Teaching Expository Writing: A Guide to Online Sources

Created by Mary Pinard

 

Style Manual:

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 6th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1996.

 

Introduction                      Bibliography                 Pathfinder

 

 

 

Annotated Bibliography

 

 

 

 

1.   Central California Writing Project. CCWP Newsletter. [WWW page]. Available at <http://humwww.ucsc.edu/CCWP/newsletter.html> [Accessed 16 February, 2001].

 

Provides access to articles of the Central California Writing Project’s newsletter.  This newsletter publishes information of interest to writing teachers, such as research on teaching writing, articles by local teachers about their research experiences, opinions on educational policy and insights on the teaching of writing.

 

 

2.      ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology. AskEric. [online database]. Available at <http://ericir.syr.edu/Eric/index.shtml> [Accessed 28 February, 2001].

 

This site provides free access to the ERIC database.  The database indexes over a million education-related articles, reports, and other documents.  Hundreds of articles about teaching writing to students of all ages are available, as are lesson plans for writing teachers and sample writing assignments. A limited number of full-text documents are available on line.

 

 

3.      H.W. Wilson Company. Education Abstracts. [online database]. Available at <http://www.hwwilson.com> [Accessed 28 February, 2001].

 

This database indexes over 400 journals, reports and other documents in the field of education. Included are articles about theories and methods of teaching writing to students of all ages. Available through NWIC’s subscription to the Wilson databases.

 

4.      Kingen, Sharon.  On Teaching Writing [WWW page]. Available at <http://www.writeenvironment.com/OnTeachingWriting.html > [Accessed 16 February, 2001].
Full-text access to a number of articles written by Sharon Kingen that summarize concepts and methods important to writing teachers. Much of the information is drawn from philosophical works and serves as a good introduction to current theories on teaching writing, creating assignments, motivating students to write, and assessing students’ work.
 
5.      National Council for Teachers of English. [WWW page]. Available at <http://www.ncte.org/ > [Accessed 1 February, 2001].
This association website provides guidelines and position statements published by NCTE. It presents informed views on important issues in teaching English, ideas for assignments and activities, access to listservs, and tools and resources specific to elementary, middle, secondary, and college English teachers.
 
6.      National Council for Teachers of English Research in the Teaching of English. [WWW page]. Available at <http://www.ncte.org/rte/ > [Accessed 1 February, 2001].
Online access provided to back issues of RTE.  Included in the numerous articles about teaching English is a very interesting article (http://www.ncte.org/rte/newkirk.html) that discusses the particular difficulty young children have with expository writing.
 
7.      National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement. English Update. [WWW page]. Available at <http://cela.albany.edu/newsletter.htm>. [Accessed 15 February 2001].
Archives of issues back to Fall, 1996. Articles cover a wide range of topics in the field of English education, including many about teaching writing to young students.
 
8.      National Research Center on English Learning and Achievement. Research Reports. [WWW page]. Available at <http://cela.albany.edu/reports.htm> [Accessed 15 February, 2001].
Provides access to education research reports back to 1989. PDF versions of full texts are available for many reports.  As with English Update, these reports cover a wide range of English education topics, including many on teaching writing to young students.
 
9.      The National Writing Project.  Resources: Technical Reports and Occasional Papers [WWW page]. Available at: <http://www.writingproject.org/Resources/techreports.html> [Accessed 16 February, 2001].

The mission of the National Writing Project (NWP) is to improve the teaching of writing in the nation's schools. This website provides access to articles (in PDF format) from NWP’s newsletter, The Voice, and the program’s professional journal, The Quarterly, on topics related to improving writing education. Users can also access abstracts and some full-text versions of the Center for the Study of Writing's Technical Reports and Occasional Papers.

 

 

10.  Northwest Regional Education Laboratory. 6+1 Traits of Writing. [WWW page]. Available at <http://www.nwrel.org/eval/writing/ > [Accessed 17 February, 2001].

 

This is the website for the 6+1 Traits of Writing program, a method for teaching writing that is used throughout the U.S.  A detailed explanation of the program, along with strategies for teaching writing, curriculum ideas and writing activities for all grade levels are freely available from the website.

 

 

11.  OWL at Purdue University. OWL Handouts: Complete Index by Topic. [WWW page]. Available at: <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/index2.html> [Accessed 1 February, 2001].

The Purdue University Online Writing lab provides access to nearly 200 handouts for students and teachers.  Topics covered include essay planning, revising, genres, research papers, punctuation, and grammar. Also available are example writing exercises with answer keys.  These handouts are appropriate for older or more advanced students.
 
12.  OWL at Purdue University. OWL Resources for Teachers. [WWW page]. Available at <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/wac/teachindex.html> [Accessed 1 February, 2001].
Lots of links to helpful resources for writing teachers, including citation guides, online writing labs, and ELS resources.  Especially helpful are the links found halfway down the page at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/resources/genre.html. These cover curriculum development, lesson plans, booklists and other resources specific to K-12 writing teachers.
 
13.  Steele, Kimberly. Ideas for Teaching Writing. [WWW page]. Available at <http://www.angelfire.com/ks/teachme/writing.html > [Accessed 16 February, 2001].

Access dozens of articles about teaching writing to students grades K-12. Ideas for teaching the writing process, organization of writing, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and writing conventions are provided. The author uses the 6+1 Traits of Writing method (see above), thus most information available on this site is related to or influenced by the tenets of this method. 

 

14.  U.S. Department of Education. The U.S. Department of Education. [WWW page]. Available at <http://www.ed.gov/> [Accessed 1 February, 2001].

 

Official website of the U.S. Department of Education.  A search function is available, which searches all pages contained in the website. Numerous ERIC Digests on writing education are available, as are a limited number of research reports, government documents and other publications about writing instruction. 

 

15.  U.S. Department of Education – Office of Educational Research and Improvement.   Help Your Child Learn to Write Well. [WWW page]. Available at   <http://www.ed.gov./pubs/parents/Writing/index.html> [Accessed 1 February, 2001].
Provides parents with tips and strategies for helping their children learn to write well. This page suggest activities for parents with children who are just learning to write, which not only help in the acquisition of writing skills, but also teach good writing habits for the future. The activities described could be used in the classroom as well as at home.
 
16.  Western Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Basic Education Common Curriculum Framework.  Kindergarten to Grade 9 English Language Arts Resources: Annotated Bibliography. [WWW site]. Available at < http://www.wcp.ca/ela/ela-annbib.pdf > [Accessed 16 February, 2001].
Although a Canadian work, this bibliography could prove extremely useful to any teacher.  This 272-page bibliography identifies and evaluates English and language arts resources.  All sources are evaluated by education professionals and annotated with a physical description, comments, cautions, and ordering information.  Included are teacher resources, reference handbooks, and teaching materials, as well as anthologies, student books and materials, and sources in alternative media, such as videos and audiotapes. This is an excellent source for educators looking for resources, teaching aids and other materials for teaching writing to young students.
 
17.  Wolfe, Chris. Teaching Writing. [WWW page]. Available at  <http://www.eosc.osshe.edu/~wolfec/cw/capstone.htm > [Accessed 16 February, 2001].
This site contains essays by Chris Wolfe, as well “interviews” of writing educators, compiled from their published works.  The site focuses on teaching the writing process and teaching writing revision, and provides teachers and education students with methods that have proven effective for other writing teachers. 

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Introduction                    Bibliography                           Pathfinder