This project examined the words selected for instruction from fourth-grade English/Language Arts (ELA) and science programs with the goal of describing the unique words in these two text types. Seven features of the words were established: (a) length, (b) frequency, (c) frequency of a word's morphological family, (d) familiarity, (e) dispersion…

Freshmen enrolled in regular and remedial sections of English were surveyed to determine the amount of instruction and practice in expository composition received during high school. Results showed that the total amount of instruction was relatively low for both groups of students: only 15% of remedial students and 25% of regular English students…

When the English-placement examination essays of college freshmen who had passed the examination were compared with essays of students who had failed, it was found that the most-important differences between the two groups of essays occurred in the area of content development and organization rather than in spelling, grammar, or punctuation. A…