A study examined whether male and female writers would respond in identifiably different ways to the same writing task, and whether a content analysis of the discourse produced for these writing tasks would reveal distinctly "male" and "female" concerns. It was hypothesized that themes relating to autonomy would appear more often in men's essays,…

Examines hundreds of compositions from 19th-century students at Mount Holyoke and other institutions. Finds that the first generation of women to attend United States colleges negotiated competing demands of service (to family and community) and of individual intellectual performance. Contrasts women's compositions to men's. Illustrates effects of…

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)

A content analysis was conducted of 17 technical writing textbooks published between 1911 and 1938 and of 3 texts published recently to determine if the early texts differ from the more recent ones in the way they define the purposes of technical writing and in their treatment of style and audience. Results showed that both sets of texts define…

A study of student perceptions of the goals of composition classes and essential rules for successful academic compositions was conducted as a pilot for the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) writing project, which will collect data on instructional practices and other aspects of written composition.…

A taxonomy of revision changes was developed and applied to 18 case studies of writers' revisions. Subjects were six inexperienced student-writers, six advanced student-writers, and six expert adult-writers. The primary distinction of the taxonomy was between surface (formal and meaning-preserving) revisions and text-base (microstructure and…

An exploratory study examined gender differences in writing in the essays of five male and five female freshman composition students. The findings suggest parallels between the writing and speaking behaviors of men and women students and between student writing and the work of male and female professional writers. The male students made few…

A study explored the effects of word processing on the revision strategies of 20 advanced college freshmen enrolled in a required writing course. Subjects were divided into two groups of 10, each of which alternately wrote a series of four essays on and off the computer. For each essay students submitted three drafts, which were analyzed for…

A study examined the use and understanding of literary elements by students in grades 3, 6, 9, and 12. Students read L. Peck's folktale, "Coyote's Gift to Turkey Girl," and wrote a story of their own. The stories were then analyzed for their objective content (genre conventions, characterization, plot, and setting) and subjective content (kind and…

A study examined differences in writing self-efficacy beliefs among high- and low-apprehensive writers. The Daly-Miller (1975a) Writing Apprehension Test was administered to 43 developmental writers in 3 freshman composition classes. Students scoring plus or minus one standard deviation from the mean for that population were selected for further…