Written syntactic complexity is considered in relation to the four modes of discourse (argumentation, exposition, narration, and description). In a study of 153 children at three ability ranges within each of three grade levels (three, four, and five), syntactic complexity was found to differ significantly across the modes. The range of syntactic…

Basic writing teachers can make use of the Learning Cycle teaching technique to design exploration and invention activities with which their students can practice analytical writing. The Learning Cycle approach is based on Piagetian theory and involves a three-phase process of exploration, invention, and discovery. In the exploration phase…

A study was conducted to evaluate children's ability to comprehend main ideas after reading connected discourse and to develop and validate a straightforward and intuitively simple system for identifying main ideas in prose. Three experimental passages were randomly selected from third and sixth grade social studies textbooks, and education…

Based on a review of the research and theory on cohesion in writing, it was hypothesized that developmental students could improve their writing competence and their use of cohesive ties by studying the mental process, meaning, mechanics, and rhetorical purposes of cohesive ties. To test this hypothesis, the persuasive and expository compositions…

Intended as a practical guide for persons interested in the field of free lance writing, this book provides information on the following topics: the individual's response to the magazine publishing market; magazines and the types of articles that are marketable; methods for locating story material; ways of questioning and interpreting an editor's…

A writing course structured on the principle that personal experience essays should be written as arguments that draw out a conflict or opposing view can help student writers avoid producing prose that is either too abstract or too concrete. Students can be taught to approach the personal essay as a special type of argument on a particular…

Some of the "supra-grammatical" features of scripts written by undergraduate students in India are examined. The script writing was a test administered to assess the proficiency of students in the advanced cognitive and rhetorical skills involved in composition, both in their native language and English. The particular type of composition chosen…

The operative principle behind the use of essays as models for composition is that if students study and imitate the wide variety of rhetorical forms in an essay collection they will write well-organized and fluent papers. Unfortunately, when students are asked to copy forms the result is a clearly organized paper that says very little and has…

Ten current books covering a variety of topics relating to composition are reviewed in this paper. The first three reviews are of books describing actual writing abilities of students: "Language Development: Kindergarten through Grade 12" by Walter Loban; "The Development of Writing Abilities (11-18)" by James Britton and his…

The effectiveness of the Kates method of teaching composition, which involves regular, sequential writing assignments and teacher/student conferences, was investigated using an experimental group of 142 ninth-grade students in six classes and a control group of 78 students in two classes. The experimental classes wrote approximately 14 essays in…

A composition teacher at a New York City community college where cooperative education is stressed found that focusing the writing of his multiethnic students on the theme of freedom helped them look at their lives differently, revealing the contradictions involved in their beliefs, ideals, and prejudices. The course began with a discussion of…

An investigation of: (1) the relationship between the American College Test (ACT) English Usage Test scores and demonstrated writing proficiency, and (2) the relationships between and among other objective tests and writing proficiency was undertaken, using three samples of college freshmen. Although results indicated a moderately high…

Two examples of student prose are analysed as instances of the unreasoned, illogical thinking which the author considers prevalent at the university level today. Causes for student inability to communicate by means of objective argument are explored, and a course, "Investigation, Thinking, and Arguing," is outlined as a suggested replacement for…

This paper suggests that a change in mode of expression --narrative, descriptive, or expository--can influence the syntactic complexity of children's writing. The implications of the research studies reviewed here may offer direction for education in general. Instructional strategies which make use of variation in writing mode to encourage gains…

Students' abilities in manipulation and control of syntax may be increased through a sequence of instruction involving the use of exercises termed "Non-Sentence Practice,""Nonsense-Sentences Practice," and "Syntactic Patterning Practice." The final step in the instruction sequence is to make the syntactic exercises pertinent to students' writing…