Although keystroke logging promises to provide a valuable tool for writing research, it can often be difficult to relate logs to underlying processes. This article describes the procedures and measures that the authors developed to analyze a sample of 80 keystroke logs, with a view to achieving a better alignment between keystroke-logging measures…

Presents findings of a descriptive study designed to compare instances of writer's block in English and Spanish, among and within three groups of bilingual writers. Tries to determine if the same writing factors stymie both the novice bilingual writer and the practiced bilingual writer. Suggests ways to lessen writing apprehension. (RAE)

Outlines a theoretical perspective to account for how the writing that adults produce and use appears to get done, what it seems to be, and how it apparently functions in contemporary culture. Argues for a conceptualization of writing that is predicated on broader and more realistic understandings of text and writing than have generally informed…

Suggests that productive creativity occurs more reliably with moderation of work duration and of emotions, not with the fatigue and ensuing depression of "binge" writing. Examines academics (new to a campus that required writing and publishing for tenure) who write either in moderation or in binges. Finds that productive, successful…

Outlines a social-interactive model of written communication, highlighting the writer's role in negotiations with readers in the medium of text. Reviews and challenges formalist and idealist theories of text meaning. Spells out the rules governing writers' moves by specifying a fundamental axiom and seven corollaries. (SR)

Presents a systematic strategy for examining topic-related knowledge prior to writing. Discusses a theory-based rationale for the measure, a formalized method for analyzing topic knowledge, and a guide for using the instrument. (JD)

Looks at the nature of introspective accounts and the usefulness of such accounts in studies of the composing process. Concludes that retrospective journal accounts are a rich source of information because they permit consideration of the complex context in which composing occurs. (FL)

Relates problems of law text comprehensibility to the legislative writing process. Describes the drafting of three pieces of Swedish consumer legislation at different stages. Summarizes and analyzes the results in relation to rhetorical and sociolinguistic theories of writing. (SR)

Traces the emergence of authorship in a beginning college writing classroom through two case examples. Finds that although the instructor tried to foster a sense of engagement and commitment, the technical difficulty of the task, students' perceptions of their peers' interests, and a legacy of schooling and culture were equally important concerns…

Investigates normative longitudinal change in student writing during college. Selects nine measures as good representatives of nine factors--factors of independent and bound ideas, idea elaboration and substantiation, local cohesion, establishment of logical boundaries, free modification, fluency, and vocabulary. Finds that eight of the nine…

Indicates that, on the first task, both the dyadic rewriting group and the individual writing group significantly outperformed the individual rewriting group on a communication score. Finds that the ordering of means on this measure (from highest to lowest) was individual rewriters, dyadic rewriters, then writing individuals. (JD)

Examines whether the cognitive strategies of outlining and draft writing enhance college students' writing performance. Reports that outlines improved the quality of writing, but did not enhance efficiency. Rough drafts did not affect quality or efficiency. A survey of faculty revealed that outlines correlated positively with productivity, whereas…

Investigated relationships between individual differences in (1) levels of writing skills and (2) proficiencies at simultaneous and successive cognitive processing. Correlated students' writings with the following word and sentence level problems: spelling errors, missing or inappropriate punctuation of sentence parts, missing noun and verb…

Compares deaf writers to basic writers with normal hearing in terms of their apparent attention to grammatical correctness. Finds that deaf subjects devoted substantially less attention to grammatical decision making during composition. (MS)

Elaborates and evaluates a sociolinguistic framework for the study of writing. Discusses application of the framework to the writing that takes place at a local government office. Finds that the workplace constitutes a communicative group of the local-public type, where communication is socially based and hierarchically structured with both spoken…