A study analyzed argumentative essays written to both friendly and hostile audiences by 40 randomly selected college undergraduate students and 12 randomly selected college-bound high school seniors. After holistic rating, papers were analyzed for degree and kind of audience activity and were also independently evaluated for writers' levels of…

Responds to Myra Kogen's article, "The Conventions of Expository Writing" (JBW; v5 n1). Discusses several misunderstandings about models of intellectual development. Argues that developmental schemes are useful when interpreted cautiously, but risky if used to classify a student's intellectual development. (MM)

Analyzes argumentative essays written to both friendly and hostile audiences by high school seniors and college undergraduates. Finds level of intellectual development a more significant predictor of holistic paper scores than demographic variables. (MS)

William G. Perry, Jr.'s, ideas on the development of student writers were used as a frame of reference for a study of the discursive development of students enrolled in writing seminars at Skidmore College (New York). Perry posits that students execute a series of maneuvers in which they first try to assimilate new perspectives they are…

A study analyzed argumentative essays written to both friendly and hostile audiences by 12 high school seniors, 24 college freshmen, and 16 college juniors and seniors. The high school students were randomly selected from college-bound English classes that had stressed reading and writing about literature but had also included some work in…