Stylistics, the art of making effective choices in writing, depends on synonymy. This means that writers, depending on the purpose, the audience, and the context of their messages, will rephrase those messages to improve their effectiveness. Paraphrasing messages to fit the needs of particular situations depends on a number of stylistic variables…

The dialect versus Standard English controversy continues in college composition courses. On the one hand, texts, handbooks, and workbooks usually emphasize Standard English while influential linguists point out the merits of dialectalism. One option for educators is to discuss alternatives in class. Students soon reject the extremes of…

Concerned with language as a form of social experience, this book considers language, English in particular, as an element in the pattern of daily life, as a form of contract between individuals and society, as the object and instrument of social judgments, as a historical testament to the continuity of human culture, and as the medium of literary…

The literature of black America repeatedly reflects a native rootlessness and its creators' yearning for a home. The black writer settles his work in an ethos, which has evolved from an older African heritage, primarily in response to an omnipresent white society. In this document, one of these ethnic expressions--the blues--is examined as a means…

This book reviews for both the experienced and the new teacher essential developments that have helped shape new content in the teaching of English language and composition. The materials contained in the book are designed for independent study, for informal study in workshops or conferences, or for formal study in in-service courses. The chapters…

Four units in a junior high school language arts program--literature, rhetoric, language, and reading--are presented in this curriculum guide. The introduction argues that a viable language arts program should be relevant to the immediate needs of the students, should emphasize self-discovery, and should attempt to unify the content and process of…

Explains and discusses James Britton's model of the uses of language, tracing both its theoretical foundation and its usefulness to teachers in the schools. (AA)

Examines four common student misconceptions in grammar and punctuation, suggests the reasons for these misconceptions, and argues that teachers need to help students develop a thorough understanding of the English language system. (MM)

Isolates a dozen problems with diction and sentence structure that comprise the "gobbledygook syndrome." (RL)

Examines methods of teaching the stylistics of language usage, emphasizing revision in the composing process. (RL)

A comparative study of students' scores in mechanics and usage on standardized tests and ratings of actual writing samples. (DD)

In this article, the author compares the arguments of Susan Swartzlander, Diana Pace, and Virginia Lee Stamler (1993) who note the contradiction between the "shockingly unprofessional" practice of asking students to write about their personal traumas in writing courses and the common occurrence of such assignments with Jeffrey Berman…

Since the Japanese writing system seems to frighten secondary school students as a compulsory study, the author recommends teaching only Romanized Japanese at the high school level. (PMP)

This document describes the development of the language skills subprogram of the Hawaii English Program--Secondary. After considering various theories of instructional strategies in language, the team developed a pair of complementary subprograms: a part-to-whole skills lab for building up students' stocks of language options and a whole-to-part…