Focusing on synthesis--the ability to recognize and create new ideas that subsume and relate to others--as one of the most sophisticated skills writers can attain, the articles in this journal present many ideas for teaching synthesis and a number of classroom approaches that combine the study of English with other fields. The following titles and…

Designed to combine the science and the art of teaching composition, this series of assignments encourages junior high and high school writing students to explore tone, original visual images, point of view, and other literary techniques. One assignment asks students to write a number of paragraphs alternately using sarcasm, humor, melancholy, and…

Drill and practice, tutorial, dialogue, and text analysis programs represent the major uses of computers to date in the field of English composition. Drill and practice programs are convenient to use and inexpensive. However, they are usually geared to the low level achiever. Tutorial programs tailor their presentations to students' responses,…

One hundred seventy-nine students enrolled in a first-year college level composition course were subjects in a study of the effects of four levels of audience specification on writing anxiety, performance, and sensitivity to audience. Subjects completed the Writing Apprehension Test, which determined levels of writing apprehension, and then…

This report provides questions and answers about writing across the curriculum, along with a series of 11 writing projects for instructors in the general education core courses (i.e., Energy in the Natural Environment, Humanities, Individual in Transition, and the Social Environment) at Miami-Dade Community College. First, the questions and…

This article focuses on using writing activities in adult basic education/General Educational Development level classes to increase students' self-confidence, enjoyment of writing, and opportunities for group instruction. Suggestions are made for early writing experiences as well as later activities. The writing activities most enjoyed by other…

Domain-specific knowledge can be processed so that analytical/critical thinking in verbal and written discourse is encouraged in the classroom by using a guided design strategy intended to solve open-ended problems. Each of the four operations in the strategy (state the goal, generate ideas, prepare a plan, and take action) make use of the…

A study analyzed how freshman composition students handled an assignment that forced them to perform an act of sophisticated literacy which was a variation between spontaneity (present) and repetition (past) with a focus on how novice writers borrow language, whether through quotation or misquotation. The assignment involved two masterpieces of…

The "Future Problem Solving" exercises (originated by E. Paul Torrance at the University of Georgia) can be used as a method to teach literature. The process used in future problem solving entails all the higher level processes, involves both critical and creative thinking, as well as cooperative learning, and lends itself to the…

The old but little appreciated rhetorical genre of exploratory writing is a potentially powerful way to enable students to grasp what is going on in the university, to become more culturally literate. It is a means for seeing what constitutes good and bad practice. If training in exploratory writing is effective, students can more fully join the…

The expressive reading journal aims to break through student passivity by asking students to write extensively and expressively about what they read, each time they read, and to make discoveries and take possession of what they read. This type of journal in the academic course depends for its usefulness on the nature of expressive language, the…

Instructional materials for North Seattle Community College's course "Humanities in Thought and Action" are presented. The course, the goals of which are to increase students' knowledge of art, drama, language, literature, and music, while also improving communication and thinking skills, involves multi-media presentations by 14 guest lecturers…

This book explores the implications and consequences, both theoretically and practically, of four propositions: (1) discourse is produced in context; (2) discourse is primarily a reaction to a precedent action; (3) social interactions in which language is used to construct reality are performed in a variety of roles; and (4) the features of…

Developed for use with collaborative writing activities in conjunction with the Center for Educational Computing in English (CECE) Talk Program, this student guide provides sample activities for collaborative writing as well as detailed examples of the activities. The examples begin with a short exchange between people using the talk program to…

"Doodlefunking" is a useful method for motivating students to produce creative language products: "doodle" suggests aimless drawing directed by the unconscious while the conscious is attending to other matters, and "funking" connotes moving into a mental state in which the conscious mind is shut off while the…