Writing is a challenge and a potential obstacle for students in U.S. 4-year postsecondary institutions lacking prerequisite writing skills. This study aims to address the research question: Is there a relationship between specific features (analytics) in coursework writing and broader success predictors? Knowledge about this relationship could…

In September, 2016, the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) and the National Center for Education Research (NCER) of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) convened a group of experts to discuss and provide input on research needs in the area of middle and high school writing for students, including English learners (ELs) and…

Background: The need for improvement in writing instruction in schools is dependent on teachers being aware of evidence-based procedures in writing and implementing them on a regular basis in their classrooms. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the frequency with which teachers in Western Canada employed evidence-based procedures in…

Research was conducted to test the assumption that technical writers compose as other writers do. Information was gathered through questionnaires and interviews surveying 70 writers--technical writing students, students working part-time in industry, university professors, and engineers and researchers working full-time in industry. The results…

This paper presents a way of looking at research in terms of its "logic" such that it is possible to identify some implications of "new" literacies for research in the area of writing. The paper begins by presenting a diagrammatic view of the logic of research and then moves on to a preliminary account of how people think of…

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…

To determine whether scientists and science students would accept a simplified writing style, two studies were conducted. In the first study, respondents--1,089 scientists from agricultural experiment stations, 20 station editors, and 59 editors of scientific journals--answered a questionnaire requesting biographical information and reactions to a…

In 2001 the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) put forth guidelines for the ethical treatment of students during research in composition studies, and several scholars have voiced their fears and opinions. This paper cautions that the Guidelines' reliance on Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to protect students may unintentionally…

In teaching writing, the "audience" became and still is fundamental, leading to the question of how students can learn to adapt their text to the assumed readership and at the same time, learn to write for their addressees. A study focused on how writers cope with the writing process, asking several questions about the concept of…

In the last few years, the focus has evolved from considering an "ethic of research" in composition studies to an "ethic of representation" in person-based research. One of the dominant questions that emerged from this shift is how researchers represent their students and their writings in composition research. What does the…

Exploring the formal and theoretical possibilities available in and through feminist inquiries, this paper investigates the possible impact of feminist theories on three areas of academic writing--the professional, the graduate, and the undergraduate--using a polylogic, polyvocal presentation. The paper explores the theoretical and formal…

Recent models of metadiscourse proposed by Joseph M. Williams and William J. Vande Kopple are collections of disparate structures instead of principled systems--they do not contain rules to explain the interdependencies of their categories. Metadiscourse should be redefined as a category within the larger context of speech act theory.…

One segment of a year-long descriptive field study of school writing is described in this paper. In particular, the paper examines some of the uses to which writing is put in the first weeks of school in one second/third grade classroom. In doing this, the paper speculates on the writing curriculum in elementary schools and on the realization of…

A study examined the feasibility of e-mail tutoring at Winthrop University, a medium-sized state supported liberal arts university with limited technology access. Initially it looked at the questions of directive versus nondirective methods in tutoring, but it quickly spread to questions of submission, formatting, and strategy. A total of 26…

Explores the nature of the composing process and considers classroom implications of the results of writing research. (AEA)