Increasing postsecondary access depends in large part on enhancing underrepresented students' writing ability, or college writing readiness. However, what exactly constitutes college-level writing is not clear-cut, complicating efforts to improve secondary preparation. This article examines recent efforts to define postsecondary writing,…

Writing performance for a large number of adolescents, with and without learning disabilities (LD), in the United States is below the level required for success in college and in the world of work. Despite the importance of writing and students' with LD documented difficulties in this academic domain, writing intervention research for adolescents…

During a 15-year longitudinal study, 31 Finnish students (risk group) who had been identified as having deficiencies in reading and writing readiness at pre-school through the German Breuer-Weuffen Differentiation Test were compared with their peers (n = 62) in order to study long-term differences that emerged at the starting point of the study.…

In this study, 219 students in two-year colleges were given two writing tests and a transcription test from 50-words-per-minute dictation recording. The results reveal that the number of errors made by beginning Gregg shorthand students is inversely related to the linguistic ability reflected in their writing. (JOW)

Provides a chart delineating some of the benchmarks in the writing development of elementary school children. Offers a variety of suitable program strategies with which teachers can modify their writing programs to suit the developmental stages of their students. (HTH)

A practical guide to establish an early writing program begins in kindergarten with children dictating a story that a teacher or parent volunteer records on paper. In first grade, 30 minutes are set aside for writing. Additional ways are suggested to infuse writing activities into every subject in a child's schooling. (MLF)

Proposes a variant of the language experience approach in which teachers provide simple models of repetitive sentences about an interesting object. (FL)

Recounts an incident illustrating a child's development of communication skills and offers suggestions for parents to help facilitate that development. (HTH)

Picture books provide effective models for student writing. For purposes of organization and writing lessons, the models found in picture books may be divided into three groups: (1) language patterns; (2) story structures; and (3) literary elements. Language patterns include repetitive sentence patterns, verse forms, word patterns, and cultural…

Responds to Karl Koenke's article on handwriting in the November 1986 issue of "The Reading Teacher" and offers an alternative opinion on handwriting instruction based on instruction methods in the United Kingdom. (JC)

Compares and describes written language environments of kindergarten children in Scandinavia, Great Britain, and the United States. Finds a lack of written language in Scandinavian kindergartens, writing in the context of interactive play in Great Britain, and either academic writing instruction or developmentally appropriate print-rich…

Describes a creative writing program in which second and fourth grade students wrote and read their poetry. (FL)

Concludes that in classes where their writings are turned into books, even seven year olds gain a sense of audience and begin to write with their readers in mind. (FL)

Argues that teachers of young children need to recognize and take advantage of suitable opportunities to model their writing skills. Offers examples of possible activities. (FL)

Examines the reading personna of the writer and its functions. Discusses how a writing instructor, by means of listening in a conference setting, can bring this other personna into existence. (HTH)