Details the components of a two-part, two-week assignment in the writing of description which gives the students a chance to work on both observation and order. (JM)

Presents a way of teaching process explanation in a technical writing course. Urges that the assignment ask students to explain a process they have learned from experience or from observation. (TJ)

Argues that descriptive writing has an important role in disciplinary learning for novice students and that discussion of critical analysis and critical thinking in tertiary learning could benefit from a linguistic perspective on how critical analysis is realized in student writing. (Author/VWL)

Asking students to describe an unrecognizable portion of an artifact sharpened their powers of observation.

Writing well means communicating successfully. To communicate successfully the message must be accurate, brief, and clear. The basic components of clarity are sentence length, story length, and vocabulary. Creative devices and descriptive writing are discussed. (MLW)

This annotated list provides information about journals that might serve as markets for articles on the theory and practice of teaching writing at all educational levels. Each annotation contains the journal title, editor's name and address, and an editorial description that discusses the journal's subject area, the level of treatment, the…

Seven methods for helping students find theme topics are presented in this document. The methods include the following: setting up a library browsing table of records, books, and criticism related to the work of literature that is being studied; permitting students to choose topics based on observation of the surrounding community or reactions to…

There is a logical sequence in the steps of a freshman English course, the goal of which is the comprehension of the writing process and a readiness to move forward with that process. Students must first learn prewriting--an outpouring on paper of every thought connected with a given topic. This is followed by selecting ideas, formulating a…

Describes how the four traditional kinds of writing (description, narration, exposition, and argumentation) are used in advertising and suggests ways that advertising and the four modes may be used to teach composition. (DD)

Presents a writing exercise which stimulates college freshmen's imaginations and suits adolescents' interest in a favorite subject for composition--themselves. (JM)

The beginning creative writer usually needs to learn the distinction between creative writing and purely informational or reportorial exposition. This can often be accomplished through writing assignments incorporating the concepts of New Journalism--the method of rendering realistically, from the point of view of an outsider who has temporarily…

Describes the use of Tarot cards to help students achieve clarity in descriptive writing and learn how to interpret symbols. (TJ)

This module concentrates on descriptive writing as a means of training students to be more precise in their diction and to provide adequate detail. The module attempts to offer students in English classes learning experiences similar to the ones they might experience in shop classes. The module is set up for individualized instruction and includes…

Presents a method that enables students to become aware of nonverbal communication and to incorporate it into their descriptive writing. (TJ)

Teaching writing on the basis of purposes has certain advantages over teaching on the basis of techniques. The primary advantage is the greater resemblance to "real writing." Most student writing is apprentice work, as students themselves know, but it is far easier to point to nonacademic analogues of the categories of purpose (definition,…