A study of the use of sentence fragments in 50 books and magazines suggests that the term "fragment" should be redefined to include "broken sentences" (always an error) and "minor sentences" (acceptable in any student writing). (DD)

Examined whether instruction on a single structure (the relative clause, the appositive, and the infinitive nominal) would alter frequency of use or global syntactic complexity and whether this instruction lasted beyond the immediate posttest. (HOD)

Examines whether a discourse consistent with functional sentence perspective (FSP) theory, which predicts how units of information should be distributed in a sentence and how sentences should be related in a discourse, is more memorable and readable than one contradictory to FSP. (HOD)

Compares cohesive ties and chains in the good and poor essays of college freshmen. Results indicate that longer chains, greater variety of words, and greater maturity or word choice characterize good writing. (SRT)

Indicates that sentence combining and kernel identification training enabled sixth-grade students to comprehend longer, syntactically more complex sentences than control group students and to retain this ability over a six-week period. (HOD)

Examines the individual and combined effects of between-sentence cohesive conjunctions, reference (lexical cohesion), and response rhetorical predicates on college freshmen's comprehension of selected passages of scientific, technical prose. (HOD)

Investigates the question of T-unit length stability in informative discourse written by freshmen near the end of an intensive course in college writing. (HOD)

Analyzes writing samples of 22 first graders and 13 second graders to determine how children learn the rules of punctuation. Finds they develop necessary hypotheses which are alternative to the standard end-sentence period placement rule. Suggests young "language scientists" need opportunities to practice this innate trade: rule formation. (NH)

Describes a sequence of four studies that explored how people composed sentences while writing expository essays. Among the findings were that the sentence composition process was often guided by a writing plan, and the most frequent changes accomplished by revision of parts were word choice, aspect of meaning, and grammatical structure. (HOD)

Reports on a study that examined the development of audience-adapted writing skills between the end of elementary school and the beginning of college, concluding that all students demonstrated sensitivity to the needs of a young reader. (HOD)

Describes two studies designed to determine how community college students in remedial freshman English sections defined a written "sentence." Concludes that subjects associated a complete written sentence with a verb-noun sequence of a certain requisite length and with a word string containing a prepositional phrase. (ET)

Sensitivity to syntactic structure can be increased by direct instruction. (JH)

The experimental evidence on the value of a sentence-combining approach to improving reading comprehension is still sparse, but the possibilities seem rich.

Investigates the relative effectiveness of two adjunct questioning techniques employed to increase writers' elaboration. (HOD)

The sentence structure in 64 academic journals representing the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering was examined to determine (1) what structures are common to all academic writing, (2) the range of variation within academic writing, and (3) the extent to which sentence structure differs in the academic areas. (HOD)