Purpose: The current study examined (a) the relation between morphologically complex word (MCW) use (words containing at least one derivational morpheme such as prefixes and suffixes) and teachers' ratings of writing quality, (b) average change in MCW use in writing across the school year, and (c) differential change in MCW among students with…

Twenty-eight Albanian-Greek bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorder and 28 children with Autism Spectrum Disorder but no language impairment, along with 28 typically-developing, age-, Performance IQ- and socioeconomic status-matched bilingual children were asked to produce two expository texts which were coded for spelling…

This article uses an ethnographic case study of high school writers preparing for college to explore students' writing experiences in and outside of school. In each domain, students experience affects related to embodiment, relationships, and movement, but the study reveals qualitative differences in those affective experiences. These differences…

Dialogue combines the Greek dia ("across") with logos ("word" or "speech") to mean a mutual exchange of meaning across space and time. A dialogue involves two or more entities in communication with each other, taking turns in some physical or conceptual space that separates and distinguishes these entities. The…

Purpose: This study focused on factors that contributed to writing quality in adults who were pursuing a General Educational Development (GED) diploma through an adult basic education program and university students who were pursuing a college degree. We explored the role of transcription (handwriting and spelling), working memory, oral language,…

Purpose: This study examines the written language samples of fifth grade English learner (EL) students with and without diagnosed language-based learning disabilities (LLDs) in an effort to explore the utility of such supplemental materials for aiding in differential diagnosis of ELs with and without LLDs. Method: This sample of 127 fifth grade…

Much current debate about undergraduate student research involves a focus on 'students as partners' and co-constructors of knowledge (Healey, Flint & Harrington 2014, 2016). This debate reveals interesting tensions between student freedom and the role of structuring frameworks. Undergraduate lecturers and research supervisors might feel we are…

Background: Cohesion refers to the linguistic elements of discourse that contribute to its continuity and is an important element to consider as part of written language intervention, especially in children with language learning disabilities (LLD). There is substantial evidence that children with LLD perform more poorly than typically developing…

Revisions in writing aim at text improvement. Literature has shown that revision activity differs between novice and experienced writers. Our ultimate goal is to understand how children and adolescents develop the capacity to shift perspectives from language producer to language recipient -- a prerequisite ability to successful revision. In this…

"Seductive details" refers to interesting pieces of information within an expository text that are only tangentially related to the target concept (Garner, Gillingham, & White, 1989). When the presence of this information results in reduced comprehension, this is called the "seductive details effect." Previous work has…

Web-based investigative learning is a form of learning where learners investigate Web resources to construct knowledge on a question. In our previous work, we have designed a learning model and a cognitive tool named iLSB to support learners in expanding the initial question into sub-questions so as to deepen and widen their investigation, and in…

"College readiness" has become a national buzzword in light of efforts to improve high school students' ability to successfully transition into postsecondary settings. One component of this transition that has long been an area of concern is students' readiness for college writing. Numerous stakeholders have weighed in on the question of…

This study investigated third graders' use and variation of linguistic resources when writing a science explanation. Using systemic functional linguistics as a framework, we purposefully selected and analyzed writing samples of students with high and low scores to explore how the students' use of language features (i.e., lexicogrammatical…

This study concerns expository writing in mathematics as well as the contribution of assessment strategies to the development of mathematics communication. We studied four 8th grade students (aged 12-13) working in a group, in order to perform three expository writing tasks, which were assisted by feedback and the use of supporting assessment…

English 150: Expository Writing is an undergraduate course in expository and research writing offered by special partnership to both the students of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and the students of the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM). The course provides student writers experience in the critical reading and writing practices required…