States that freshman composition should make freshmen more able to communicate in academic discourse and that each professor teaches the students with emphasis on personal beliefs. Examines the dilemma of freshman composition as a service course. Calls for more and better use of the personal narrative as an alternative way of approaching the so…

Computers may someday replace teachers at essay grading. In recent research, a blind test has demonstrated that a computer can simulate the judgment of a group of human judges on a brand-new set of essays. Moreover, the PEG (Project Essay Grade) program can do a better (and more cost-effective) job than the usual two human readers while providing…

Research on the context and process of essay writing demonstrates its utility in developing reflection and self-appraisal. Essay writing teaches students to be evaluative in their writing and in their learning. (SK)

Describes a study which sought to determine whether students would be able to identify the gender and ethnicity of the writer of an essay placement test based on the writer's handwriting and the content of the paper. The student-readers were able to guess the writers' gender 87.6 percent of the time and ethnicity 47.9 percent of the time. (DMM)

Describes several encounters with a student which led a composition instructor to conclude that she had been favoring analysis of completed works over self-analysis (in the form of a writing log kept during drafting and revising) of an essay in progress. Suggests that teachers continue to hone their response skills. (RS)

Essay questions, interviews, and personality inventories of 35 male and female college students revealed that the avoidance of sexist language was linked to less traditional sex role views and a lesser adherence to fundamentalist Christian beliefs. (DM)

Connor comments on Raimes' research on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) essay component, the Test of Written English (TWE), and the practices of the Educational Testing Service. Raimes' response is directed toward the TWE research agenda. (five references) (Author/LB)

Argues that an anthology of professional essays (because of its intellectual demands) can impede rather than facilitate mastery of basic writing skills. Suggests that the main criterion in selecting readings should be a good match between the audience assumed by the chosen texts and the actual audience in the classroom. (SR)

Describes the successful use of college admission essays as motivation and inspiration to a group of college-bound high school students who had never developed a personal voice or style. Outlines the processes used to teach these students to experiment with their writing and find their own voices. (PRA)

To test whether additive bilinguals are more linguistically creative than monolinguals, a creativity index, based upon linguistic features thought to correspond to the distinctive features of creativity, was calculated from essays written by pupils in a Finnish-Swedish comprehensive school. The results did not seem to reveal higher creativity…

Addresses the question of whether the personal essay is "democratic." Suggests three ways in which the personal essay can be integrated into a collaborative writing pedagogy. (RS)

Winning essays written for the "Winning Words" international science competition are presented. A description of the competition, a summary of subjects chosen by grade level, a summary of entries, schools participating, and prizes are included. (KR)

To study the effects of introductions and conclusions on the evaluation of student essays, 154 undergraduates graded 10 essays in which the quality of introduction or conclusion was varied. Quality of the introduction had a greater effect on the grade than did quality of the conclusion. (SLD)

Two experiments with 112 college students investigated how subjects might modulate their reading strategies as a function of how they expect to be tested. Test-expectancy subjects, regardless of the test expected, are more apt to identify and focus on important information than are subjects without a specific test expectancy. (SLD)

This article focuses on strategies in expository essay instruction. Detailed descriptions of instructional procedures in teaching students the recursive processes of planning, drafting, and revising expository essays are provided. Ways to foster students' self-regulation and motivation in writing are provided and potential problems in strategy…