Laments the neglect of punctuation in English courses, even in university-preparatory schools. Emphasizes the greater importance that punctuation has in English than in German. Illustrates, with example sentences, the interference of the native language and shows how using or omitting a comma can change the meaning of a sentence. (IFS/WGA)

Suggests that in evaluating student papers audiotapes have several advantages over written comments: audiotapes make for a holistic instead of myopic evaluating approach, and make it easier to make positive comments. Explains system for transferring responsibility for grammatical errors from the teacher to the student. (TB)

Offers sufficient responses to 60 of the most frequently made errors in German grammar, plus 13 punctuation rules, and proposes that the instructor hand out this list to the students and henceforth "tag" language errors by the corresponding number, then have the student correct them and resubmit the assignment for a better grade. (GLR)

The three papers included in this report address typography for graphic communication, typographic access structures for educational texts, and typography as macropunctuation. The first paper considers the consequences of an aesthetic bias in the literature of typography, and identifies two misleading assumptions about textbooks; i.e., that print…

Analyzes the expressive and stylistic role of punctuation in French literary works, pointing out that this aspect of language deserves more attention by teachers of advanced French courses. Suggests that students should be gradually sensitized to the value of punctuation as a tool for interpretation and production of creative writing. (MES)

Contains six short descriptions of lesson plans that teachers have found effective in a range of areas: (1) first day confidence building; (2) innovative lessons in punctuation; (3) approaches to teaching the comparison/contrast papers; (4) writing about possible careers; (5) student presentations designed to make literature come alive; (6)…

Reports on the success of a writing center's phone service, which answers questions about English usage, grammar, punctuation, diction, and documentation. (RL)

Reviews several software packages that analyze text readability, check for spelling and style problems, offer desktop publishing capabilities, teach interviewing skills, and teach grammar using a computer game. (SRT)

Examines two studies: one that shows that competent to highly competent writers find writing centers beneficial, and the other that shows that faculty continue to think of writing centers as suited to remedial students and surface level corrections. Attempts to glean from these studies important information that could act as a corrective to all…

It is a commonly held assumption that Harvard-trained rhetoricians during the late 19th and early 20th centuries were concerned mainly with superficial mechanical correction, and, further, that they dissociated student writing from any meaningful context and contributed to the division between composition and literature. Howard James Savage was…

Community college professors have a responsibility as teachers to help students learn the many new words which must be added to their high school vocabularies if they are to be successful. While some instructors provide students with a list of jargon words relevant to a particular course, most ignore the problem posed by new words encountered in…

Describes a teaching method that uses Molly Bloom's soliloquy from James Joyce's "Ulysses" to teach punctuation to freshman writing students. Argues that the assignment helps students discover their power as orderers. (EL)

Presents a potpourri of classroom techniques used by 28 teachers to develop skills in paragraph composition, public speaking, classroom discussion, the examination of specific literary works, and other language arts activities. (RL)

Describes an assignment designed to dispel prospective English teachers' dichotomous ideas about language ("right" or "wrong"); gain a sense that more than one dialect could be accepted; and understand that the variations from the handbook rules ("errors") might even be rhetorically based. (TB)

Elementary school teachers acknowledge the need for better writing instruction, but seldom have time for it within their already crowded curricula. Writing instruction suffers from placing skills development before writing activities, from emphasis on reading, and because many teachers are not well prepared to teach writing. A low priority is…