Trickster tales, with their teachings on how to behave in the world, are a powerful means for transmitting social knowledge and cultural mores to children. In this study we compared two approaches to teaching fourth-grade students to write trickster tales. Although both instructional methods incorporated aspects of the writing process approach,…

Argues for a cognitive-based curriculum which ensures that students participate fully in using writing as a mode of learning. Discusses Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive skills: (1) knowledge; (2) comprehension; (3) application; (4) synthesis; and (5) evaluation. (RAE)

Concurs with Myra Kogen's article ("Journal of Basic Writing," v5 n1) which questioned current applications of cognitive theory to basic writing research. Argues, from the perspective of cognitive psychology, that these applications are undermined by false assumptions and flawed methodology. (MM)

The problematic results of longitudinal studies on college writing indicate the need for multidimensional studies to be able to explore perceptible changes in students' writing. Accordingly a small pilot case study, to explore the promise and the limitations of doing a longitudinal multidimensional study, investigated whether impromptu essays…

Discusses a study of writing revision in which all the writing done in two sections of a writing course was collected and draft-to-draft revisions were studied. Suggests that revision depends as much on acquisition of topical knowledge as on level of cognitive development. (SR)

Analyzes the developmental patterns in the production of analogy by second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade students to determine whether children use different types of analogy as they achieve linguistic maturity. (HOD)

Reviews and synthesizes the major findings on reversal errors made by young readers. (FL)

Annotates books and articles that would be useful to someone who is becoming acquainted with the new rhetoric, that take note of the research and theory developed in the last two decades, and that seek a paradigm for rhetoric that will take into consideration changes in attitude and knowledge. (HOD)

Describes a study which explored developmental changes in preschoolers' knowledge of the writing system. The children were asked to write four utterances without knowing the purpose of the request and without additional explanations. The purpose was to determine how early children's graphic responses in decontextualized situations have features of…

A study examined how specific developmental levels of cognitive ability affect the relationship between beliefs and performance; how cognitive development levels affect reading and writing performance; and how developmental level affects the interactions between the reading and writing domains. Subjects, 150 undergraduates between the ages of 18…

Reports on research that showed that preformal-operational fourth graders could indeed benefit from classroom writing instruction on the higher-order skill of persuasive writing. (SR)

The major developmental challenge for children is not simply to create a unified text world but to move among multiple worlds, carrying out multiple roles and coordinating multiple space/time structures. A study observed eight primary-grade students over a 2-year period and focused on the interrelationships between children's creation of written…

Investigates 156 third, fifth, and ninth grade students to determine whether the revising/editing process is related to age or instruction and learning. Finds that the tendency to engage in revision/editing is more related to one's writing ability than it is to age or level of cognitive development. (MG)

Understanding the connections between students' levels of intellectual development, their view of the nature of knowledge, and their developing argumentative writing skills is central to helping students learn to write good argumentation. The first researcher to develop a model of intellectual development among college students was William Perry…

A study examined the developmental nature of early literacy in relation to variations in task demands, general cognitive development, and socioeconomic background. Subjects (N=32) were placed in two groups of 16 suburban Chicago kindergarten students that were designated either low income group (LIG) or high income group (HIG). The subjects,…