A teacher shares her technique for improving student writing: add detail. Forget organization, cutting, and adding more information. Get students to focus only on adding more detail to information already included. Examples are given. (MT)

Suggestions to help elementary educators teach students to use adjectives sparingly yet effectively include presenting and discussing definitions of adjectives from grammar books, incorporating models of adjective use from literature, explaining redundant adjective use, avoiding grammar exercises that require rewriting to add adjectives, and…

Recommends that teachers concentrate on explaining explicit procedures for revising style, because many novice writers interpret revision as only proofreading for typing or spelling errors. Provides a set of guidelines for stylistic revision that help students identify problems with passive verbs, nominalizations, wordiness and imprecise language.…

Discusses the problem of poor English skills among college students and the need for correct English in business and industrial communication. Presents techniques for improving such skills. (HTH)

Presents ideas on writing instruction for teachers of mathematics, physics, accounting, biology, and social studies. Contains guidelines for designing writing assignments in various content areas. (EL)

Elementary students can become good editors by using editing skills during the writing process. Teachers must present and repeat editing topics in minilessons, provide reminders of particular skills that were addressed, teach students to use editing resources, and expect students to develop proper usage gradually. (SM)

Discusses the pros and cons of using copying as a means for English-as-a-Second-Language students to improve their handwriting skills. The use of chalkboards, plastic slates, and newsprint with felt markers is described. (LB)

This manual is intended for instructors who wish to help students improve their writing skills. Part 1 of the manual which is divided into three sections details reasons why students have problems with writing, and includes examples of some faulty constructions. The final section includes: (1) a summary of strategies for improving student writing;…

Describes a freshman composition assignment in which students create fictional figures and approach a final biography about the figure through a series of shorter essays. (HTH)

This self-paced text/workbook is designed for the adult learner who needs a review of grammar and writing skills in order to write clearly and concisely on the job. It offers career-minded students 14 individualized instructional modules on grammar, paragraph writing, report writing, letter writing, and spelling. It is designed for both self-paced…

Claims that writing logs constitute an effective teaching tool in basic college writing courses. Discusses one teacher's success using writing logs to assist the development of students' freewriting skills. Includes sample entries revealing students' comments and progress throughout the term and documenting the teacher's response to these…

Suggests using poetry's short short forms for a methodical and rapid series of writing assignments that emphasize both careful writing at the sentence level and overall planning and respect for form. (HTH)

Describes one method of introducing journal writing to a junior high school class and offers a number of journal writing assignments. (MM)

A student was able to overcome flatness in his writing when he focused on the process of writing rather than the product. The student's draft of an essay about a symbol the student found meaningful contained spelling and grammatical errors and was also "flat." The essay had no apparent thesis, demonstrated lack of success in issues of…

Research from various fields supports the crucial relationship of speech and writing. Experience with the Story Workshop used in composition classes can show how thinking, speaking, listening, reading, writing, recalling, and immediate audience focus can be integrated into every phase of the writing process. Activities must enable students find…