Describes a series of studies of both student and professional writers. Concludes that writers' emotions change discernibly when they compose. Finds intensified positive emotions (such as excitement and happiness), weakened negative-passive emotions (shame and boredom), and less variable negative-active emotions (including fear and anger). (SG)

Finds that case assignments used in a college business composition course generally produced more effective writing products than did traditional model assignments. Suggests that the writing processes and attitudes involved in the case assignments were highly sensitive to audience and context, whereas those involved in the traditional assignments…

Examines how a writing class can help students to critically examine what or who they are identifying with or imitating. Suggests that reading can disrupt limiting, dualistic attachments and set into motion a process of remodeling, of addressing the restlessness experienced when one person tries to be like another. Considers why compositionists…

Annotates 12 conference papers, journal articles, and theses in the ERIC database that discuss the effectiveness of journal writing in the elementary and secondary classroom. (RS)

Describes a first-year composition sequence of assignments using the topic of family to allow students to write essays based on their own experiences. Notes that the sequence eventually requires that students also address connected ideas and then reflect on the convergence of the personal and analytical. (PRA)

Offers a case study of a child who used school writing activities to perform rather than simply to communicate. Finds that, although the child's language resources contributed greatly to his success with written language, they did not always fit comfortably into the writing workshop used in his classroom. (PRA)

Discusses why recent studies of word processing offer contradicting results about computer-assisted revision. Examines how writers' cognitive processes for revision are affected by word processing. Finds that (1) experienced writers define revision to include more global-level changes, whereas students tend to focus on local-level concerns; and…

Some professional writers view word processing as liberating; others are apprehensive. Teacher anecdotes reveal that word processing cannot substitute for instruction but can be an important tool. Research concludes that many writers enjoy using word processing and believe it enhances composing, revising, and quality. (95 references). (SK)

Asserts that composition studies should include the study of emotion. Focuses on the piece of social psychology from which "attitude" emerges as a core concept and came to share with "emotion" a common phenomenological base. Discusses the rise of social psychology and the construct of attitude, cognitive studies and social…

Discusses the problems of motivating students and teaching persuasive writing. Outlines cultural assumptions about argumentation, the ideas of Jurgen Habermas and the Frankfurt School, Habermas' theory of communication, and its pedagogical implications. (PRA)

Argues that personal writing, like academic discourse, makes arguments, solves problems, analyzes texts and issues, tries to answer hard questions--and usually refers to and builds on other academic discourse. Offers a larger view, clear thinking, logical organization, and judicious tone as surrogates for objectivity. Argues against…

Offers thoughts on what distinguishes the Bard College writing and thinking program from other programs. Asserts that writing/thinking is quite different from writing/arguing. Defines argument and writing as thinking. Examines retrospective process writing. (PRA)

Claims some technical professionals assigned to write reports or manuals interpret writing as a means of displaying data rather than as communication. Discusses specific weaknesses commonly found in such documents. Suggests that texts should convey precisely what is intended in a form readers will find acceptable. (NH)

Describes how a writing teacher uses an exit essay in which students describe the strengths and weaknesses of their writing to examine how the course has shaped (or not shaped) student attitudes toward writing. (SR)

Presents a poem inspired by the experience of a course in language across the curriculum for teachers in training in which students were offered the opportunity to take risks with their writing, to "bungee-jump" with pen and paper. (SR)