By analyzing the elements of experience, handling of time, contextualizing, role of the narrator, and integration of these factors it is possible to trace developments in the texture of personal and imaginary stories among students 11-18. Thus, narrative is revealed as a "primary act of mind" involving increasingly mature insights and perspectives…

To determine staging points reached in written narratives based on the personal experience of four secondary school students, researchers examined (1) the kinds of ordering or reordering that occur as the writer imaginatively recovers the events of the past; (2) whether the writer automatically assumes or takes for granted that a reader is already…

A model for assessing student writing achievement uses sets of criteria to chart students' writing progress that are based on a study of exemplary samples of student writing produced at various stages of development. The model provides a viable alternative to assessment methods that call for students to produce lengthy essays on preselected topics…

One of a number of reports of a study of the writing development of 14- to 16-year-old students, this booklet is divided into two parts. The first part uses five criteria to analyze what four secondary students learn from composing imaginary stories: (1) What resources are used in the setting or situation? (2) What kind of ordering is used? (3)…