Discusses a research project examining the integration of computers into seventh and eighth grade language arts classrooms. Focuses on the ways in the researchers' observations tend to conform to what has been shown by existing research. Discusses their results in terms of four themes that emerged in their analysis. (MG)

Teaching and learning activities for idea generation and planning, used to teach expository writing to university students in Singapore, are described. The techniques are applicable to both English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and English-as-a-first-language composition classes. (14 references) (LB)

In this paper, the role of computers in writing process was investigated. Last 25 years of journals were searched to find related articles. Articles and books were classified under prewriting, composing, and revising and editing headings. The review results showed that computers can make writers' job easy in the writing process. In addition,…

o complementary experiments analyzed the acquisition of text content linearization in writing, in French-speaking participants from third to ninth grades. In both experiments, a scrambled text paradigm was used: eleven ideas presented in random order had to be rearranged coherently so as to compose a text. Linearization was analyzed on the basis…

This study investigated the extent to which English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) writing students in a Taiwanese university used ideas provided by their peers during computer-mediated prewriting discussions, and the quality of the peers' comments. Subjects were 17 students in four writing groups. Transcripts of discussions preceding the first…

Playwriting gives students focused experience with dialogue, which is useful in many kinds of writing, and provides an avenue for process-based writing instruction. The assignment of writing plays allows students to try out various personae without risking direct self-identification. Students write more for one another than for the teacher,…

A study investigated the effects of preteaching vocabulary on students' performance of a writing task targeted to the use of those words. Subjects were 50 fourth grade and 55 sixth grade students. Materials included a pretest narrative writing assignment, a 10-word vocabulary pretest and posttest, a vocabulary instructional booklet with teacher's…

Divided into two sections, this report outlines several components of computer based instruction in the composing process. The first section, which focuses on the use of computers in editing, generating ideas, and producing text, presents a users' manual for composition instruction on a microcomputer, a general description of how computer based…

Intended to help secondary school composition instructors develop a useful, pragmatic unit on technical writing, this monograph explores the theory, research, and pedagogy of technical writing. The first section discusses the purpose and forms of technical writing, as well as elements of technical style including diction, paragraphing, and…

One of nine brief guides for special educators on using computer technology, this guide focuses on the use of computers to improve skills and attitudes in writing instruction. Pre-writing tools such as group brainstorming, story webs, free-writing, journal entries, and prewriting guides help generate ideas and can be carried out either on or off…

This paper discusses a study on the composing processes by which native Japanese, Japanese Americans, and native Americans write technical or business English. Results of the study revealed a specific preference by students for one of the three general phases of composing: pre-writing, writing, or rewriting. Although the process preference did not…

The articles in this journal issue provide a rationale and methods for enhancing students' critical awareness of visual media and for a process approach to composition instruction. The titles of the articles and their authors are as follows: (1) "Reel English: Film Study in the High Schools" (James Griswold); (2) "Introducing History Media"…

Addressing the difficulty encountered by many vocational students in narrowing, focusing, developing, and structuring their ideas for technical writing projects, a computer program was designed to provide these students with a simple, time-saving method of brainstorming and organizing their thoughts. By asking thought-generating questions…

A study investigated how and when writing is used at the elementary school level to determine (1) what kind of instructional support elementary students receive, (2) what prewriting support is provided, (3) what support for revising is offered, and (4) what happens to the students' writings. Using preservice teachers as observers, data were…

The main tasks of the foreign language writing class should be to focus on the writing process and to help the students see their work as an act of communication with value in itself. An important means of encouraging good writing is the provision of good readers during the composition stage. A Swedish undergraduate course in English as a second…