Claims that increasing numbers of reading educators are looking to recent advances in holistic writing assessment to explore new potentials for assessing reading comprehension. Reports on a research project exploring use of freewriting to assess reading comprehension; describes use of written retellings as a tool to support reading; and presents a…

Two major factors have shaped writing research from the cognitive processing viewpoint. The first factor contains the strategic decisions about the course of such research, suggesting what is interesting and how best to proceed. The decisions made in regard to writing as a cognitive process have been to focus on the act of writing, to seek a…

Describes aspects of Linda Flower's work used by the author in devising writing technical assistance for teams writing technical reports in the United States General Accounting Office. Discusses three brief case studies describing the relationship between the work program structure (a major barrier to audience-based writing) and the writing…

Examined the positive and negative aspects of using computers to teach writing within a context of intensive teacher and peer feedback and support for fifth- and sixth- year Montessori students. Found that technology enhanced the writing process for creative, collaborative work and for peer response and editing. (KB)

Describes a British writing assessment project intended to discern age-specific characteristics of writing and the project's subsequent assessment model. Evaluates samples of two kinds of writing, autobiography and argument, using the model. (HTH)

Evaluates a Navajo school program to improve writing skills using the process model and computers. Concludes that students' writing skills improved more in the experimental program than in comparable conventional classes, and that the new approach created a different pattern of growth in writing ability. (SV)

A theoretically and empirically based intervention, Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD), for students who struggle with academic tasks is described. The instructional implications and evaluation of performance for one student with learning and behavioral difficulties highlights the usefulness of this instructional approach. Six individual…

The benefits of a self-regulated strategy development approach for teaching elementary school students with learning disabilities how to write opinion essays are discussed, and the steps of the POW plus TREE strategy of instruction are outlined: develop background knowledge, discuss, model, memorize, support it, and perform independently.…

An advanced composition curriculum was designed for a class of 20 juniors and seniors, and because of the constraints of a university grant with which it was associated, the majority of assignments had to be collaborative. The subject of investigation was composition. That is, the students were challenged to do what composition researchers and…

A project to improve the writing skills of children (grades 4-10) who are deaf included instruction for teachers in the process approach to teaching writing and a data collection and analysis phase to assess short-term effects on students' writing. Pretest-posttest results showed dramatic improvement in students' writing, particularly in…