This field manual for composition teachers, written by community college and University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) writing instructors, examines practical and theoretical problems and strategies associated with teaching composition. Essays in chapter I, by Ruth Mitchell and Faye Peitzman, underscore the relevance and implications of…

This anthology of children's writing from two Infant, 10 Junior, two Modern, and two Grammar schools in the West Riding of Yorkshire focuses attention on the child's powers of expression rather than on his technical accomplishments . The work from each school is prefaced by a statement from the teacher describing the circumstances under which the…

To compare the results of three different methods of grammar instruction in remedial freshman English, three groups of 16 students each--matched on SCAT total raw score, age, and sex--were used as subjects. The approaches used were (1) formal instruction based on a traditional grammar textbook--control group; (2) discussion of the class' writing…

This manual describes and illustrates the writing system of modern Persian. It is modelled after Frank A. Rice's "Classical Arabic: The Writing System." Five sections concerning the writing system are provided: (1) printed Persian, (2) typewritten Persian, (3) handwritten Persian, (4) the combination of words, and (5) punctuation. (RL)

Outlines the curriculum used in the nineteenth century in Canada for instructing elementary and secondary students in grammar and composition. Notes that modern teachers of English have continued to rely upon the aims of traditional pedagogy because other programs for writing instruction have not displaced older pedagogical beliefs and…

Illustrates an approach to the study of writing that integrates ethnographic analysis of classroom interaction with linguistic analysis of written texts and teacher/student conversational exchanges, using a case study of writing in a sixth grade classroom during a writing assignment. (MM)

Suggests ways in which students can elaborate upon activities for improving thinking skills to produce interesting and creative poetry. (JC)

Outlines an integrated study approach to informational writing for second grade children. Using dinosaurs as the topic, discusses how students solved the problem of selecting, organizing, and structuring their information by focusing on smaller pieces of information or by planning a contents page for their book. (MM)

Describes the method and some of the exercises in a course in French composition for adults pursuing an advanced degree in French in evening courses. The practices discussed are journal keeping, a research paper, and exercises geared to these particular students. Samples of student writing are included. (AMH)

One teacher's experience using student-written texts as a basis for testing other students has become a good way of integrating the four language skills in a natural progression and in pinpointing students' language weaknesses. Using students' texts has also reinforced the importance of choosing visual materials carefully. (MSE)

Reports a protocol study of a freshman composition student to examine how significant a problem it actually is to learn to operate a computer, how influential students' expectations about computers are, whether the use of a computer promoted the importance of invention strategies, and whether computers encourage revision. (MS)

Describes a Language Experience Approach (LEA) dictation given by sixth-grade remedial readers, and discusses some weaknesses in using LEA to teach remedial reading. Explains how LEA can be modified to produce a more effective model for reading comprehension and writing instruction. (MM)

Discusses "Private Eye," an approach to teaching which focuses on developing students as artists, writers, and scientists. Describes how this approach uses the jewelers loupe to examine everyday objects 5 or 10 times bigger, thus altering students' way of viewing the world through the change of scale and through analogy-provoking questions. (SR)

Describes an exploration the author and his seventh-grade students undertook as they wrote essays about objects of personal significance. Describes how they examined a piece of literature (an essay) as a model for their own writing, how they spent some time talking and listening to one another about their personal objects, and how they then wrote…

The article examines understandings of class, race, gender and sexuality in the writings of secondary school students in two working-class schools in Durban. The analysis of students' questions and responses to a problem page "agony aunt", indicate how class and race come to be expressed through accounts of sexuality. In the letters many…