Noting that teachers must devise writing situations that help students see possibilities for revision beyond mechanics and usage, this paper describes several exercises that will help students use the computer or word processor as a tool for assisting them when they write. The exercises, which can be done with or without a microcomputer, with a…

A study was conducted to see if the use of word processing programs during composition instruction for basic writers would result in a larger quantity of writing and more global revision while writing. Subjects were 18 fifth, sixth, or seventh grade students who had been referred for remedial reading and writing instruction. They were assigned to…

Intended for teachers, this monograph argues that, unlike the structured, formulaic "school" essay, personal essays in the manner of Michel de Montaigne lead students to explore their connections with ideas and texts. The monograph describes several strategies which use writing as a tool for critical thinking. The monograph contains the…

A study examined the attitudes of pre-service secondary teachers toward "writing-to-learn" before and after a compulsory course on language across the curriculum. Subjects, 90 graduates of arts, sciences, social studies, music, business, and physical education programs, recorded their attitudes and understanding of writing to learn at…

Community college students tend to perceive a gap between their current writing ability and the level of writing skill they expect to need as employees in the future. Unfortunately, college composition classes generally do a poor job of capitalizing on the true value of writing to career development, and fail to have students practice the kind of…

Using technical writing in the regular freshman composition course stimulates student interest by having the appeal of novelty and expands the horizons of students in the humanities and the pure and applied sciences. To begin the unit, one might stimulate interest in the content and style of technical writing of the past by using Robert M.…

The brain-flow writing technique, which might also be called the "fast flow" technique, offers a particularly useful means of helping adults overcome writer's block. It also offers some bonuses in the form of enhanced creativity, improved thought-flow, and much faster writing output. There are six steps to brain-flow writing. In the…

Writing samples as diagnostic measurement tools have many variables that the instructor must control--time is a factor, and often the instructor needs more than one sample to fairly evaluate student writing ability. One method for better predicting the exact nature of students' writing problems is sentence combining. For sentence combining to be…

Using a sequential approach, this booklet identifies a number of research skills students need to become independent in gathering and presenting information. The booklet begins with a brief description of the sequential development of research skills it recommends, a bar graph representation of the skills used as a curriculum planner, and a…

This paper discusses strategies for teaching college composition, emphasizing "mechanical-meaningful-communicative" (M-M-C) sequencing. Under the M-M-C sequence, a student performs the following exercises: mechanical exercises, which build success in stimulus-response learning; meaningful exercises, which provide stimuli for problem-solving tasks;…

This booklet is a collection of Mullah Nasruddin tales that are commonly enjoyed in Afghanistan. These tales have been adapted to form a course in controlled composition for students studying English as a foreign language. After reading each tale the student is asked to carry out certain tasks. In addition to the simplest task, copying the passage…

Sixty consequential writing tasks are described in this source book to help elementary and secondary school students develop their abilities in written composition. The activities foster thinking by posing game-like writing problems that require students to use their minds in the ways that good writers do, and to solve the problems that good…

Sentence combining activities can be used throughout the English curriculum. The entire composing process can be developed with sentence combining activities based on student rough drafts of book reports, analysis and imitation of sentences written by professional writers, the organization of sentences in whole paragraphs or essays, and "oral…

Journal writing is an expressive form of writing that teachers in all curricula can use to help their students increase writing fluency, facilitate learning, and promote cognitive growth. It combines the positive aspects of diaries and class notebooks, focusing on academic subjects from a personal point of view. Teachers can assign journal entries…

Reflecting the view that a single formula for revolutionizing the teaching of writing is unavailable, this publication of the New York State English Council presents a series of articles dealing with various topics in the teaching of composition in high school and college settings. Subjects discussed include the following: the use of fables in the…