This anthology presents the creative writing of students in grades 7-12 discussing "Arizona treasures" and celebrating Arizona Statehood Day in 1994. The 36 poems and short descriptive pieces were chosen from over 1,000 entries from students in schools around Arizona. Entries in the anthology are grouped by grade level--grades 7-8, 9-10,…

Losing friendships are significant events for people throughout their life span. In spite of the importance of friendships to psychosocial health, studies of friendships loss are not found in the literature. This article begins to address this gap through a qualitative study utilizing autobiographical poetry as data. This study exemplifies…

The winning entries in this bulletin were chosen by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English as representing the best prose and poetry in the state for 1977. The 14 winners in the prose diviision were chosen from 357 student entries from 67 schools. The prose covers a variety of writing types including fiction, argumentation, and exposition…

Retention of prose is examined as it is affected by (1) outlines as advanced organizers; (2) preexperimental familiarity with the material; and (3) text genre. Findings are discussed in the context of current theories in cognitive psychology, particularly those of structure, organization, and representation of knowledge and prose. (Author/GK)

How to help students progress from descriptive to affective to creative responses through the use of films in a language arts class. (RB)

This book discusses basic craft elements of writing, illustrates from adult and children's literature what constitutes an engaging passage of description, and then illustrates how that craft can be taught in a workshop environment. In addition, this book includes involvement experiences that help teachers experience these craft elements. After an…

Describes an approach to teaching journalism students about descriptive writing by examining physical environments. Students go outdoors to find flowers about which to research, write, and sketch. Students are encouraged to become aware of their surroundings and think about physical details that bring hard news stories to life. Knowledge of nature…

The material in this book, contributed by teachers in the Los Angeles area, consists of instructional assignments and successful strategies for teaching creative writing at the secondary level. Sample lessons are grouped under broad categories (getting started, writing prose, writing verse, and miscellaneous instructional gambits) and contain…

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…

The practicing writer encounters four determinants of his use of prose. First, the language itself determines the expression: English, with its wealth of words and styles and with few traditional restrictions, provides problems of choice and temptations to overwrite. Second, the application of verse forms to the novel and a demand for consistently…

This study describes a workshop course for high school students interested in writing articles, biographies, and humorous essays. Emphasis is on form and content, with special attention to the development of individual styles. Course objectives for the student include: (1) imitating various sentence structures, paragraph constructions, and unique…

THIS BOOK PROVIDES TEACHERS WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR STIMULATING YOUNG WRITERS TO CREATE IMAGINATIVE COMPOSITIONS CONTAINING VERSATILE VOCABULARY WORDS AND GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS. THE SUGGESTIONS ARE GROUPED INTO FIVE CHAPTERS--(1) "SPINNING IMAGINATIVE THOUGHTS" IS DESIGNED TO ASSIST TEACHERS IN FOSTERING PUPILS' FLEXIBLE THINKING PROCESSES TOWARD THE…

As the inexperienced writer becomes aware of the issues involved in the composition of effective descriptive prose, he also develops a consistent control over his materials. The persona he chooses, if coherently thought out, can function as an index of many choices, helping him to manipulate the tone, intent, and mood of this style; to regulate…