Second language writing researchers have examined the affordances of Automated Writing Evaluation programs in providing immediate feedback that helps improve students' writing outputs. However, a little is known about tracking learners' process during writing essays and whether much/less pauses made by learners could predict good/poor quality of…

Research investigating corpora of English learners' language raises new questions about how syntactic complexity is defined theoretically and operationally for second language (L2) writing assessment. I show that syntactic complexity is important in construct definitions and L2 writing rating scales as well as in L2 writing research. I describe…

One ingredient that may serve as a catalyst for writing development is changes in writing knowledge. This study assessed the veracity of two tenets underlying this proposal: that skilled writers are more knowledgeable than less skilled writers, and that individual differences in knowledge are related to writing performance. Both of these…

Examines the relationship between the characteristics of second-year MBA student writing groups and the quality of their group-written reports. Finds that the most significant correlation between the groups and their writing was whether or not individuals chose to form teams on the basis of having worked together previously in writing projects.…

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)

A study investigated what can be learned about the strengths and weaknesses of students' writing from direct assessment of writing performance and knowledge of overall student performance. In the first part of the study, all 13 school districts in Alaska participated in an interdistrict writing assessment procedure intended to measure the overall…

A comparison of responses, gathered in 1970 and 1987, to the "Composition Opinionnaire" which was prepared by the Commission on Composition of the National Council of Teachers of English to meet the critical needs of schools in 1970, was designed to determine any change or lack of change in teachers' values concerning the described…

A random sample of 175 compositions on the same topic (a lost suitcase) was used in a study examining the correlations between holistic (single impression) and quantitative methods of evaluating student writing. The sample contained 25 papers from each of the following grade levels: four/five, and seven through twelve. A panel of three readers…

A study was conducted to determine whether a significant correlation existed between an essay's letter grade and five important factors of syntactic maturity (clause length, t-unit length, sentence length, clauses per t-unit, and t-units per sentence). A total of 45 essays--15 A, 15 B, and 15 C papers as graded by five junior college English…

Writing research has long attempted to define and assess coherence in written prose; however the researchers have often ignored or inadequately met the needs of writing students who require a simple definition of coherence that they can use to revise their own prose. One exception is Joseph Williams, author of "Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity…

A study investigated what basic writers think they are doing when they write and whether those perceptions are related to their writing achievement. A total of 134 students, high school seniors in a program of extra academic help and college freshmen in a compensatory composition course, completed a questionnaire that elicited data about their…