Proposes that writing instruction at the intermediate level of second language study should be kept to a minimum. Gives examples of the kinds of brief derivative exercises that are most beneficial. (EKN)

Offers a five-step support technique for transferring speaking to writing and offers observations on helping children with the conventions of writing. (HTH)

Explored four- to six-year olds' approach to drawing and related writing tasks. Participants, unschooled in writing, were asked to depict common objects with a drawing and a written name. Analysis of videotape revealed systematic differences (random, continuous marks versus discrete, left-to-right marks). Results suggest that young children have…

Briefly discusses the development of writing in young children. Describes children's acquisition of concepts about writing, their experimentation with written language, and their construction of written language for themselves. (AS)

Discusses efforts at teaching children in kindergarten how to write, indicating that emergent readers can indeed write with scribbles, random letters, numerals, and sometimes words. Discusses their dictation, journal content, writing stages, and developmental trends. (HTH)

Printing and writing skills and their interaction were studied to discover if teachers should not teach cursive writing to students with poor printing skills. Writing samples were analyzed using a diagnostic inventory that focused on major elements of form and neatness. Results are discussed. (Author/DF)

Discusses public library rule that requires young children to print their names legibly to qualify for a library card. The case of a scribbling kindergartener, reading and writing readiness, comments on requirement from several children's-services coordinators in public libraries, printing size, skinny pencils, and the parents' ultimate…

Discusses the need for composition courses for non-native English speaking students who are majoring in science and technology to prepare them to write on scientific/technical topics. Unique differences between conventional and technical writing tasks are discussed, and teaching implications are assessed. (GLR)

Describes a program used in three Texas schools in which kindergarten children spend a part of each day writing. (FL)

Argues that James Moffett's influential model of a young writer's development is flawed, because it depicts beginning writers as being far more limited than they are. (HTH)

Explores the patterns in children's talk about their writing, by means of transcribed conversations during daily writing/sharing sessions in a first grade classroom. Discusses the importance of this kind of talk. (HTH)

Lists 12 parallel skills in drawing and writing, including the fact that drawing can reproduce aesthetic forms while writing can copy letters and letter groups. (DF)

Argues that children want to write and enjoy writing and that teachers need to provide them with suitable opportunities for doing so. Discusses different kinds of writing that allow children's voices to come through. (FL)

Describes how kindergarten children use invented spelling to rewrite Mother Goose nursery rhymes, indicating the phoneme grapheme system the children perceived from spoken language. (HTH)

Describes in diary form the process of reviewing new composition and grammar texts and noting their deficiencies and compares the offered material to what students actually need in composition instruction. (CRH)