Offers reviews of six standardized English tests, noting their applicability/usefulness to journalism educators. Concludes that none of the tests meets all needs of journalism programs. (RL)

Richard F. Thompson and Michael G. Southwell separately discuss William J. McCleary's article on reliability and validity problems in composition research (see EJ 210 755); Chris Madigan questions the data on composing processes of freshman writers reported by Sharon Pianko (see EJ 204 419); and C. T. Patrick Diamond examines the issue of the…

Summarizes secondary school students' opinions on the amount of writing they do in school, how they do it, and how it is evaluated. Concludes that the teachers of these students do not neglect writing in their classes. (JT)

Writing demands the simultaneous control of several skills: focus and logic, as well as spelling and grammar. The central writing skill is to look at what has been said and see how it can be improved by drafting and redrafting. (MLW)

A former reader-evaluator of essays for "Advanced Placement Examination in English" explains why he cannot with good conscience continue as "part of a process which tells these students they are (to different degrees) 'qualified."' (RL)

Sketches the historical movement from orality to literacy, as described by Walter J. Ong, and discusses some general suggestions for teaching writing in a developmental sequence. (Author/GT)

Israeli Arab- and Jewish-educated children were given perceptual exploration tasks to test the effects of language on directionality in reading and writing habits. (Author/SS)

The writing lab/tutorial program at Syracuse University uses a system of internal communication through recordkeeping that helps maintain continuity between classroom and lab activities. The recordkeeping procedures include referral forms, information forms, conference record sheets and student folders. (JMD)

A group of graduate-student instructors and English faculty at the University of Michigan discusses how computers were used to teach writing in their English composition courses. Collaborative evaluation and writing using e-mail and World Wide Web publishing were emphasized. A 10-point list of observations summarizes their insights which can be…

A survey of 101 faculty in a variety of disciplines found that most do not give much attention to the composition of electronic mail messages and are not bothered much when receiving messages containing mechanical or composition errors. Results suggest faculty should be cautious about relaxing the rules of grammar, punctuation, and good writing in…

Presents a case study of an adult student preparing for her first year of college through a writing course and work in a writing workshop. Explains complicating circumstances in the student's life. Presents four professional responses commenting on the difficulties of the situation and possible solutions. (TB)

Presents a quasi-experimental study conducted among younger immersion students that focused on determining whether an area of French vocabulary identified as problematic for these students can be successfully learned via increased exposure to such vocabulary in interesting reading material supplemented with associated analytic language activities.…

Drawing from 10 widely used freshman writing textbooks, this article demonstrates the problem of implicitness existing in regard to 2 notions central to writing instruction in the United States: "voice" and "audience." The article enumerates ways in which textbook presentations of these concepts disadvantage second-language…

This article discusses a program that used holistic literacy instruction to foster literacy growth, self-expression, and communication skills in children with developmental disabilities. Strategies are highlighted for providing writing opportunities in the classroom, and recommendations are made to guide teachers in planning curricula and…

Examines whether training teachers to apply research-based commenting guidelines can help them write comments between composition drafts that result in effective revisions. While results are inconclusive, they do indicate that students of English as a Second Language respond to teacher comments between drafts and write revisions according to the…