Compared students' (n=101) interpretations of tutors' written comments on essays with the tutors' intent in three humanities classes at an Australian university. Found almost half the students did not interpret the comments in the way their tutors intended. Concludes that grading comments need to be carefully explained, with discipline-based…

To determine the effects on test performance and test validity of releasing essay topics before an examination, 300 prospective graduate students wrote essays on a released and an unreleased topic. Analyses did not reveal any statistically significant effect of topic release. (SLD)

Duke University asked applicants to indicate where they received assistance on their essays, and many of the replies were quite revealing. Some admissions experts fear the university is inviting students to be dishonest by asking them about the help they received. (EV)

Describes a career planning essay as an opportunity for students to evaluate career goals; reflect on the relationship of values, career goals, and life goals; and develop an action plan. Provides instructional tips about timing, setup, and feedback for this exercise. (SK)

Proofreading a text for misspellings involves detecting spelling errors and then correcting those errors. We examined differences in spelling error detection and correction in adults as a function of type of spelling error. We modified student essays to include phonological (e.g., incredibul), orthographic (e.g., decisian), and morphological…

This study extended the work on curriculum-based measurement to examine the criterion-related validity of curriculum-based measures in written expression for middle school students, the differences in validity coefficients for various lengths of text, and the sensitivity of curriculum-based measures to change in student performance.…

One of the core competencies in the IFT Education standards is for students to achieve competency in communications skills (that is, oral and written communication, listening, interviewing, and so on). According to the IFT guidelines, by the time students graduate, they should not only be able to search for and condense information but also be…

Ralph A. Smith is known to most contributors because of his superb knowledge of the arts. But it should also be known that Ralph is one of the best "all round" intellectuals in this country, or anywhere else. After seeing Ralph at work as an editor, it became clear to this author that he had a view of things far greater than would ordinarily be…

What does it means to be a caring dance teacher? The essay reviews the rise of care in education and examines the concept of care as a moral orientation in personal and educational encounters so that connections to dance education are revealed, definitions are arrived at, and important related issues are identified. The essay describes three…

The writing of a scientific article offers a sharp divergence from the standard essay paper familiar to most students from English class. Supporting documentation is embedded in the scientific prose, not footnoted along the bottom of each page. Instructing students in the art of scientific writing can be truly challenging. After years of…

Calibrated Peer Review™ (CPR), a web-based instructional tool developed as part of the National Science Foundation reform initiatives in undergraduate science education, allows instructors to incorporate multiple writing assignments in large courses without overwhelming the instructor. This study reports successful implementation of CPR in a…

I was interested in whether the inclusion of a service-learning experience would affect students' attitudes and values about the environment. To investigate this question, I incorporated a service-learning project into the laboratory portion of one of the two sections of my non-majors biology course, and kept the lecture portions of the course…

Teaching mathematics in real-word contexts is a strategy to make math relevant for undergraduate students. However, very little research exists on students' methods of integrating contextual and mathematical knowledge through writing. This study uses an interdisciplinary writing assignment to investigate the relationship between students' written…

This study examined the difficulty level of essay topics used in the large-scale assessment of writing in relation to five different scoring models, and sought to determine what effects the scoring models would have on passing rates. In model one, examinee's score is the direct result of a score assigned by the reader or the sum of scores assigned…

The validity and reliability of essay scores were examined by comparing the mean scores assigned to good and poor quality essay responses of different lengths written by high school sophomores. In-service and pre-service social studies teachers graded essay responses to a test question requiring knowledge of the Constitutional provisions for…