Discusses the rationale and uses for personal or personalized writing in composition, literature, and content-area classes, and in curriculum conceptualization, research, and assessment in writing. Discusses relevant research studies and pedagogical criticisms of these kinds of writing assignments. Suggests that an excessive emphasis on personal…

Describes using music with eighth-grade students for generating story ideas to write about. (SR)

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)

Describes the experience of a teacher and his students on Writers in Electronic Residence (WIER), a computer network available to schools in which students post their creative writings which are then discussed by professional writers, students, and teachers. Makes a case for using computer technology in language arts classes. Discusses some of the…

Describes the experience of helping a student revise a personal, expressive piece of writing into a transactional essay. Discusses the pros and cons of such guidance. Concludes with a strong defense of conferencing. (HB)

Describes a writing assignment for high school English in which students argue persuasively on a current issue of their choice. Extends this assignment by having students revise the papers into letters to periodicals or politicians. Urges introducing students into active social discourse. (HB)

Presents two journal exercises teachers can use to help their students develop and apply their cognitive skills. Asserts that the exercises help students to integrate what many consider to be dichotomous and frequently contradictory activities--feeling and thinking. Cites G. Lakoff and M. Johnson's "Metaphors We Live By" for the theoretical…

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)

Examines the writing assignments and instruction in 30 introductory literature textbooks. Finds three types of writing assignments: the "ever popular" critical paper, the expressive paper, and the literary paper. Presents excerpts of student papers to demonstrate that writing on expressive and literary topics can help students see the…

Suggests that awkwardness in writing (like good writing) is an interactive nexus of writer, text, and reader and is a matter of subjective judgment. Argues that awkwardness in student writing is a positive sign of a writer's grappling with language complexity. Concludes that awkwardness is rhetorically motivated and therefore complex but…

Describes using the process method to teach news writing. Emphasizes its usefulness in writing for the reader and editing. (SR)

Demonstrates the prevalence of the problem of educators consensual, conventional characterization of language. Suggests an alternative, more dynamic way to describe social groups, and shows how this alternative can be used in the writing classroom. (PRA)

Finds that choices instructors make about reading assignments and classroom activities can influence the way students use their composition handbooks, encouraging or discouraging certain behaviors. (SR)

Describes an assignment for a business writing course which helps students learn to focus on the reader in persuasive writing. (SR)

Examines the types of literacy support parents gave their children at home with 15 students from a diverse class of 23 third graders during an eight-week integrated unit on writing autobiographies. Finds pattern differences between genders with respect to the nature of support given at home. Suggests that particularly African-American males…