In developing teaching strategies for students who are poor writers but good readers, it is useful to explore the characteristics of good readers and of poor writers, and to consider implications for improving classroom practices. Good readers tend to put into practice four major cognitive strategies when they read: they plan, translate or…

To demonstrate that peer evaluation is an appropriate means of improving written composition, particularly in terms of audience and goal orientation, the use of peer evaluation as a teaching method is discussed and then the connection between peer evaluation and audience awareness is drawn. Based on observation of Dutch 17-year-old students, the…

If research into writing, particularly on computers as writing tools, is to assist teachers to improve writing pedagogy, the emphasis should be toward conducting naturalistic and context-sensitive studies. Early studies involved traditional experimental research instruments and looked not at the learning process but at the written product,…

National Writing Project reports show that writing process institutes and workshops have effected some positive changes in attitudes toward personal writing. The many teacher-written articles appearing in professional journals attest to the use and benefits of personal writing in the classroom. Nevertheless, there is still no evidence that…

Focusing on procedures and strategies suitable for teaching writing to students in grades 4, 6, and 8, this paper examines the factors that have been shown through research to influence effective writing. The paper divides the research examined into the categories of metacognition; socially-based writing strategies; theory-tested approaches to…

This paper examines what has been learned from research about the complex connections between literacy, technology, and learning. The beginnings of research in this area coincided with the introduction of personal computers (PCs) into educational settings in the late 1970s. For the first decade, researchers asked the kinds of questions best…

Intended for teachers, this paper considers response to student writing, looking at the different angles from which it is commonly perceived and acknowledging the complications that evaluation and the demands of curriculum add to that response. Three major areas are examined. There is an historical look at response, so that some of the roots of…

A discussion of what functional linguistic research can offer teachers of composition and English is presented in this paper, which provides examples of different levels of analysis (phonology, morphology, and syntax) for the language of a variety of populations (including traditional freshmen, basic writers, English as a second language (ESL)…

Recognizing the differences between reading and writing is as important as recognizing their similarities for improving current methods of teaching composition. Environment and motivation are two areas in which these differences are most noticeable. Since motivation is a preexisting quality that can only be fostered and not implanted, environment…

A response to a piece of student writing will be most effective if it helps students consciously identify and solve their composing problems, stimulates them to use the response, and helps them to transfer these practiced skills. Furthermore, the response should (1) take place during the process of writing rather than after a piece is completed,…

Reflecting interest in children's language development, including an increased emphasis on written language production, this paper contains a review of research, some assumptions about children's language development, and a list of objectives for a combined literature and writing program for above-average students at the intermediate level. The…

Reviews research on the efficacy of word processing programs in teaching students how to revise their papers and speculates on what kinds of programs will be available in the future. (JC)

Using the right hemisphere of the brain in evaluating student writing means consciously and consistently incorporating its emotional, intuitive, and holistic functions with the more analytical functions of the logical "left" hemisphere when considering, judging, and directing improvement in student writing. Research seems to suggest that…