Many universities rely on multiple choice or true/false tests to admit students to mass communication programs. The high stakes that prospective majors face suggest that there is an urgent need for departments to rethink their assumptions about entrance testing, as a narrow conception of scholastic ability can undermine any attempt to "weed…

This study sought to determine whether prospective teachers at Utah's Brigham Young University (BYU) could articulate in writing appropriate instructional strategies for teaching the letter sounds to beginning readers in the first grade. The study was designed to be the first in a series of studies to find out if Elementary Education students are…

This paper explores the emergent and polyphonic character of voice in adolescent writing. It proposes a model, derived from M. M. Bakhtin's work on discourse, to account for how adolescent writers borrow voices from various speech communities and communication domains and combine them in complex overt and covert ways in order to construct their…

This student magazine, created by the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes of a local unit of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) is a collection of personal opinions, reports, and creative writing with illustrations. Compositions are by both individual students and groups. Selections include the account of a field trip,…

Intended for teachers of college composition, this history of major and minor developments in the teaching of writing in twentieth-century American colleges employs a taxonomy of theories based on the three epistemological categories (objective, subjective, and transactional) dominating rhetorical theory and practice. The first section of the book…

"Aerobic writing" is a writing center strategy designed to keep students in writing "shape." Like aerobic exercise, aerobic writing is sustained for a certain length of time and done on a regular basis at prescribed time intervals. The program requires students to write at least two times a week for approximately an hour each time. Students write,…

Noting that students often adopt a flat, lifeless style when writing a research paper, student papers were examined for evidence of the writer's presence. The presence of the writer is admittedly a subjective perception of the reader, but clues to the presence or absence of the writer can be identified. Though no one clue is definitive evidence,…

This guide is intended for use in developing informational materials intended to be read by adults with limited reading skills. Most of the examples used throughout the guidelines relate to food and nutrition; however, the concepts they illustrate are applicable to any topic. The following topics are covering: knowing a written message's intended…

In an attempt to contribute to the development of students' writing skills while helping them master basic psychology, a writing component was designed for a medium sized introductory psychology course. Its purpose was to aid in the mastery of course material and to contribute to the development of students' skill in written expression. In the…

In order to facilitate the decentralization of the Illinois writing assessment program, this handbook describes and provides materials for writing assessment training workshops. The first of the nine sections in the handbook gives a general overview of the Illinois Writing Assessment. The second section, on training for assessment, describes…

The performance-related writing and reading competencies required in most occupations are seldom emphasized in elementary and secondary school education. Performance-related writing may be simplistic, but its composition is more complex--in occupational writing, context, audience assessment, attention to detail, concise clarity, message…

In response to a need for writers in corporations who are able to construct well-written speeches, a format for a speech-writing seminar for corporate writers has been developed. First, there are two kinds of seminars: open, for which anyone could register; and in-house, which is conducted for a specific company or organization. Second, in…

A course in advanced English as a second language that focused on the writing of formal research papers revealed that even students who had chosen personally interesting topics and were able to organize facts and present them well still had difficulty. They had problems beginning and ending their papers, they approached their topics warily, and…

Designed to help teachers find an effective approach in teaching expository writing, this guide divides expository writing into five main types: definition/classification, comparison/contrast, thesis/proof, problem/solution, and inference (drawing conclusions). Five different starter techniques are presented with each of the five main types of…

When the English-placement examination essays of college freshmen who had passed the examination were compared with essays of students who had failed, it was found that the most-important differences between the two groups of essays occurred in the area of content development and organization rather than in spelling, grammar, or punctuation. A…