A study examined topic selection and spelling development in kindergarten students' journal writing. Subjects, 19 kindergarten students enrolled in a middle-class school, were informally interviewed about their writing. The students' writing topics were categorized and their spelling analyzed. Results indicated that the children were able to…

A college freshman level sentence-combining treatment consisting of one paragraph rewriting exercise for 12 consecutive weeks resulted in significant gains in average words per clause and words per T-unit. (HOD)

Two experiments were conducted to assess the influences of two individual variables--verbal aptitude and writing apprehension--on the production of persuasive arguments by college students. Subjects were 47 college students who wrote preliminary and final drafts of persuasive letters. Results of both experiments revealed that the students' verbal…

Concludes from an analysis of student writing and interviews with individual students that they benefit from being offered a variety of writing assignments and from the opportunity to apply their own knowledge, background, and experiences to their writing. (AEA)

A study explored the complexities of audience adaptation by examining the relationships between writer/audience proximity, register, and overall quality in essays written for assigned audiences. Subjects, 100 college freshmen, each wrote one essay in response to two audience-specified tasks in which subjects were to write persuasive letters to…

Analyzes score differences for the papers of 50 students who wrote on four different writing topics, two that were on transactional and two that were on expressive topics. Results suggested that differences between scores might be very important for individuals, so to insure fairness, teachers should use additional forms of writing assessment. (DF)

Proposes three basic strategies of inquiry essential to good writing and reports the results of studies on these strategies. (JL)

A study examined whether a writing style called "dialogue writing" would allow children to use conversational cues to write longer papers in the same amount of time as free writing. Subjects were 54 sixth graders (about 12 years old) in 3 classrooms in rural neighborhoods--one class consisted of children with learning difficulties.…

A survey of 190 academic departments in 34 universities indicates that considerable variability exists across fields in the kinds of writing required and in preferred assessment topics. (FL)

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)

One hundred seventy-nine students enrolled in a first-year college level composition course were subjects in a study of the effects of four levels of audience specification on writing anxiety, performance, and sensitivity to audience. Subjects completed the Writing Apprehension Test, which determined levels of writing apprehension, and then…

A study investigated the relationship between teacher writing apprehension and the uses of writing in various classrooms. Subjects were 192 secondary school teachers who completed a writing apprehension measure and a questionnaire that elicited information about their teaching experience, subject and grade level taught, and the number, length,…

Some composition teachers believe that students may write more competently in subject matter courses than in writing courses. That is, the constraints of writing for a class or assignment in which the composition skills will be evaluated may prevent students from writing their best. With this in mind, a study was conducted to determine whether…

Argues that successful interpretation of writing tasks demands writers' authority, confidence, and knowledge of rhetorical choices, allowing them to take charge of their own writing rather than catering to the imagined demands of a teacher. (RS)

Reports on the development of a home intervention strategy at the secondary school level to improve students' writing abilities. (HOD)