Describes a teaching method that uses Molly Bloom's soliloquy from James Joyce's "Ulysses" to teach punctuation to freshman writing students. Argues that the assignment helps students discover their power as orderers. (EL)

Presents a potpourri of classroom techniques used by 28 teachers to develop skills in paragraph composition, public speaking, classroom discussion, the examination of specific literary works, and other language arts activities. (RL)

A survey of 101 faculty in a variety of disciplines found that most do not give much attention to the composition of electronic mail messages and are not bothered much when receiving messages containing mechanical or composition errors. Results suggest faculty should be cautious about relaxing the rules of grammar, punctuation, and good writing in…

Describes an assignment designed to dispel prospective English teachers' dichotomous ideas about language ("right" or "wrong"); gain a sense that more than one dialect could be accepted; and understand that the variations from the handbook rules ("errors") might even be rhetorically based. (TB)

A study investigated whether children and adolescents use commas and the principle of Late Closure to guide sentence parsing decisions as adults do in processing syntactically ambiguous sentences. The study consisted of three experiments, conducted similarly but with different subject groups: 24 university students; 24 fourth-graders; and 19…

The Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation (GSP) test is administered to students in the College of Communication at the University of Texas, Austin, as a means of determining eligibility to register for certain courses in journalism, broadcasting, and advertising. The test was administered in a paper-and-pencil version to 16 students and in a…

One of two books prepared for high school level correspondence students in Alaska, this collection of lesson plans stresses problem areas in English grammar. Topics covered in the plans are (1) verbs and their subjects; (2) capitalization; (3) end punctuation; (4) adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases; (5) comparative and superlative…

This manual lists skills in the area of writing (including composition, mechanics, and structure/usage) considered essential for pupils to progress to the next higher level of achievement. The skills, described in terms of behavioral objectives, are listed according to grade, and grades kindergarten through 12 are covered. Students at the lower…

This study compares the results of an indirect measure of writing ability, the Florida State Student Assessment Test, Part I (SSAT-I), and the Production Writing Assessment (PWA). Both instruments were administered to 10th graders in Dade County (Florida) during the spring of 1987. The SSAT-I is an untimed test containing a section indirectly…

Elementary school teachers acknowledge the need for better writing instruction, but seldom have time for it within their already crowded curricula. Writing instruction suffers from placing skills development before writing activities, from emphasis on reading, and because many teachers are not well prepared to teach writing. A low priority is…

In order to improve their students' skills in self-expression, teachers should emphasize the importance of tone, an awareness of what is being said, and an appreciation of the effect of words on an audience. They need to foster in their students an interest in and a perspective on language, its history, and the human and social attitudes which…

This set of learning modules was developed during a project to deliver workplace literacy instruction to individuals employed in the more than 50 businesses related to the activities of the Port of Baltimore. It is intended to accomplish the following objectives: familiarize students with selected basic grammatical points, introduce basic…

This teacher's guide is intended for use in presenting a course to help Kodak Corporation employees develop the basic reading skills required in their workplace. The following topics are covered in the modules: prewriting thinking skills; information identification and organization strategies; awareness of the receiver's characteristics and needs;…

With use of a carefully planned program of peer evaluation, the teacher can develop students' skills in analysis, evaluation, proofreading, and punctuation. Giving each student a copy of the "Indicator for Rating Performance, Grades 6-12," the teacher explains that the 11 essential parts of any written work are each described and given a specific…

Basic writers often experience difficulties when trying to articulate ideas in writing that are more specific, systematic, and fully developed than their speech. The writers must learn how to put their thinking into the appropriate forms and expressions necessary to address an academic audience. Noting that the natural working of the human mind…