The email received by a professor explained to him that it is worth it to praise students and encourage their best efforts to get them writing. He has decided that he will continue to praise somebody who looks uninspired.

This study aims to add to the growing research related to the implementation of non-traditional writing tasks in classrooms to encourage science literacy. A secondary reanalysis methodology was employed to review student interviews collected as a part of several individual studies during a ten year research program. This method established an…

The writing teacher's foremost job is leading students to see the valuable ideas they have to express. Writing is a way to share those ideas with the world rather than a way to be wrong, Anderson asserts. Teachers and parents too often focus on errors in student writing. This focus gives students the impression that writing well is about avoiding…

The authors investigated changes in self-efficacy in writing and writing apprehension in a sample of first-year college students in an interdisciplinary writing-intensive course taught by faculty from varied disciplines at a liberal arts college. Results showed that self-efficacy in writing significantly increased while writing apprehension…

There is a conceptual world surrounding writing in schools, and we are conditioned to a particular language about composition and literacy. This study seeks to interrogate the terms composition and literacy at the level of the classroom: to ask what is meant when it is invoked and what it means to the teachers who teach it. The central question of…

Notes that the idea that prison is a good place for writers is not easily dismissed. Explains that imprisonment forces a certain focus and a reassessment of one's life and actions. Concludes that a lot of writing from prison happens in spite of the situation, not because of it. (PM)

Explains and anthropomorphizes each letter in the alphabet. Details the reasons why writers write. Notes that all writers live and struggle with this question. (PM)

Offers a narrative in the form of five confessions the author's life. Contends that writing from memory can be pedagogic and political. Concludes that writing what was witnessed is to testify to what is remembered, so that it cannot be forgotten. (PM)

Examines the paradigm "the writer is self-contained," which underlies current writing practices in business and education. Discusses how creating a supportive climate for the writing process relates to the paradigm "every writer needs an editor." Discusses the implications of making such a change in business, industry, and education. (SR)

Lists and discusses briefly six "jumpstarters" for writers, intended to "rev them up and keep them going." (SR)

Explores a textbook writer's feelings on the publisher's remaindering of his book. Follows with the writer's responses to comments and queries sent to him over the past year. (PRA)

Addresses the argument that private writing is not really private. Explores the role of empirical evidence. Offers arguments that acknowledge private writing as different from public or social writing. Discusses methods of researching private writing. (CR)

The study reported in this paper explores issues of motivation and learners' identity in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing classroom in Vietnam from the perspectives of the learners. It was conducted with thirty English-major students at a university in central Vietnam. While relevant literature appears to place much emphasis on…

This paper investigates the approaches taken to essay writing by five Asian international students at an Australian university. Analysis of their in-depth interviews reveals links between their perceptions of learning, their perceptions of essay writing, their motivation for completing the task, and their awareness of the structural conventions of…

Interest in social construction has coincided with a widespread movement to situate the composing process in a social-cognitive paradigm. Because social and emotional themes overlap, writing specialists assume that the emotional components of writing have been taken care of. However, by being absorbed into social themes, the emotional experience…