This report documents the Hawaii Writing Assessment, which was undertaken to identify the writing strengths and weaknesses of Hawaii's public school children in kindergarten through grade twelve and to provide a basis for improvement in curriculum and instruction. The two sections of the report contain an overview of the assessment effort and…

Many teachers of basic writing are preoccupied with error. Before marking any errors in a student's composition, the teacher should read it carefully, try to understand the student's intention in writing it, and respond in those terms. Priorities for analysis should be consistent with the teacher's priorities for teaching and be set in terms of…

Based on the assumption that anxiety is not productive for composition students and that grades are frequently a source of anxiety for those students, a study was conducted to test whether grades and the way they were presented or withheld would create anxiety that would directly affect students' progress in composition. Seventy-four students,…

A five-week tutorial minicourse offered by the Douglas/Cook College Writing Center at Rutgers University helps students develop skills in research writing. The first service the Writing Center offers is a "term paper strategy session," in which students meet with a reference librarian to examine the various reference sources available.…

This book describes a procedure for scoring writing samples with holistic methods and for analyzing the results with methods from primary trait scoring, analytical scoring, and discourse scoring. Following an introduction, the four chapters in the book focus on (1) the selection of topics to be used in a writing assessment, (2) the format for…

This study examined persuasive writing samples of 20 severely hearing-impaired high school students using a feature analytical scoring guide. Results indicate significant differences in content and linguistic considerations between relatively good and poor writers and similarities in surface mechanics. Implications and classroom applications of…

Thirty audiologists, speech pathologists, educators of the deaf, and language teachers were asked to sort 60 compositions written by signing and nonsigning deaf students and by English as a second language (ESL) students. The professionals could not sort the compositions correctly but tended to attribute lower quality texts to deaf signers.…

Recounts the experience of participating in a two-week workshop for writing instructors during the summer of 1986 that was supported by state funds. Urges other teachers to ask their state leaders to consider funding similar summer programs. (NKA)

Discusses use of peer interaction and collaborative learning in a literature course. Includes course syllabus, and group and individual responsibilities. (HTH)

Claims literacy expectations need to be examined and interpreted by teacher-researchers at the local level in order to make sense of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results, suggesting this information will provide a factual base from which to plan programs. (NH)

Indicates that if the cloze scores of students in a small group are well distributed, then it is possible to identify which essays would be selected as best and worst by an English professor. Shows that cloze testing constitutes a relatively effective placement instrument when the readers are unschooled. Includes statistical tables. (JD)

Fundamental changes are needed in English classes if writing is to be taught. Students must have time to write, and they must have someone reading and responding to their writing. Students need to pay attention to their writing and the writing of others, and this writing should be as important as well-known literary works. (MD)

Using a random sample of 493 persuasive papers written by 17-year-olds during the 1978-79 National Assessment of Educational Progress writing evaluation, a study investigated the relationships among features of textual cohesion and primary trait assessments of writing quality and coherence, with manuscript length held statistically constant. (HOD)

Outlines research done by teachers on writing apprehension and concludes that teachers are natural researchers because they continually pose questions about the nature of their students and the effectiveness of their teaching. (SRT)

Describes a study that developed a valid method of assessing coherence based on current linguistic theory and discourse analysis that was then used to reanalyze the "Describe" essays written by 13- and 17-year-old students for the 1969, 1973-74, and 1978-79 NAEP assessments. (HOD)