Content analysis was used to determine the evaluation criteria of high school and college teachers and college seniors in grading essay tests. Content analysis is defined as a way of asking a fixed set of questions unfalteringly of all of a predetermined body of writings, in such a way as to produce quantitative results. Four reponses to a…

Suggested topics, beginning sentences, and illustrated ideas can motivate young writers, stimulate their imaginations, and give them reference points for the development of their thoughts on paper. This document offers illustrated questions and seasonal topics as writing ideas for students in the primary grades. Creative ideas for students in the…

As an alternative to the traditional freshman composition course, a one-credit research skills module has been organized to help students develop competency in reference work and organization for research papers. Designed as part of a three-credit composition course, the eight week module concentrates on developing competency in the following…

To study grading standards and consistency within the English department, 1600 freshmen at Rockland Community College were asked to complete a uniform exit essay at the end of English 101. After developing criteria for grading the papers, members of the department marked their own papers and one other set. Eight months later, 240 of the papers…

The metaphor of the writing "coach" is used to explore a writing-process approach to the teaching of freshman writing. This approach allows for personal discovery leading to the same sense of accomplishment that the superior athlete enjoys. The mastery of higher levels of skill similarly leads to the potential for higher levels of performance. To…

The home mission of the University English department is the teaching of reading and writing, and its foreign mission is the "converting" to a higher literacy of those outside the English department, especially those who teach English in the high schools and other subjects at the college level. Potential high school English teachers'…

Intended for educators seeking information on direct writing assessments, this monograph describes general procedures for planning and conducting a writing assessment and strategies for tailoring that assessment to local needs. The introductory chapter offers a brief comparison of direct and indirect writing assessment methods, highlighting those…

The first identity new graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) must adopt is the "instructor" persona, which must be carried out with confidence and competence if their freshmen students are to accept them as qualified instructors. For those GTAs who are uncomfortable with this persona, the faculty supervisor can provide them with a detailed teaching…

Organized in two parts, this book provides specific guidelines and techniques for planning, conducting, evaluating and using the results of a composition testing program. Part One, intended principally for test administrators, describes specific procedures for carrying out the steps in developing a composition testing program. The steps, organized…

A study was conducted to determine whether the use of voice as defined by writing theorists is essential to producing good student writing and whether peer interaction would help students gain a greater sense of voice in their writing. Forty-two high school juniors were divided into two clusters: a peer interaction group and a teacher-centered…

A study was conducted to examine writing skill, particularly maintenance of coherence, in an environment where the information load was heavy and students would be expected to have problems organizing it. The students, all proficient in English, were enrolled in a postsecondary biology class. Two of the six students in the study had high objective…

The element of static abstractions (SAs)--any pseudoheuristic listing of derived nominals whose purpose is to define good structure in prose writing--is one of the important historical components of the current traditional rhetoric inherited from the nineteenth century. SAs, of which unity, coherence, and emphasis are the best known examples, have…