A study examined how teachers change as they implement a process writing approach. Four questions provided the framework for the study: (1) How do teachers' perceptions of themselves as writers influence their writing instruction? (2) How do teachers at different grade levels implement process writing instruction? (3) What institutional and…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The five titles deal with the following topics: (1) a comparison of manuscript writing at the beginning of first grade with reading achievement at the end of first grade, (2) using text comprehension as a metaphor for understanding…

This manual was developed to help regional administrators and teacher educators conduct inservice training for local teachers who teach writing in preparation for the new General Educational Development (GED) test. The manual is organized in six sections. The first section explains the rationale for the GED writing sample and outlines what the…

The intent of this guide is to encourage teachers to have students write, both formally and informally, on a systematic basis. Three types of writing are emphasized: (1) journal writing; (2) research paper writing; and (3) essay writing. The section on journal writing includes a handout for the class explaining the purpose for journal writing and…

A collection of working papers on English as a second language (ESL) instruction includes: "A Structured Approach to Teaching Composition" (Margery Tegey); "Teaching Writing' to ESL Students: A Process-Based Approach" (Marie Nelson); "When Theory and Intuition Meet: An Approach to Composition Instruction" (Ali A. Aghbar, Kathy Trump); "Shakespeare…

This report, designed especially for use by researchers, evaluators, and teachers, explores the practical implications of the composing process for writing instruction and assessment. An understanding of the actual process of text composition is presented as insights into how the acquisition of aspects of writing might be facilitated are explored.…

The writing institute for college writing program directors described in this paper based a student-centered freshman composition course on the central premise that students can only learn to write by writing, since writing is an activity or process. The basic assumptions about the structure of writing classes on which the institute participants…

In a summer institute, secondary school writing teachers improved their teaching and writing skills through teaching writing by the direct method and through participating in weekly writing tutorials. Too often, writing is taught through such indirect methods as work with grammars, rhetorics, and heuristics, which seem more attractive to teachers…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 20 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) voice in writing; (2) the effectiveness of an individualized humanistic writing program; (3) the effects of peer evaluation on eighth grade narrative writing;…

The seven articles in this journal issue deal with the politics and practice of teaching writing. The articles focus on the following topics: (1) efforts to establish educational accountability, including competency based teacher education, licensing of teachers, and minimum competency testing; (2) methods for teaching students to use intuition in…

This paper reviews two theoretical approaches (cognitive-developmental and functional-interactive) to the study of the writing of bilingual exceptional children and discusses their implications for effective writing instruction. Also described are two illustrative research projects, one employing the dialogue-journal technique on a microcomputer…

Focuses on the need for improved teaching at the secondary and college levels of the English curriculum, emphasizing the view of learning that also includes the development of thinking abilities capable of helping students use information to create their own insights. Reviews recent pedagogical guides that follow this approach. (NKA)

Concludes that the nature of the writing tasks assigned to students will emphasize some aspects of the curriculum and de-emphasize others. (NKA)

This collection of articles on the nature of discourse and writing instruction include: "Une demarche de psychologie de discours; quelques aspects introductifs" ("An Application of Discourse Psychology; Introductory Thoughts") (Jean-Paul Bronckart); "Les procedes de prise en charge enonciative dans trois genres de texts expositifs" ("The Processes…

To maximize the level of comfort that will facilitate an equal exchange of ideas instructors need to tailor their pedagogy to fit their audience. That means they must consider the extent to which their students have been exposed to computers. The University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) has a high percentage of "non-traditional" students.…