Stephen Tchudi, among others, argues that the distinction between expository writing and creative writing is finally a false distinction. Louise Rosenblatt explains that whether readers are reading creative writing or expository writing, they expect the experience of reading to provide them with both information and pleasure. A corollary of these…

This collection of materials, a summary of a workshop, is divided into five sections, framed by introductory and concluding remarks. The sections are: (1) a panel on "What Is the Domain Beyond?"--panelists discussed their particular interests in areas that could not be traditionally classified as "cognitive" and related those…

Noting that a case-study approach can stimulate student thinking and learning, this paper describes how students in a writing-intensive course on parasitology wrote brief medical case studies of parasites already studied for other students to read, evaluate, and identify the parasite. The paper presents a brief description of the course, an…

This book presents the essentials of good writing in an easy-to-follow 4-part process. The first step discussed in the book, "Using Your Noodle," guides the student through the preparatory thinking process (audience awareness, brainstorming, grouping thoughts). The second step, "Following a Format," presents the challenge of…

Effective informational writing assignments show students that creativity and imagination are essential to the generation of new ideas in all content areas. A collection of these assignments has been arranged into five categories of increasing complexity based on the following criteria: whether the point of view is assigned as self-selected;…

An approach to teaching literary point of view to high school and college composition classes is described in this brief article. AUTHOR'S COMMENT (excerpt): My students demonstrate little understanding of the concept of point of view. They seem unaware that selecting a point of view is an important decision for a writer, because it controls the…

An approach to generating enthusiasm for writing through a writing contest is described in this brief article. AUTHOR'S COMMENT (excerpt): Why would a librarian sponsor a writing contest for more than eleven hundred students in an elementary school? I wanted to provide a writing experience for my students that would be a positive one; I hoped to…

Inventive activities in the creative writing classroom can generate a great deal of excitement for the writing of poetry. Such activities might begin with improvising ways in which poetry can be written in alternative media, such as haiku on clay tablets that can be glazed and fired, then macramed together into wind chimes. Another activity,…

To determine the relationship between handwriting speed and syntactic complexity, a study examined the syntactic features of 60 students enrolled in either a basic writing course or a traditional college composition course. Fast and slow handwriting were identified from highest scores on any one of four writing "tests." The writing…

Intended for use by students, this illustrated Australian classroom unit was designed to encourage young people to develop a lifelong habit of letter writing. The booklet begins with a letter to children from the Australian "Post," and excerpts from two poems about letter writing. A section on how letters can link the world emphasizes…

Instructors often criticize student writing styles in abstract, nebulous terms which further serve to alienate student writers from the concept of style. College instructors should direct students to such concise, recognized discourses on improving writing style as Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style." In these manuals, specific, effective…

A study conducted at Central Michigan University examined the effective use of undergraduate teaching assistants as small group leaders by the Journalism Department for its writing across the curriculum program (WAC). The teaching assistants who participated--students with a minor in teaching high school journalism--emerged as an important…

Seven sentence combining activities designed to be stimulating and effective for college-level Japanese students of English as a Second Language are described. It is also demonstrated that a wide range of subjects can provide viable and engaging topics for the activities. The exercises include the following: (1) combining sentences provided into a…

Educational research has ascertained that parents who are actively involved in their children's learning at home help these children become more successful learners in and out of school. Learning activities requiring more imagination than equipment are presented for four age levels. These reading, writing, math, science, and social studies home…

Using animals as a means of learning the Arapaho language, the fourth student workbook presents 15 lessons. Lessons include spelling; matching words and pictures, word search puzzles; substituting Arapaho words of animals in place of the picture; cross-word puzzles; fill-in-the-blank statements; transcribing English words into Arapaho and Arapaho…