Suggests a method for analyzing structure and process in prose using algorithms based on graph theory and rules based in syntax. Describes application of the method to essays written by 52 fourteen year old pupils on a newly learned topic in chemistry. (Author/GC)

Reviews the ERIC documents that examine teachers experiencing the writing process and that describe the format of workshop and inservice programs that seek to involve teachers in writing. (JL)

Investigated effects of quality, attributed author sex and organizational position, and rater sex on evaluation of business memos. Alternative questionnaire versions of four memos were rated anonymously by 146 members of a professional personnel association. Analysis of variance yielded a large main effect for memo quality. (Author/JAC)

The effects of penmanship, complexity and accuracy of prose, length of answers, and use of quotations on marks awarded by English literature examiners were studied. The sex of students and examiners, untidiness, and prose complexity and accuracy were unrelated to grades. The results suggested that examiners avoid crediting students for…

Examines the four-category model developed by Andrew Wilkinson at the University of Essex (England) to assess growth in writing maturity. The four measures of development are stylistic, affective, cognitive, and moral. Each has several subcategories. Includes college student essays to illustrate the model. (HTH)

Argues that the evaluation of writing instruction requires special procedures and specially designed instruments. Provides instruments for evaluating a writing program's foundations, for developing teachers' awareness of the features of their writing classroom, and preparing questions and guidelines for evaluating writing assignments and teacher…

Reviews the research done on the evaluation of student compositions. (JL)

Grades in a college composition course were withheld over a 10-week term to determine how students would redirect their anxiety. (HOD)

Reports the results of a study that revealed that the instructional activities that precede writing are more important to student improvement than longer comments on the writing itself. (JL)

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…

Describes an English articulation program in which a college teacher evaluates the compositions of high school students and then works closely with students, English teachers, school administrators, and parents in follow-up activities. (RL)

Describes the program developed by the Study Skills Center at San Diego State University to help students improve their writing. (FL)

Describes the expressive writing of Japanese elementary school children, citing examples designed to encourage American language arts teachers to use their responses to students' writing to bolster children's attempts to become actively and personally engaged in their writing. (HTH)

Examines four approaches to evaluating writing, and notes the strengths and weaknesses of each. (RL)

An unofficial study is recounted in which professional journals from various disciplines were examined to see whether writing styles were appreciably different from one another. An appendix with excerpts from some of the journals, with varying degrees of coherence is included. (HTH)