Teaching Composition: Research on Effective Practices

Teaching Composition: Research on Effective Practices Kathleen Cotton INTRODUCTION Educators and their constituents have differing opinions as to what constitutes the "basic skills." Nearly everyone, however, would cite the "three Rs" -- Reading, w(R)iting and 'Rithmetic -- which have traditionally been regarded as the core of the educational program at all levels of instruction. The focus of the present report is the writing part of that core. Given the broad general agreement about the importance of learning to write, it is disturbing to discover that "most researchers and educators agree that, with rare exceptions, students do not and cannot write well" (Amiran and Mann 1982, p. 3). In preparation for a report sponsored by the American Association of School Administrators, Neill (1982) conducted a survey of 425 school districts and found that 90 percent of the respondents considered student writing to be a problem -- either a serious problem (40 percent) or a minor problem (50 percent).

sentence fragments and run-ons. ... because the paper turned in will be the only version. The teacher painstakingly marks all the mechanical errors in red ink and writes notes in the margins about the logic and clarity of the essay. Because the student will be doing nothing further with the piece, ... Recognizing that writing is a complex ...

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  Sentences, Errors, Recognizing

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