Argues that student journals provide the basis for helping students learn to teach themselves and explore their attitudes and beliefs about writing, and strategies for writing. Reviews the historical uses of journals, the different educational uses of journals, and the use of the journal in the writing classroom. (DMM)

Presents a letter written by a professional writer (and a former high school and college teacher) to a young female student who has started writing poems. Discusses why and how she writes. Urges the student to continue writing. (RS)

Describes how a class of 13 academically average high school students, inspired by an earlier article in this journal, collaboratively wrote a story. Notes that the students continued to revise their story even after it came back from the printers. (RS)

Describes approaches to teaching business writing that can produce effective writers. Addresses the myths that writing is impossibly hard to master, that writing skill is inborn, and that writing well means "obeying the rules." (SR)

Examines the effect of news writing instruction on the attitudes and writing performance of students in English composition classes. Finds the only significant difference between treatment and control groups is students' perception of the practicality of the writing instruction they received. (SR)

Describes a writing assignment (intended to counter some students'"writing is irrelevant" attitude) in which students write resumes and letters of application that are reviewed by personnel officers of "real world" corporations. (SR)

Examines whether accelerated college writing courses are an effective alternative to regular courses in developing writing skills. Finds that accelerated courses were less effective than the regular courses with respect to writing attitudes and percentages of student essays judged competent. (PRA)

Discusses writing as a social activity and how collaborative writing enables risk taking and promotes a change in writing attitudes. Provides examples of collaborative writing in the following areas of expository text structure: enumeration, sequence, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect. (MG)

Criticizes teaching formal, impersonal writing and argues for teaching that encourages students to write about what they know and love as they discover who they are and why words matter. (PRA)

Investigates the effect on postsecondary students of the belief that writing ability is a gift. Finds that higher levels of belief in giftedness correlate with higher levels of writing apprehension, lower self-assessments of writing ability, and lower levels of confidence. Suggests that the belief in giftedness may have deleterious effects on…

Finds differences in writing practices (among employees participating in writing workshops) based on educational level. Finds that a large percentage of workers with graduate training write long reports, write to other experts in their field, and spend time revising. (SR)

Presents, in the first section, an autobiographical narrative about the author's mother and herself and her own daughter. Discusses, in the second section, issues raised when writing about and thus sharing aspects of a private life. (SR)

Presents an interview with Oliver Sachs. Discusses his approach to writing, including the physical pen-and-ink approach as opposed to using a word processor; his use of journals; his motivation for writing; his approach to revision; and his view of himself as a writer. (NH)

States that many technical writing handbooks advise avoiding passive voice. Identifies functions of passive as well as active voice by determining the frequencies of active and passive verbs in 185 documents written by 28 civilian and military members of the Air Force. Confirms the importance of agency in choice of active or passive; reveals other…

Discusses how the author and a colleague made a short videotape of students talking about their writing experiences. Describes first steps, arrangements and questions, the shoot itself, and crafting the video. Discusses uses of this video, noting the impact this infusion of student voices can have in the composition classroom, influencing the way…