Much research has been completed that focused on the role of drafting strategies in first language (L1) writing, but its role in second language (L2) writing is missing. The present study investigated the impact of outlining and free writing strategies on L2 academic writing in terms of overall quality, as well as more specifically in terms of…

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…

Much research has investigated the role of planning time in second language writing; however, the results show that there are inconsistent findings about the effects of planning time conditions on the complexity of the EFL learners' textual output. The current study attempted to consider the differential effects of planning time conditions in…

Eight public examiners in English from the Western Australian Tertiary Admissions Examination marking panel and 103 final-year student teachers graded essays that were experimentally controlled for voice and diction. Control of these independent variables was achieved by providing four rewritten versions of the secondary student essays, each…

Discusses the results of a comparative study of the ways that newly recruited and very experienced composition teachers respond to students' papers, to determine what kind of special training, if any, would be most useful to new writing instructors. Results indicated that the differences between new and experienced teachers lay in the kinds of…

Considers whether differences might emerge in writing quality when students wrote examinations by hand or on a computer, and whether raters differed in their evaluation of essays written by hand, on a computer, or by hand and then transcribed to typed form before scoring. Finds no statistically significant differences in ratings among the three…

Compares writing errors made by college freshmen and professional writers. Explains that 20 student essays were compared to 20 essays from the students' textbook, "Short Takes: Model Essays for Composition." Notes that students and professionals were almost equally prone to commit errors. Offers suggestions for improving student writing.…

Reflects on three major issues that confronted researchers conducting a comparative study of achievement in written composition as they attempt to measure performance in writing across many languages and cultures. Concludes that most assessments of writing simply measure perceived drafting quality, which is a highly subjective judgment. (MG)

A study examined whether self-evaluation of writing should precede peer evaluation, and explored effective strategies for peer evaluation of writing. Seventy-six advanced placement English students in a Raleigh, North Carolina, high school were divided into experimental and control groups. The control group participated in peer evaluation of…

Reports on an experiment during which English teachers collected pieces of writing that their students had prepared for assessment and gave them to other English teachers for grading. (HOD)

Investigated relationships between individual differences in (1) levels of writing skills and (2) proficiencies at simultaneous and successive cognitive processing. Correlated students' writings with the following word and sentence level problems: spelling errors, missing or inappropriate punctuation of sentence parts, missing noun and verb…

Describes the methodology and results of a study of the differences between instructors' evaluations of student papers and the evaluations of other students. The results indicated that instructors and college freshmen use different criteria and stances when judging student work. (HTH)

Describes a cloze test designed to measure writing flexibility, then examines its effectiveness in distinguishing experienced college-level writers from the inexperienced ones. Concludes that the measure is effective and that responsiveness to style features is a significant component of experienced writing. (FL)

A study examined the assessment of instructional documents written by undergraduate engineering students in a 300-level technical writing course. The six documents were independently ranked by nine readers--three writing faculty, three engineering faculty, and three technical writing professionals. Besides ranking the documents, the nine readers…

Suggests that direct and indirect measures of writing ability tend to tap similar skills. Concludes that educational decisions about competence in writing can be be made by using a combination of direct and indirect means. (FL)