Advocates the application of writing-across-the-curriculum type assignments in mass communication and journalism courses. Offers an overview of transactional and expressive writing assignments used in such courses. (SR)

Discusses microwriting activities, which focus on the problem, the process, and the product of typical communication assignments. Describes how microwriting is used in class, and types of microwriting activities. (SR)

Describes a very successful writing assignment the author uses with his high school English students, in which students write about a letter of the alphabet. Notes that this assignment grants freedom for exploration and voice, the raw material for shaping and can be used to teach everything from the writing of poetry to essays for college…

Relates how the author teaches elementary and secondary school students to write nexus poems--poems that use a nexus, or bridge, to persuade the reader, or to show the reader the link between where something originates and where people use it. (SR)

Argues that looking at students' uses of cliche in context can teach instructors about students' struggles to fashion new knowledge from what they already believe to be true. Examines students' most frequently used cliches. Suggests writing instructors who examine their response to cliche can learn how their pedagogical practices can deafen them…

Notes the relationship between thinking and playfulness. Demonstrates that playful language is a valuable way for adolescents from varied cultural backgrounds to express their thinking. Explores in depth four approaches to writing that encourage linguistic play: choosing playful topics; emphasizing characteristics of linguistic play; selecting…

A short story assignment incorporates creative writing into the syllabus of a freshman composition class, while erasing the misconception that creative writing is something a "regular" student cannot do. Students write a rough draft both of a personal experience essay and of a short story. Based on peer-reviews of both, students choose…

Combining the journal writing process with the concepts of collaboration can produce more focused writing and learning. Through the channel of collaborative situations, such as group journal writing, teachers can capitalize on the benefits achieved from the collaborative process and cultivate thinking and writing skills. A group journal writing…

Explains how the reading of young adult fiction can help young adults to write better. Presents exercises in writing good first lines; using detail; using simile and metaphor; and sharing significant insights. Provides excerpts from young adult fiction. (TB)

Describes a freshman composition course which employs problem-solving exercises as a writing improvement technique. Notes that sharing ideas while solving problems builds new writers' openness and trust, whereas thinking aloud prepares students to benefit from other writers' thinking protocol methods. Suggests that brainstorming can help students…

Describes a project incorporating writing-to-learn activities into an introductory finance class. Discusses benefits to students and teachers. (SR)

Describes two assignments that help students realize the dialectic between parts (how one part affects the understanding of all other parts) by having students create their own photographs and physical structures, combine the parts in various way, and consider (in their written papers) the difference it makes. (SR)

Discusses aspects of the classroom environment that nurture young writers. Describes strategies and assignments (including cross-curricular poetry, a letter writing activity, multigenre papers, a tribute assignment, and a "read and retail" assignment) which helps students understand and develop voice. Notes that while students' writing…

Describes three types of reflective writing assignments the author uses in her high school writing classes to create better writers who are actively involved in their own learning. Draws distinctions among the three (a writer's log, a draft letter, and a portfolio letter) and discusses the methods she uses to promote quality written reflections.…

Investigates children's interest in the nursery rhyme genre. Notes that by talking about the rhymes, seeing an expert writer modeling the writing process and writing collaboratively with their teacher and with each other, the children wrote an "alternative" nursery rhyme book. Concludes the children began to see writing as a long term process but…