Discusses the results of a comparative study of the ways that newly recruited and very experienced composition teachers respond to students' papers, to determine what kind of special training, if any, would be most useful to new writing instructors. Results indicated that the differences between new and experienced teachers lay in the kinds of…

Compares writing errors made by college freshmen and professional writers. Explains that 20 student essays were compared to 20 essays from the students' textbook, "Short Takes: Model Essays for Composition." Notes that students and professionals were almost equally prone to commit errors. Offers suggestions for improving student writing.…

Reports on a study that used two approaches to examine how words are used to create meaning in written discourse in order to illuminate the differences among a group of essays written by 12 developing writers. (HTH)

Describes the methodology and results of a study of the differences between instructors' evaluations of student papers and the evaluations of other students. The results indicated that instructors and college freshmen use different criteria and stances when judging student work. (HTH)

Examines three articles written jointly by the same researchers and reporting the results of the same study in three different specialized journals. Points out the inadequacy of the current heuristic for analyzing audiences, and provides the basis for creating a different audience analysis heuristic based on rhetorical analysis of discourse. (HTH)

Compares the rhetorical strategies of 20 opening paragraphs from "Psychology Today" to those in 20 first paragraphs from student essays. Observes that professionals regularly begin exposition with narratives, indirection, and irony, while students begin with rhetorical questions, truisms, and muddled strategies. Concludes that students'…

Contrasts a recent collection of "best" student essays with a report reviewing a 1929 test in English that was used for making college admissions decisions. Concludes that writing teachers have been as much or more interested in who they want their students to be as in what they want their students to write. (RS)

Provides a model of the rhetorical problem, based on the study of writing as a problem-solving cognitive process; describes three major differences between good and poor writers revealed by a protocol analysis study. (DD)