A study explored how teenage audiences interpreted brochures intended to discourage them from taking drugs, and more broadly, how readers respond to the visual and verbal messages presented through brochures that aim to inform and persuade. Over 100 brochures and handouts from national and local drug prevention agencies were collected. A subset of…

A film presented as factual may permit critical responses that question its purported factual objectivity and political neutrality. In class, Hans-Georg Gadamer's concept of effective-historical consciousness can be used to evaluate the allegedly propagandistic messages in Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will." Analysis of this 1934…

Designed as a practical guide for professionals in various fields as well as independent researchers and pre-professional students, this book provides a close look at how writing and publishing educational articles work. The book offers information on what editors are looking for, strategies to quickly improve each draft, and processes to remove…

These four issues of The Quarterly of the National Writing Project cover the calendar year 1989. The January 1989 issue contains the following articles: (1) "The Unteachables" (J. Juska); (2) "Changing the Model" (M. Griffith and others); (3) "Literate Cultures: Multi-Voiced Classrooms" (M. Roemer); (4) "Despite…

The library can assist in grounding college student writing in reading and inquiry rather than in the mere retrieval of information Fundamental rhetorical goals can best by met by getting students into the library to ask questions, analyze sources, and evaluate claims so they can react to and incorporate the work of other writers into their own…

Explains how peer writing tutors not only help their fellow students, but can also learn a great deal themselves about grammar and mechanics, information processing, marking papers, audience awareness, and problem-solving strategies. (ARH)

The Eastman School of Music (New York), part of the University of Rochester, is departing from tradition by introducing contemporary music and audience awareness training into the curriculum in an effort to help students build performance careers. Eastman is one of the few music schools responding to market issues so vigorously. Some success…

A response to a paper on Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) and the training of translators focuses on the paper's criticism of the theoretical basis for teaching and evaluating student work. It discusses how criteria for evaluation of translations are determined and the role of the client/audience in this process. (MSE)

This book provides a theoretical underpinning for the strategy of freewriting through a collection of 16 essays that are very diverse in focus, methodology, and point of view. The essays are as follows: "Recording and Transforming: The Mystery of the Ten-Minute Freewrite" (Sheryl I. Fontaine); "Freewriting: An Aid to Rereading…

Generally speaking English department faculty respond very differently when reading freshman writing than when reading most other kinds of writing. Mina Shaughnessy has pointed out that "ordinary readers" try to understand what they are reading, but the writing teacher, "like a lawyer examining a client's document for all possible ambiguities and…

This paper connects recent research with common student problems in writing research papers and offers an analysis of the range of synthesis tasks and some reasons why students have difficulty with the demands of these tasks. The paper focuses on the student's problem of not knowing how to think about material in ways that allow him or her to say…

Plain talk is the cornerstone for creating a classroom atmosphere in which students want to learn to improve their writing. As much as possible, the jargon and technical terminology of the profession of English should be eliminated. Teachers will know what level of language to use if they determine the nature of their audience. Teachers have to…

Describes a project in which engineering students wrote science books for children as part of a technical writing course focusing on how writers adapt to the audience. Discusses children's positive reactions to the books, and notes the engineering students' enthusiasm for the project. (MM)

Writing strategies were incorporated into a pharmacy program communication skills course, and their effectiveness measured in comparison with a previous student group (n=20). Experimental subjects (n=28) showed significant improvement in writing, verbal skills, ability to formulate ideas, and identifying appropriate target audience, and had…

An unconventional writing activity like correspondence between students can, under favorable social circumstances, encourage some college composition students to discover and employ literate, or decontextualized, writing strategies. The African American student will often write, to borrow James Britton's terms, from the standpoint of the…