This report provides information drawn from a study that compared two components of the freshman English program at the University of Texas at Austin. The first chapter of the report contains background material and describes the two course components--the analytic option, which emphasizes writing skills in the context of complete pieces of…

Explores the use of topical structure analysis as a way to understand some textual cues that may prompt revision and as a way to describe the effects of revision. Describes the methodology, results, and implications of a study of some of the textual causes and effects of revision. (HTH)

This article is concerned with characterizing literacy activity as it is practiced in professional workplaces. Its starting point is activity theory, which grew out of the work of Vygotsky and has been subsequently elaborated in Russia and elsewhere. First, the authors propose that existing versions of activity theory are unable to account…

Noting that present evaluation systems are so limited that they are neither reliable nor valid, this monograph critically reviews studies designed to evaluate composition programs at four major universities. The book offers theoretical and practical guidance through discussion of generalities from the four studies and pertinent questions and…

Differentiates the two concepts of cohesion and coherence. Points out the differences between highly-rated and lower-rated essays by the techniques the writers used to achieve cohesion. Offers references on text linguistics and on European writings about discourse. (RL)

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)

An analysis of descriptive and narrative passages written by 45 first-semester college freshmen early in the semester suggests that mean T-unit length is not a stable individual trait either within the descriptive mode or across description and narration. (GT)

This report presents the results of a national survey of college and university writing program directors that was undertaken to provide reliable and current information about writing programs at the college level. The first chapter contains a discussion of the survey questionnaire and sample population. The next nine chapters report the responses…

Writing research has long sought to identify the internal features of written discourse that help to explain qualitative differences among student texts. Reflecting the theories of the Prague School linguists, this study used a topical structure analysis to distinguish between the sentences and T-units of 48 college freshman essays evaluated as…

A survey was undertaken to gather and record the perceptions that college writing program directors and teachers have of the goals of their writing programs, particularly freshman composition. Responses were returned by 134 writing program directors and 135 composition instructors from publicly or privately funded institutions, two-year colleges,…

M. A. K. Halliday and R. Hasan have provided a system for analyzing the cohesive relations that enable a sequence of T-units to be considered a complete text. (A T-unit consists of a main clause and all its dependent clauses.) These concepts of cohesion proved effective in analyzing the differences between five "high" and five "low" quality essays…

Explores (l) the role of pre-text in translating ideas into linguistic forms, and (2) the relationship of translating and pre-text in the planning and reviewing process. Suggests four observations worthy of further study concerning the nature and function of pre-text. (NH)