This literature review looked at relevant research articles published in reputable journals from 2018 to 2022 to try to shed light on the areas: (1) Implications of using thematic progression pattern to improve the coherence and unity of student essays; and (2) The effects of thematic problems using the thematic progression approach in the…

This study explored patterns in L2 writing development by focusing on one of the linguistic features of texts (fluency) from a complex dynamic systems perspective. It investigated whether two English-as-a-foreign-language university students would experience discontinuous change (phase transition) in their writing fluency through repetition of a…

Examines writers' options in organizing comparisons. Finds that chunking of content in a systematic way is a strong predictor of holistic quality ratings, and that higher rated papers tend to be written by students with higher verbal abilities and more extensive topic knowledge. Demonstrates the complexity of the choices writers must make in…

Investigates convergent and divergent validity of inferences from selected measures of structure, coherence, and quality for compositions. Finds (1) strong support for validity of inferences from the structure measures, serious questions of inferences from coherence measures, and weak support for quality measures; (2) some evidence for the…

To discover what variables are involved in the production of text coherence, and how cohesion and coherence are different, a study collected 30 papers randomly selected from over 200 papers written by incoming freshmen college students at a local community college. The papers were rated by 21 state conference participants. Raters were in-service…

Examines composition research in the annotated bibliographies appearing from December 1984 to May 1989 in the journal "Research in the Teaching of English." Considers the question of what has been learned from this large corpus of research. Focuses on topics on which little research has been done and areas in which enough work has…

Investigates eighth-graders' summarizations of a scientific article used in their science class. Presents an analytic coding system developed to describe and detail structural and semantic strengths and weaknesses of students' expository summary essays. (SR)

This report describes the second phase of a study of the transformations students make in their written texts as they write from sources in a given discipline. Phase 1 of the study examined how students performed the task of writing a critique of a scholarly article in sociology and how their efforts were evaluated by professors in the discipline.…

Identifies a set of linguistic/rhetorical measures which were developed to analyze cross-cultural differences in student argumentative/persuasive writing at the same age level. Compares the writing achievement of students from America, England, and New Zealand to test these measures, and contrasts these results with those produced by holistic…

Writing research has long attempted to define and assess coherence in written prose; however the researchers have often ignored or inadequately met the needs of writing students who require a simple definition of coherence that they can use to revise their own prose. One exception is Joseph Williams, author of "Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity…