A 1979 analysis of student expository writing showed that holistic quality scores awarded by teacher-raters were influenced to a greater extent by essay length and freedom from spelling errors. A replication of that investigation using a sample of students' narrative writing produced the same findings. (HOD)

Intended for elementary school teachers in all subject areas wanting to learn more about what is known concerning the teaching of writing, this book summarizes numerous presentations made over the past four years by the many teacher/consultants working with the Bay Area Writing Project. Following introductory materials, the first section of the…

Research was conducted into the specific characteristics of brief, impromptu essay writing. A random sample of 806 essays was taken from the more than 80,000 written for the College Board's English Composition Achievement Test (ECT) in 1979. Using a special taxonomy of 20 writing characteristics, these essays were subjected to a second reading in…

In an effort to encourage the integration of writing as a communicative act in the second language classroom, information is presented about the purposes of writing in the second language classroom, types of writing tasks, proficiency levels in writing, writing activities, and writing evaluation. (Author/CB)

This digest draws upon the thirteen published volumes of "Inside English" to offer a summary of practitioners' advice on techniques to improve two-year college students' writing skills. First, the paper summarizes underlying principles of writing instruction, indicating that: (1) usage, formal grammar, phonics, and spelling are best…

Writing samples as diagnostic measurement tools have many variables that the instructor must control--time is a factor, and often the instructor needs more than one sample to fairly evaluate student writing ability. One method for better predicting the exact nature of students' writing problems is sentence combining. For sentence combining to be…

This manual is intended to assist elementary school teachers in developing classroom writing experiences. The sections in the first part of the manual address the individual stages of the writing process (prewriting, writing, and postwriting/editing) by reviewing research, presenting case studies of children's writing, and outlining activities,…

Describes a content area writing lesson which uses a process approach to promote independent student writing and to aid retention. Uses the Predict, Organize, Rehearse, Practice, Evaluate (PORPE) strategy which provides teacher modeling of effective strategies, guided student practice, and feedback. (RS)

Developed by teachers who had been trained in the teaching of the writing process, this curriculum guide is designed to help teachers gain the skills necessary for effective writing instruction. The seven sections of the guide provide the following information: (1) the basic assumptions and guidelines of the curriculum; (2) an explanation of the…

Lack of motivation to complete writing tasks leaves students unable to perform according to grade level expectations or to demonstrate mastery of school district objectives. To address this problem, a practicum involved 30 fifth grade students in a 36-week writing program using the process writing method. The goals of the practicum were as…

Results from the third national writing assessment of 17-year-old students conducted in 1979 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are presented in this volume. Chapter one provides highlights of the results of the test assessment which indicate neither a major decline nor improvement in writing performance of 17-year-old…

Results from the third national writing assessment of 13-year-old students conducted in 1979 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are presented in this volume. Chapter one provides highlights of the results of the test assessment which indicate a general decline in the writing performance of 13-year-old students. Chapter two…

Results from the third national writing assessment of nine-year-old students conducted in 1979 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are presented in this volume. Chapter one provides highlights of the results of the test assessment which indicate both decline and improvement on different tasks in the writing performance of…