This study examined a naturalistic, districtwide implementation of an automated writing evaluation (AWE) software program called "MI Write" in elementary schools. We specifically examined the degree to which aspects of MI Write were implemented, teacher and student attitudes towards MI Write, and whether MI Write usage along with other…

This study examined a naturalistic, districtwide implementation of an automated writing evaluation (AWE) software program called "MI Write" in elementary schools. We specifically examined the degree to which aspects of MI Write were implemented, teacher and student attitudes towards MI Write, and whether MI Write usage along with other…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how students in a developmental writing course at a community college used and adapted cognitive writing strategies learned in the course. The students participated in a funded research project for the development and evaluation of a writing curriculum based on self-regulated strategy instruction. The…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how students who were enrolled in a developmental writing course at a community college used and adapted cognitive writing strategies learned in the course. The students participated in a funded research project for the development and evaluation of a writing curriculum based on self-regulated strategy…

The article presents the results of a randomized experimental study of a writing curriculum for college developmental writing courses based on strategy instruction with self-regulation integrated with practices common in college composition. Students in a full semester course learned strategies for planning and revising based on rhetorical…

Revision is a challenging step of the writing process and students often focus their attention to mechanics or grammar instead of making organizational and meaning changes. It is important for students to critically read and independently evaluate their work when revising. This practitioner article discusses the importance of genre-specific…

This design research project developed and evaluated curriculum for developmental writing classes in community colleges. The core of the curriculum was self-regulated strategy instruction, which has been shown to be effective with adolescents who are struggling as writers. In the curriculum, students learned strategies for planning, drafting, and…

Opportunities to read and analyze others' writing or to observe readers as they analyze writing might enhance one's own sense of audience and improve one's own writing. This mixed-methods study investigated whether reader and observer activities in comparison to writing practice activities affected fifth-grade students' persuasive writing and…

Finds an approach to improving revision skills that integrated strategy instruction, peer response, and word processing to be highly effective with seventh- and eighth-grade students with learning disabilities. (SR)

Eleven fifth- and sixth-grade learning-disabled students composed and revised stories using handwriting, dictation, and word processing. Dictated stories differed from other formats on product measures such as length, quality, and grammatical errors. Differences between handwritten and word-processed stories were found on the process measures of…

Two studies with a total of 82 students (grades 5-7) with learning disabilities found that, unaided, students corrected 9% of their errors; with spelling checkers, they corrected 37% of errors. Spelling checkers failed to identify about 30% of errors. Students usually selected the correct word from spelling checker suggestions. (Author/DB)

The study, with 26 junior high learning-disabled students, found that students' predominant conception and application of revision to written work was correction of errors. Fewer than half of all revisions were rated as improvements. The only type of revision that positively affected overall quality was addition of T-units. (Author/DB)

Intermediate grade students with learning disabilities learned to work in pairs to help each other with editing and revising of their compositions. The 13 subjects made more revisions and produced papers of higher quality when revising with peer support than did 16 students in a process-approach control group. (Author/JDD)