A writer and educator with an obsession for writing and a concern with the teaching of writing demonstrates how all writing, in many different ways, is autobiographical and that autobiography grows from a few deep taproots that are set down into the past in childhood. Autobiography (described as the way an individual makes meaning out of his or…

This paper describes experiences in teaching writing skills to elementary gifted students with learning disabilities. Journal writing and word processing are found to be powerful tools in improving student writing while increasing students' self-confidence. Guest speakers, daily reading aloud by the teacher, and field trips to enrich students'…

Reading and writing are commonly seen as parallel processes of composing meaning, employing similar cognitive and linguistic strategies. Research has begun to examine ways in which knowledge of content and strategies contribute to the construction of meaning in reading and writing. The metaphor of mining can provide a useful and descriptive means…

Writing teachers should employ a pragmatic-eclectic approach to help freshman students become acquainted with as many writing models as possible. To privilege one model over the many others is to ignore the student's need for self- and world-discovery. The composition classroom has become the current center of critical reading and thinking skills,…

The emptiness and nothingness associated with writer's block is often described as a kind of death, a place where there is nothing to decide, nothing about which to express an opinion. However, for students who enter the writing classroom from a different culture, the problem may not be lack of ideas, but conflicting ideas. Some of these students…

Examines the reading and writing strategies of one student over a three-year period and traces the process she went through to acquire college-level academic literacy in English, her second language. Suggests that the student's educational background shaped her approach to United States academic discourse practices. (TB)

Shares some of the things learned during interviews and observations of three English teachers focusing on the role of planning in the teaching process. (MG)

Warns against a complete reliance on the "writing process approach" in writing instruction, stressing that not all writers rely on rewriting and revision and that emphasis on group response does not necessarily lead to effective writing. Argues that the process approach discourages modeling and the use of well-known rhetorical patterns. (DMM)

Discusses experiences with preservice teachers and models for writing instruction. Describes a tutorial component which shows that preservice teachers can change their teaching practices but at a rate and in a sequence determined by their beliefs about, attitudes toward, and experiences as writers and writing teachers. (MG)

Introduces the special issue on children's writing which contains seven articles that offer analytic portraits of the teaching and learning of writing from prekindergarten through seventh grade. Highlights the collective themes of a social perspective on writing, of children's diverse resources, and of the links between those resources and…

These three papers deal with ways to incorporate social studies into the language arts curriculum. The first paper, "What Social Studies Teachers Need To Know about Language Arts," provides suggestions on the writing process and how that process can be used in the social studies. Paper 2, "Applying Communications Activities to Learning Processes…

College faculty who teach writing courses might find an examination of early religious literature helpful when trying to explain "writing for an audience" or "audience awareness" to their students. The Jesuit priest who preached to and wrote for the Indians in Brazil during the early colonial period, Jose de Anchieta, is a…

The cognitive skills associated with the writing of fiction and poetry are equally important in analytical and evaluative writing. Excluding them from freshman composition in particular discourages the students from developing a genuine mastery of critical writing skills. Teachers of college freshmen should not define "creative" as the…

Lev Vygotsky and others have shown that "that which is within" is partly the product of socialization--a welter of competing claims, roles and voices. Teachers should aim, however, to achieve negotiation rather than suppression, transformation, or accommodation among these competing elements. With this in mind, 20 minority students at…

Examines how three English-speaking advisers and their non-native English-speaking doctoral students used citations and related writing techniques to make new knowledge claims in science dissertation writing. Finds that academic advisers play an important role in helping the students, and finds no negative influence from the students' native…