Explores children's working knowledge of narrative, scientific, and poetic genres. Finds that children had significantly more experience with narrative genres than either scientific or poetic genres; and possessed more knowledge of text structure than micro-level features such as cohesion markers. Contributes to theorizing genre learning as a…

Examines writers' options in organizing comparisons. Finds that chunking of content in a systematic way is a strong predictor of holistic quality ratings, and that higher rated papers tend to be written by students with higher verbal abilities and more extensive topic knowledge. Demonstrates the complexity of the choices writers must make in…

Reports on a study of genre and register that reaches the following conclusions concerning the teaching of language and literature: (1) teaching should concentrate on the move structure of genres and the concomitant move registers rather than the general register of a genre as a whole; and (2) the teaching of reading and writing should be…

Offers an interpretive frame for viewing children's growth as creators of imaginative worlds. Suggests that writing development depends not only on children's discovery of cognitive and linguistic strategies but on children's discovery that writing can help authors create coherence in their worlds beyond texts. (MS)

Investigates the ability of children at two grades and reading ability levels to write functionally appropriate expository texts. Finds that (1) virtually all the children understand the function and audience for exposition; and (2) reading level is significantly more related than grade level to sophisticated use of cohesion, organization, and a…

Examines fifth- and sixth-grade students' metacognitive knowledge about the processes of writing narrative and expository texts. Finds that creating a communicative context enhances students' awareness of audience and purpose, as well as their understanding of different aspects of the writing process. (MG)

Identifies a set of linguistic/rhetorical measures which were developed to analyze cross-cultural differences in student argumentative/persuasive writing at the same age level. Compares the writing achievement of students from America, England, and New Zealand to test these measures, and contrasts these results with those produced by holistic…