Analyzes changes in content and shifts in emphasis in rhetoric texts from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present. Suggests that the current-traditional approach to the teaching of rhetoric used in most college classrooms has a strong similarity to that advocated by early rhetoricians. (RBW)

A historical review since the late 1800s suggests that criticism of student writing ability has been a perennial problem and that similar reasons for it have been cited for nearly a century. (LBH)

Presents evidence that written responses to modality develop from a homogeneous writing quality to a more heterogeneous writing quality with some modes systematically favored over others." (Author)

Describes steps taken in order to make a contribution to professional literature and the practice of the profession. These steps include research, writing, review, retyping, simmering, final review and submitting. Professional writing should be substantive and scholarly. (JAC)

The junior high English teacher should encourage creative writing to make the students more aware of themselves and the world around them. (JH)

A consideration of real world language use yields five questions that could prove helpful in assessing student writing achievements: (1) What is the writer's purpose or intention? (2) What audience does the writer have in mind? (3) What are the organizing principles of the piece? (4) What range of experience and knowledge might one reasonably…

An examination of the written products and writing situations of a university reveals that virtually all of these writing tasks call for exposition, which further breaks down into the five components of seriation, classification, synthesis, compare/contrast, and analysis. These five components of expositional discourse form a set of…

This is the fourth and final report in a series dealing with the impact of the modes of discourse (description, narration, exposition, and argumentation) on written syntactic complexity at the elementary school level. The first three reports dealt in turn with the three grade levels involved in the study (third, fourth, and fifth grades). This…

An advanced writing course that does not repeat freshman English materials and techniques can encourage a variety of students to become enthusiastic about writing. One such course focuses on three writing modes: the poetic, the informative, and the persuasive. For the poetic mode, students write informal essays; for the informative mode, they…

Journal writing can motivate students to write frequently, thereby creating content which can later be properly structured. Students who keep journals tend to write better than those who do not. To help students explore certain ideas in journals further, teachers should ask questions or make statements that relate to the students' ideas. Sometimes…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is an information-gathering project that surveys the educational attainments of 9 year olds, 13 year olds, 17 year olds, and adults (ages 26 to 35) in ten learning areas, one of which is writing. This report focuses on persuasive and explanatory letter writing, representing two basic aims of…

CraftPlus[R] is an integrated learning package that consists of a K-8 spiraling, core writing curriculum based on explicit Target-Skills instruction; professional books; grade-level Curriculum Guides; sixteen workshop and classroom demonstration DVDs; and a CD with student samples and other classroom support materials. The grade-level Curriculum…

Over the last 3 decades or so, English and its related disciplines of Rhetoric and Composition have adopted new tools of research--tools other than the traditional ones of narrative and description. These other tools are empirical or scientific, those that are common to the social sciences, including experiments, case studies, surveys, and…

Basic writers can be taught to write effective expository prose if they are taught to revise, and they can make considerable progress if they are given opportunities to write narration before tackling the complexities of exposition. Narratives come easily to basic writers and allow them complete control over subject matter and language. The…