Discusses the dilemmas and the benefits, both academic and personal, involved in the personal essay writing class. Notes that students often pick painful topics to write about, and looks at research in trauma theory and cognitive psychology for information to help students move from a narrative that skims the top of their experience to images that…

Explicates issues related to teaching, evaluating, and remediating handwriting, via a case study. States that children with handwriting problems need empathy, understanding, early identification, and remedial assistance. (SR)

Argues that children's literature enhances the teaching of reading skills, assists in language development, provides a good model for developing writing skills, and develops permanent reading habits. (SR)

Discusses the connection between editors and teachers. Describes the author's editor, who focuses on helping authors meet the expectations of gatekeepers. Discusses how professional writing teachers might use the author's editor as a teaching model (helping students write for actual audiences and teaching more about the text-production process),…

Describes a method utilizing student-teacher memos that helps students to be more aware of their purposes and audiences for their writing. Delineates the procedures by which one teacher instituted communication with students through the use of such memos, thereby improving student writing. (HB)

Argues that Mina Shaughnessy's view of language as a politically innocent vehicle of meaning overlooks basic writers' need to confront the dissonance they experience between academic and other discourses. Suggests educators need to abandon the limitations of the essentialist view of language informing their pedagogy. (KEH)

Describes in detail many of the current computer software products with which students can improve their writing. Outlines and critiques current computer offerings, including grammar checking software, drafting and revision software, on-line writing guides, and style analysis software. (HB)

Describes the techniques developed by one instructor for helping students improve their writing, especially creative writing. Outlines how three central writing prompts can be used to inspire student writing and revision. Develops a computer metaphor as a helpful means by which students can access their own "screens." (HB)

Notes that creating focus which leads to formulating a thesis is a task with which many writers have trouble. Describes a process model of conceptual development that helps students gain confidence in abstracting, conceptualizing, and formulating a thesis. (NH)

Suggests ways to add the dimension of workplace reality to the teaching of business writing in the classroom, focusing on audience analysis, collaborative writing, and effective models of a variety of workplace documents. (SR)

Argues that student self-assessment and reflection need to be central components of writing instruction and that the response sequence between teacher and student should routinely include them. Offers examples of this sequence with two students, and presents nine specific classroom strategies that put self-assessment and reflection at the center…

Describes connections between art forgers and assessment practices of student writing in schools. Ponders how students might be encouraged to work more like masters than forgers. Argues that teaching strategies for reflection brings authenticity and encourages reflection in students about their work. Discusses techniques students can use to…

As increasing number of college and university instructors are requiring peer editing and electronic submission of writing assignments. It is necessary for high school students to learn that quality commentary is essential for peer editing to work and effectively improve their writing skills as part of their college preparation. Successful writers…

While placement procedures and lack of writing skills are certainly perplexing, classroom practices and procedures remain the most fundamental of challenges for the developmental writing instructor for good reason: time-on-task methods are the most direct means by which students improve skill levels. One instructor found that this approach to…

This book presents essays, letters to the editor, poems, and a book review on the topic of "E-Prime," a variant of the English language that eliminates the verbs of the "to be" family. The book reprints two symposia on E-Prime, previously published in the journal "ETC: A Review of General Semantics." Some of the other…