Presents four poems of the "self" (poems that represent authors' perceptions of themselves) by secondary school students. Discusses how to assess such poems and students' development in writing poems like them. (SR)

Reports an investigation to assess praiseworthy grading versus traditional grading. With praiseworthy grading, finds improvement in the quality of student writing, and argues that teachers give balanced and focused commentary on the strengths and weaknesses in students' writing. (JAD)

Compares two methods for evaluating syntactic complexity and maturity: (1) the T-unit method of W. K. Hunt and (2) the sentence weight method of P. DiStephano and S. Howie. Concludes that sentence weight is no more accurate than T-units, and more difficult to compute. (JG)

Discusses the importance of maintaining a dialog between teachers and students about each writing assignment. Explores ways of keeping the dialog going, even after an assignment has been graded. (JAD)

Examines whether certain student essays produce widely diverging holistic assessments from trained readers, using an essay from the 1986 Early English Composition and Assessment Program (from Miami University's Ohio Writing Project) and evaluating rater response with a questionnaire. Finds that the same paper evoked very different scores and rater…

Describes changes in the review process of articles submitted for publication in this journal. Notes that many reviewers now sign their review letters. Includes two reviewer response letters to an author, an editor's letter to the author, and the author's letter to the editor. (RS)

Provides analysis of the term "plagiarism" and distinguishes it from other ways students might employ sources. Defines a form of source usage called "patchwriting" that relies heavily on summary and which should be acceptable to writing teachers. Weighs the pros and cons of summary writing. (HB)

Distinguishes between monitoring and evaluating student writing, discusses the rationale for monitoring, demonstrates monitoring procedures, and summarizes major considerations to remember when monitoring writing. (JAD)

Defines portfolios in terms of their uses in university writing courses. Summarizes teachers' experiences in implementing portfolios in departments that have not adopted portfolios. Reviews common complaints and questions writing teachers have about portfolios. Describes and gives examples of student portfolios. (RS)

Describes a self-study in which a group of part-time composition instructors examined their practices for commenting on students' papers. Concludes that their commenting pedagogies had more to do with ubiquitous political ramifications of being marginalized part-timers or temporary appointees than they would have liked to admit. (RS)

Reveals freshman composition students' stated desire for greater peer review. Describes an assignment in which writing classes construct their own peer review procedures. Identifies review methods selected by students. Argues that the technique allows teachers to locate a midpoint between abandoning and dominating composition students. (SG)

Suggests that awkwardness in writing (like good writing) is an interactive nexus of writer, text, and reader and is a matter of subjective judgment. Argues that awkwardness in student writing is a positive sign of a writer's grappling with language complexity. Concludes that awkwardness is rhetorically motivated and therefore complex but…

Discusses several data collection procedures involved in four manageable writing classroom evaluation measures. (MG)

Examines how four teachers respond to their students' creative writing. Describes how they shape their comments. Analyzes what those comments suggest about their teaching styles and classroom goals. (TB)

Considers the theoretical issues of portfolio approaches to writing evaluation, especially as related to use in a large-scale setting such as a high school. Focuses on several key issues: standardization of portfolio contents, scoring procedures, the authenticity of student writings, and logistics. Describes a pilot study of the feasibility of…