Despite writing teachers' best efforts, students still seem to regard the request to revise as intimating failure. Many researchers have noted students' lack of response to teacher comments, and much of this research has provided a corrective lens on vague or even aggressive teacher comments. Unpracticed writers replace the task of revising with…

A study investigated differences in writing processes among second year (age 10) and fourth year (age 12) English school children using a modified protocol procedure thought to be less distracting to the writing process. Four children from each grade level wrote a descriptive paper, and their spontaneous comments during the writing period were…

A study investigated the effects of teacher probes, a type of questioning, on children's written revisions. Subjects, 260 children from grades two through six in a midwestern school district of moderate size, were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (probe or comment). Subjects in both conditions were presented with a story starter that…

Many writing process researchers have shown that students make only minor mechanical changes instead of revising their documents significantly. Effective revision pedagogy must address this problem by encouraging revision of content, arrangement, and style, and by directing student attention to all levels of the document, from the overall essay…

Intended to help writing teachers better understand how to help students effectively revise their written work, this book contains essays that, as a group, focus on the problem of the definition of revision. The first half of the book discusses the background of revision, while the second half discusses contexts and techniques for application. The…

Using the right hemisphere of the brain in evaluating student writing means consciously and consistently incorporating its emotional, intuitive, and holistic functions with the more analytical functions of the logical "left" hemisphere when considering, judging, and directing improvement in student writing. Research seems to suggest that…

A small scale research project involving teaching writing skills to slower learning students in three different Scottish schools is the focus of this volume. Chapter 1 discusses the context and nature of the project, while chapter 2 presents teachers' accounts of their professional practices in teaching writing, including their perceptions of…

This book contains 20 articles, from a wide variety of perspectives, designed to bridge the interests of researchers and teachers on the topic of current composition research. The following articles are included: "Studying the Writing Abilities of a University Freshman Class: Strategies from a Case Study" (Charles R. Cooper, with Roger…