This study investigated the relationship between components of working memory (WM) and the macrostructure (e.g., planning, writing, and revision) and microstructure (e.g., grammar, punctuation) of writing. A battery of WM and writing measures were administered to 160 high-school students. Overall, hierarchical regression analyses showed that the…

This article describes a project which identified the skills and abilities in written literacy of pre-service teachers, as well as their needs in this area. An intervention to address their needs is evaluated and its outcomes assessed, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses. Results show that it is possible to improve these…

Students in higher learning institutions need to write lots of reports based on the projects done. Since they are at the tertiary level of education, they are required to use English in their reports. This is to ensure that they are able to function well in English later at the workplace. Writing requires students to apply rules regarding sentence…

The use of function words in 135 essays written by deaf college underclassmen in developmental and credit-bearing English composition classes is described and compared with Standard English (SE) versions of the same essay. If student and SE versions were the same, this was considered mastery; if the student omitted a word, this was considered…

The author shows the importance of punctuation: why it is used, and how it is used. (MR)

Discusses the vocabulary of English punctuation terms, largely unchanged since the Norman conquest in 1066. Discusses the meaning of the period, colon, comma, question mark, exclamation point, slash, parenthesis, brackets, asterisk, hyphen, and ampersand. (RS)

Students will have to develop a presence on the page along with mastering grammar, spelling, and punctuation in order to become accomplished writers. Students should be given opportunities to hear their own written voices and the written voices of the others, their peers, their teachers and the best authors because the voice helps them to develop…

To assist journalism educators in the development of spelling-grammar-punctuation examinations for their students, this paper traces the development of such an exam at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Descriptions of exam construction, administrative procedures, suggestions for exam improvement, and preliminary exam results are…

Argues that composition teachers should accept as little blame as possible for students' errors in using the apostrophe, that a large chunk of the blame should be assigned to workbooks with oversimple rules, and that basic writers have more important things to worry about. (RS)

This article is in the form of a letter from a hypothetical former student on her first job in word processing, looking back at her educational experience and how it helped her. She shares her thoughts with her instructor and comments on areas that she feels could have been emphasized more. Grammar/punctuation, proofreading,…

A disturbing deterioration has been noticed recently in the editing of history books. They have mistakes in grammar, word usage, style, and punctuation. Specific examples are provided. (RM)

Suggests the use of toys to help children learn to use prepositions. Also describes a group activity in which children work together to punctuate a piece of writing. (TJ)

Presents a functional description of punctuation as a delimiter of words, sentences, and paragraphs, and as a semantic and extralinguistic indicator. (AM)

Suggests a system for teaching punctuation, in which the independent clause is recognized as the fundamental building block of all language. Maintains that punctuation is not based on rules but on principles governing the relationship between one independent clause and the next. (TB)

Illustrates some of the problems and the advantages of three programs designed for language arts instruction: "English Volume I" (MECC), "English SAT 1" (Microlab), and "Vocabulary Prompter" (Jagdstaffel). (AEA)