Since its release in late 2022, ChatGPT and subsequent generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools have raised a wide variety of questions and concerns for the field of technical communication: How will these tools be incorporated into professional settings? How might we appropriately integrate these tools into our research and teaching? In…

The insufficient focus on developing writing instruction in education is a significant problem. Despite the crucial link between writing and reading skills and their impact on academic and life success, there is a notable lack of emphasis on writing in schools. Writing A-Z is a digital-first program that helps teachers establish a writing…

In this study, I explored the interactions among genre, task complexity, and L2 proficiency in learners' writing task performance. Specifically, after identifying the lack of valid operationalizations of genre and task dimensions in L2 writing research, I examined how genre functions as a task complexity variable, and how learners' perceptions and…

Are student-written reports posted on the Internet well written? Do business communications students think they are? This paper describes an assignment used during the first few weeks of a business communication course. The assignment gives business communication students a chance to evaluate a report from an Internet site that serves as a…

Explores rhetorical specification in writing tasks by examining responses to a poorly constructed task used in large-scale placement testing at a major university. Argues that fictional scenarios (writing prompts which give student writers a role to play) can be effective, provided that the roles created are reasonable ones for students to adopt.…

Explores academic writing from the students' side of the desk, examining how different tasks and writing situations influence students' approaches. Finds that responses to assignments depend upon what the students were actually rewarded for producing. (MG)

Discusses how a writing/design (service learning) assignment in a technical writing class offered an opportunity to investigate differences and similarities in evaluation criteria between the classroom (instructors) and the workplace (clients outside academe). Finds considerable overlap between what instructors and clients emphasized, and large…

A continuing concern of theorists in composition and rhetoric has been the problem of how to design effective writing assignments. With the recent movement in writing assessment from objective tests to writing samples, this problem has become even more important for those who produce "tests" designed to elicit writing samples. A study…

Explores the benefits of using a voice-graded writing approach, which offers instructors an opportunity to engage in virtual office critiquing of student assignments. (SR)

Describes a study in which undergraduate college students, composition instructors, and noncomposition faculty evaluate the same student writing assignments. Reports that the three groups have very different views of what constitutes good writing. Suggests a possible need to reexamine prevailing notions of academic writing. (SG)

Outlines a text-based, interactionist approach toward writing and written communication. A brief analysis of the working drafts and revisions of a first-year college student's essay is offered to illustrate how key textual features function reflexively to establish and sustain the evolving but mutually held rational grounds of school writing and…

Examines contexts for writing and response in a graduate education seminar including native and nonnative English speakers. Considers how the instructor communicated expectations for writing assignments, how students performed, and how students' writing was evaluated. Argues that student writing occurs in a multidimensional context where…

A study determined the effectiveness of using a computer word processor as compared to the traditional paper-and-pencil method for process story writing. Students in a first-grade classroom in the Mark Gardiner Hoyle Elementary School located in Swansea, Massachusetts, were randomly divided into a control group of 12 students and an experimental…

Compares the written production of 12 sixth grade English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students on 3 teacher-assigned tasks with their writing to the teacher in dialogue journals. Finds that the quantity and maturity of the dialogue journal writing was at least equivalent to the assigned writing on all measures. (RS)

Examines the use of Prep-Editor, a computer program to help undergraduate science writing students communicate with their peers about drafts. Finds that the program did not increase time spent on various writing activities. Notes that the Prep group reported a number of computer-related problems, whereas the non-Prep group reported more…