Outlines the relationship between the General Accounting Office (GAO) and various consultants as the GAO develops and provides extensive writing training for its employees. Maintains that the organization benefits by reconsidering its views and that the academics benefit by learning about the professional writing context. (SR)

Outlines one school's approach to using microcomputers to help teach writing skills in high school. (MD)

Considers how the problems of writing centers relate to their ethos, or moral character. Advocates a way of constructing an ethos in writing centers which promotes writing response groups rather than just one-on-one peer tutoring. Argues that writing response groups engage writers in valuable ways. (HB)

Argues that cliches make writing stale and flat, and that getting rid of them is a necessity. Lists the "top 14" cliches gathered by a Columbia Scholastic Press Association judge. Uses examples to show how cleansing a passage of its superlatives and cliches improves the writing, adding clarity, fairness, and objectivity as well as freshness and…

This article discusses methods for teaching students to improve the introductory paragraphs of their papers and essays. The use of specific concrete images, interesting contrasts and facts, and illustrative metaphors to grab the reader's attention is explored, and examples of students' writing and brainstorming processes are provided. (PB)

These guidelines for teaching editing skills to secondary students with hearing impairments focus on: (1) revision, in which students review and refine the content, ideas, and form of their writing; and (2) proofreading and copy editing, in which students examine grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling. Ways to utilize peers as…

Complains that, even though composition instructors beg their students to improve their writing style, much professional writing is stylistically dense and unreadable. Questions whether writing teachers can teach style or whether asking for sentence variety is useful. Criticizes the treatment of style and sentence variety in composition textbooks.…

Describes some of what educators have learned about the complex task they ask students to tackle when they put them in peer groups to talk with each other about their writing. Analyses the work of one peer revision group and illustrates the complicated work that students can engage in as they struggle to justify their writerly decisions to their…

Claims that in contrast to the view that attention to genre stifles creativity, genre theory offers useful possibilities for fostering student insight into the nature of academic writing. Argues that knowledge of genre helps students see writing as a social construction. (NH)

Offering information to help parents understand how writing is taught in classrooms that use the 6-Trait Model for writing assessment and writing instruction, this handbook describes the model and how parents can provide the kind of support at home that would make classroom instruction even more effective. Sections of the handbook are: "A…

Alleges that creative writing can be taught and should be an important "writing" course in undergraduate writing programs. Argues for an enlarged professional approach to teaching creative writing. Challenges those who define curricula to consider the place it has in the development of young (meaning undergraduate) writers. (NH)

Notes that finding a way to integrate grading and responding in a manner that promotes learning through revision is one major challenge for composition instructors. Argues that instructors must find a way to shape their classrooms shifting the emphasis from "getting it right the first time," to learning to see writing as an activity that evolves…

Highlights the teacher's critical role in spelling instruction and provides examples of how to support spelling development in classrooms. Argues that educators need to look closely at children's emerging capacities as writers, focusing especially on the issue of invented spelling, and its use and misuse in classroom practices. (SG)

Addressing parents, this pamphlet describes ways to help children learn to write well and thereby excel in school, enjoy self-expression, and become more self-reliant. Writing is discussed as a practical, job-related, stimulating, social, and therapeutic activity that receives inadequate attention in many schools. It is emphasized that writing is…

Teachers who conference well with writers often assume a role different from that of the traditional dispenser of information. A number of components have been identified that underlie good communication practices in helping relationships. Teachers can use the following listening or attending skills in virtually any conferencing format: basic…