Trickster tales, with their teachings on how to behave in the world, are a powerful means for transmitting social knowledge and cultural mores to children. In this study we compared two approaches to teaching fourth-grade students to write trickster tales. Although both instructional methods incorporated aspects of the writing process approach,…

Studies original and revised essays of 60 university freshmen to determine the effects of attention to audience on improving overall compostion quality. Finds audience attention effective as a revising strategy but more effective as a drafting strategy. (NH)

Analyzes and compares transcriptions of ten one-to-one conferences between teacher and student. Concludes that successful conferences focus on criteria for successful writing, evaluating students' work, and on the work itself; unsuccessful conferences are characterized by repeated requests for explanation, and by tutor dominance that excludes…