A writing exchange project at Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College in Vermont, funded by Apple Education Foundation and McDonnell Douglas, examined what happened when high school students use word processors and a modem to write to distant audiences. In the first exchange, students interviewed each other in pairs and wrote short…

Describes the theory of image restoration discourse as an approach for understanding corporate crisis situations. States this theory can be used by practitioners to help design messages during crises and by critics or educators to critically evaluate such messages. Describes and illustrates the theory's basic concepts. Offers suggestions for…

Considers how the Nigerian theatre scene has been dominated by the necessity of practicing theatre that is of direct relevance to its audience in terms of acceptability and functionality. Notes that the "Tandari" experiences were intended to contribute to the reformation process of young people in prison. Documents the process, findings…

Describes some of the problems in communicating educational research findings to a general audience and provides helpful information on how researchers can best present data on educational practices that work and those that don't. The needs of the audience should be the primary focus in such reports. (SLD)

Describes how a class of seventh graders learned to use diplomacy and effective interpersonal communication to let their teachers know how they feel. (PRA)

Describes an assignment for a sophomore-level technical-writing course which teaches students to respond to different audiences with different needs by having them analyze and then respond to actual complaint letters (on the same topic but from two very different people). Includes successful and unsuccessful responses generated by the students.…

Offers suggestions for training librarians to work with teens. Discusses knowing the audience and including them as part of the presentation; addressing controversial topics such as gay and lesbian teens; using handouts, including an evaluation of the presentation; and some basic topics to cover. Includes recommended resources for young adult…

Describes a successful approach used by the author in "Composition and Literature" courses which teaches students to write in a relaxed manner about material unnatural to them (literary texts). Describes focusing on communicating to a generally ignorant reader who is knowledgeable about the work. Argues that papers became clearer as the semester…

Describes the writer's experiences teaching American business writing in Russia and attempting to find documents for comparison of Russian and American approaches to business communication. Finds that the most documents common in the United States are rare or nonexistent in Russia; there, documents exist largely to show to officials rather than to…

Suggests that through Kenneth Burke, writing teachers can approach writing as something to be feared, something to approach with trembling and mortification. Examines Burke's notion of how language "goads" writers to eliminate the response of others. Examines contemporary and Burkean approaches to writing that would help students to…

Describes an argument workshop that can demystify the concept for students by revealing to them how much they already know about persuading an audience. Concludes that an argument workshop helps students see the authors included in their textbooks as individuals who drew from a repertoire of argumentative techniques to persuade an audience. (SG)

Discusses the use of literature clusters (8 to 12 children's books on a particular topic) to enhance learning and instruction. Concludes that the process of developing a literature cluster on intergenerational relationships will result in a cluster that expresses both the participants' experiences and their understanding of the intended audience.…

This article discusses the author's use of a performance-based evaluation in his fifth grade Spanish class in a K-5 public elementary school located in Princeton, New Jersey. The author realized the need to break the old testing paradigm and discover a new way of demonstrating student language acquisition since the traditional tests did not seem…

This article describes a literacy project with fourth-grade Latino students in a bilingual U.S. classroom and provides some insights on the importance of encouraging children's uses of two languages for communicating, reading, and writing in the classroom. The author discusses the following implications: (1) Teachers should encourage their…

The Stipulations Chart is a simple summary of some 90 tenets of communication theory, arranged in a way that allows students in basic communication courses to access those tenets which are relevant to a communication at hand. The 5-page chart organizes theoretical tenets in 2 columns; according to the communication "situation" and the…