Written syntactic complexity is considered in relation to the four modes of discourse (argumentation, exposition, narration, and description). In a study of 153 children at three ability ranges within each of three grade levels (three, four, and five), syntactic complexity was found to differ significantly across the modes. The range of syntactic…

This study has three purposes: (1) to determine whether the graphic organizer (a schematic representation of text structure using key vocabulary terms) could be used to compensate for the effects of a passage organized with a description top-level structure; (2) to explore the effectiveness of providing students differing in reading ability with…

Essays in which 40 freshman composition students described unusual or extraordinary persons were analyzed for the charcteristic choices that males and females made and for the typical ways men and women were described. The analysis yielded seven findings with social implications. Both males and females tended to choose males as objects for…

Paragraph writing mediated by imagery is richer, more flexible, and more creative than that produced by the somewhat impoverished, predictable, one-process model usually taught in composition classes. Since the writing advice given students differs considerably from the practice of professional writers, students should be given exercises that not…

This paper suggests that a change in mode of expression --narrative, descriptive, or expository--can influence the syntactic complexity of children's writing. The implications of the research studies reviewed here may offer direction for education in general. Instructional strategies which make use of variation in writing mode to encourage gains…

The sex of college freshmen theme writers was identified by analyzing subject matter clues. A sample of 60 descriptive themes was selected for study; half were written by females and half by males. A panel of five female and five male English teachers read the themes and indicated the sex they thought the writers to be as well as the reasons for…

The production of non-narrative information (descriptive versus expository) across written and oral modes was examined for second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade Greek elementary school students. Written and oral protocols were taken from a total of 240 students at each of 3 grades and evaluated according to: (1) the size of the text produced, measured…

When students write in response to literature, they make reading a creative act. Recording their personal reaction to a poem or an excerpt from a larger work, students become aware of the complex web of past experiences, associations and ideas triggering their responses; they learn to interact more fully, more consciously, with the text. Besides…

This paper describes a year-long, college senior composition course based on nature writing and open to students from all content areas. Nature writing is defined as writing about nature with the specific requirement that the writer must remain true to the objective facts of nature while at the same time presenting the human response to, and the…

In order to determine the effects of writing for different audiences and in different modes of discourse on the syntactic complexity of compositions written by sixth and tenth grade students, 240 students were asked to write in three different modes (argumentive, descriptive, and narrative) to be read by a teacher and a best friend. There was a…

Group activities in the classroom can be a useful way to explore various standard rhetorical patterns. For descriptive writing, students can select and write about unsigned collages made by classmates. The writer can try to find a unifying theme that characterizes the artist's personality. A narrative component can be added to descriptive writing…

Two studies were designed to investigate the age at which students adapt expository writing to meet the needs of different audiences. In the first study, students in grades four, eight, twelve, and at university level wrote descriptions of geometric figures that would enable someone unfamiliar with a figure to draw it. For all grades, realistic…

Provided and discussed are examples of children's writing that can be valued aesthetically. Teachers should help children evaluate their own writing processes and products. This self-evaluation will help children develop their own creativity and make them more able to appreciate the writing of others. (RM)

This document describes and illustrates an approach to expressive writing which employs student-authored books--"I Am The Author Books" (ITABs)--for use in individual and group counseling with children. It begins with a brief review of pertinent literature on expressive writing as a counseling intervention, and then describes experiences with…

This paper demonstrates the compatability of Aristotle's Four Causes (material, formal, efficient, and final) and George Campbell's Four Forms of Discourse (description, narration, exposition, and argumentation) and synthesizes them to form an ordered yet flexible writing model that can be used in composition instruction. Within the context of…