Describes a study comparing the writing processes and written work of 33 female and male freshman. Students were given a Writing Anxiety Scale, asked to write two essays, and then interviewed. Analyzes length of time spent composing, number of words, use of personal pronouns, topic preference, writing anxiety, and writing experiences. (PAA)

Computers can help young writers learn to write well. Exercises for developing ideas, such as freewriting, are easily adapted to computers and enhanced by hypertext and thesaurus functions. Grammar and spell checks make editing easier, and the ability to rearrange text facilitates writing out of order and revision. Changing formats and fonts,…

Describes a follow-up study of a University of Wyoming faculty development workshop on writing across the curriculum to assess its impact on teaching roles. Compares gatekeepers (e.g., teachers control classroom discourse and enforce the discipline's conventions) and border crossers (e.g., teachers invite students to direct discourse, and create…

Focuses on whether university students studying a foreign language at an American university use the same processes and writing strategies in foreign language and first language writing in two different genres (letter and article). Using a computerized tracking device, individual writing sessions were analyzed through statistical techniques and…

Describes the visual arts as a means of helping remedial reading and writing students to "see" the process of writing. Discusses the use of clay sculpting to demonstrate free-writing techniques, Venn-mobiles to demonstrate compare/contrast techniques, and wraps (felt "tortillas" and fillings) to demonstrate summary writing. (Contains 10…

Students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) are required to pass the same competency exams as students enrolled in general education in order to graduate to new grade levels and to earn a high school diploma. In this study, the authors taught students with SLD a self-directed organizational strategy designed to assist them in passing the…

The media, which includes editorials, have been shown to play an important role in the definition of priorities in public agenda. In the domain of international matters, the public relies heavily on the media, and editorials play an even greater role. This article examines how explicit mentions of external sources of information function in the…

This report offers a number of specific teaching techniques that research suggests will help 4th- to 12th-grade students in this nation's schools. The report focuses on all students, not just those who display writing difficulties, although this latter group is deservedly the focus of much attention. The premise of this report is that all students…

Grant writing experience can be a valuable asset for students completing masters-level degree programs across a variety of disciplines. A service learning grant writing project was incorporated in a multidisciplinary program evaluation course as part of a writing requirement. Twelve students served as "ghost writers" and wrote grant…

Writing and discussion are excellent ways for students to master content, develop analytical abilities, and become active and collaborative learners. The Writing Across the Curriculum movement offers a theoretical framework for the use of writing in instruction, maintaining that writing skills are primarily thinking skills, that writing is a…

The approach of parody writing dates back to ancient Greece. Unlike traditional parody that usually develops satire of an author's work, a form of primary parody writing can be used in the classroom to help children develop connections with text as they express their own ideas. Parody writing is useful with children in grade 3 and has potential…

This book focuses on how to teach, analyze, and assess arguments. The book merges current thinking on argumentation from the fields of composition, rhetoric, speech, logic, and critical thinking. Noting that teaching students how to argue is largely the responsibility of writing and speech teachers, this book builds the case for teachers' learning…

A practicum was designed to increase second-grade teachers' expertise and knowledge in integration of literature themes with writing and oral presentations. The problem addressed was that many students did not receive adequate support and opportunities to interconnect reading and original writing. There was nothing in the language arts series, nor…

This edition of "NAEPfacts" discusses the frequency with which process-oriented activities are taught in United States schools, and the writing performance of students whose teachers emphasize these activities. Data were drawn from the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Writing, which was administered to a…

A study examined the influence of coauthoring on the writing process in the classroom. Subjects were 24 students in a ninth-grade English class at a racially and socioeconomically diverse high school located in a medium-sized Midwestern city. Data was collected over the first 9-week quarter of the year. Eight collaborative writing triads,…