Describes a technical writing exercise used in the writing assistance program of a school of engineering. The exercise involves comparison of an original and rewritten memo to illustrate poor technical writing and how it differs from its better-organized and better-developed counterpart. (HTH)

Hypothesizing that students choosing their own topics would produce significantly more writing, a study examined the writing sample length of 42 sixth grade students who had been divided equally into two treatment groups. Treatments were counterbalanced so that during the first writing period students in one group wrote on topics they had selected…

Compares two studies in which the effects of a writing component in introductory psychology were measured. Evaluates the impact of the format on students' writing skills. Notes essay questions were restricted to four rhetorical forms previously encountered by students in freshman composition classes. (Author/NL)

Four experimental reading-treatment classes (n=94) and four control classes (n=100) wrote pre- and post-compositions which were evaluated for overall quality, syntactic density, T-unit length, productivity, and selected grammatical errors. Analysis of results found significant differences in reading skills but no differences in writing skills. The…

Argues that comparing standard English usage to systems of standardization students are familiar with from their technical training forces technical writing students to understand the need for consistent signaling in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and other language conventions. Includes an example from early American literature written in…

Presents an Italian study of children assigned to write two persuasive appeals for funds. Reports that improvement on the second request was related to request features demonstrated between the two assignments. Concludes that training did have some effect, but both control and experimental groups improved in their second performances. (DK)

A study was conducted to assess the psychological effectiveness of cooperative small group learning among junior college students with less than 11th grade skill levels. Three English classes, reflecting the overall student population, were chosen. All classes met three days a week and had the same instructor and out-of-class assignments. Two of…

More than half of the entering freshmen at Rio Grande College in Ohio are required to take developmental English. In addition to having grammar, reading, and writing difficulties to overcome, most of these students have negative attitudes toward writing. In an effort to improve students' writing skills and attitudes, word processing instruction…

Describes study that examined the effect of the use of microcomputers as word processors in a college freshman English composition course. Treatments for the experimental and control groups are described, dependent and independent variables are explained, and results based on pretest and posttest writing samples are analyzed. (21 references) (LRW)

A study was conducted at the University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland) in the Fall 1985 15-week semester to test the effects of advanced knowledge of grading criteria on students' writing skills and attitudes in a Freshman Composition class. A holistic grading scale, which was distributed to students as a checklist for revising writing…

Designed to use recent research on revision activities and personal error analysis, a classroom study compared grades on papers written by students with and without specific instruction and practice in revising and proofreading techniques. Detailed statistical analyses of two writing assignments revealed no significant difference in grade…