The investigators recommended that in view of the similarity in the results across ethnic and SES backgrounds, that the high-frequency words identified in the investigation be among the first words students learn to spell and write. (Authors)

A description of teaching composition in one of the most difficult of situations -- an urban commuter college -- and attempts to turn the course into a vital presence in the intellectual lives of the students. (Authors/RY)

How to help students progress from descriptive to affective to creative responses through the use of films in a language arts class. (RB)

Distinguishes more than three modes of poetic discourse as ways in which writers interrelate the verbal presentation of vision and the artistic representation of action. (Author)

Presents evidence that written responses to modality develop from a homogeneous writing quality to a more heterogeneous writing quality with some modes systematically favored over others." (Author)

An analysis of descriptive and narrative passages written by 45 first-semester college freshmen early in the semester suggests that mean T-unit length is not a stable individual trait either within the descriptive mode or across description and narration. (GT)

Describes steps taken in order to make a contribution to professional literature and the practice of the profession. These steps include research, writing, review, retyping, simmering, final review and submitting. Professional writing should be substantive and scholarly. (JAC)

Encouraging children to develop their imagination through using poetic imagery and pantomime widens and enriches their view of the world. (JD)

Discusses using comics in high school and college writing and English classes to teach figurative language and other literary terms and techniques such as style and descriptive writing. Describes several activities and notes benefits of using comics in this way. (SR)

Presents five short teaching tips written by five different authors on the following topics: newspapers, writing exercises for aspiring elementary school teachers, telephone directory as research tool, structured essay assignments, and teaching description with Raymond Carver's "Cathedral." (TB)

CraftPlus[R] is an integrated learning package that consists of a K-8 spiraling, core writing curriculum based on explicit Target-Skills instruction; professional books; grade-level Curriculum Guides; sixteen workshop and classroom demonstration DVDs; and a CD with student samples and other classroom support materials. The grade-level Curriculum…

This paper examines several language learning and teaching experiences described in the literary works of Burroughs's "Tarzan of the Apes," Shakespeare's "Henry V," Scott's "The Jewel in the Crown," and Alcott's "Little Women." In all cases, the language being learned was not necessary for daily activities, yet each case demonstrates that language…

Unlike less skilled writers, who are intensely writer-oriented, skilled writers of personal essays and autobiographies are reader-oriented and demonstrate a conscious concern for their external audience. Student writers can develop a sense of an external audience by analyzing parallel autobiographical text selections of skilled and unskilled…

In a study conducted to examine the impact of language choice on cognitive complexity (the number of constructs in a person's interpersonal construct system), 93 undergraduate students completed a role category questionnaire that asked each subject to write a description of two people they knew. In one case that description was to be of a…