an application essay for admission to college. It tells the student how to: (1) understand what the admissions committee looks for in essays; (2) choose a topic; (3) get "psyched" to write the essay; (4) bring originality to the page; (5) maintain focus;…

This compilation presents material related to a Library Literacy program, which was designed to collect, publish, and distribute the writing of new adult readers and whose target audience was students, teachers, tutors and librarians involved in library-based literacy programs in Massachusetts. The first part of the compilation presents the final…

Chronicling a year-long project to study fantasy literature, this book presents essays, teaching units, student writing, and "jack tales." The project chronicled in the book consisted of a 3-week intensive study program for librarians and teachers of grades 2 through 7 throughout the Appalachian region, followed up by two more meetings…

Chronicling a year-long project to study fantasy literature, this book presents essays, teaching units, student writing models, and "jack tales." The project chronicled in the book consisted of a 4-week intensive study program for librarians and teachers of grades 2 through 7 throughout the Appalachian region, followed up by two more…

Noting that statewide writing assessment shows the achievements of Oregon students over the last decade, this booklet explains the results for the 1993-1997 assessments and provides papers illustrating the work that Oregon students in grades 3 and 5 produce on the state test. The booklet's chapters are: (1) The History of Writing Assessment in…

This paper introduces a procedure for analyzing sentential themes and demonstrates how it may be useful to students when they consider the effectiveness of their own sentences in the process of revising a piece of writing. The paper shows that, by analyzing sentential themes and their function in academic writing, students can learn to perform the…

This paper discusses parody as an effective pedagogical device and as a way of teaching recognition of, and appreciation for, form. If the subject parodied is in poetic form, then rhyme and rhythm become factors for the parodist to consider. If the subject parodied is in prose, then the parodist must address the techniques of narrative,…

This guide discusses how computers can be integrated into the writing process. The guide includes sections on stages of the writing process (pre-writing, writing, response, revision, and recognition); letters from children using computers for projects and communication with other children; and a review of some word processors and writing tools.…

Nassau Community College (NCC) offers a grammar course as a humanities option that may be taken instead of a literature course. The approach to the course incorporates reader-response theory, feminist criticism, new historicism, and journal writing as the key means for enabling students to learn. Each student has a notebook divided into sections…