Discusses research on the nature and strategies of children's invented spelling, including a developmental model of such spelling. Suggests ways to encourage invented spelling, while examining whether it will interfere with learning to read and write standard spelling. (HTH)

Presents and discusses research on the intellectual processes that writers engage in to attain what is commonly called "audience awareness." (RL)

Reviews research studies on the nature of children's understanding of the writing process and how teachers can better help children learn to write. (HTH)

A new teacher refutes the claim that graduate schools do not adequately prepare graduate students for the realities of writing instruction. (HTH)

Examines the evidence for both the linguistic and rhetorical hypotheses about writers' planning and presents new research on episodic patterns within the writing process itself. Uses protocol analysis to look at the content and nature of writers' plans. (HOD)

Surveys the state of writing research, research needed in the 1980s, and how teachers need to be involved in that research. (HTH)

Relates one participant's impressions of an international conference on writing that was held in May 1979 at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Notes the differences between American and British writing research. (RL)

Presents a personal selection of recent research on writing and learning that provides a coherent view of children as active, intentional learners. (RL)

A college freshman level sentence-combining treatment consisting of one paragraph rewriting exercise for 12 consecutive weeks resulted in significant gains in average words per clause and words per T-unit. (HOD)

Provides both anecdotal evidence and research data from a freshman composition program to work out a relationship between theory, research, and pedagogy. (RL)

Reveals the lack of research on children's writing and suitable writing instruction in the last 25 years. Points out the inadequacies in the research that is being done and the need for better research methods that take writing context and environment into account. (HTH)

Research in written composition must not only face up to the fact that composition tests must meet the same requirements for validity and reliability that other tests must meet, but it also faces the unique difficulty of figuring out a way to give a valid and reliable pretest. (DD)

Suggests that productive creativity occurs more reliably with moderation of work duration and of emotions, not with the fatigue and ensuing depression of "binge" writing. Examines academics (new to a campus that required writing and publishing for tenure) who write either in moderation or in binges. Finds that productive, successful…

Investigates how students in an upper-level sociology course wrote critiques and how their texts were evaluated by four professors in the discipline. Finds that students received higher scores if they found weaknesses in the source article, basing their judgments on disciplinary knowledge; and neither major nor educational level was a strong…

Presents results of a national study in which members of the Society for Technical Communication rated the relevance of 20 selected English-usage principles that were considered to be of limited importance in a previous study involving textbook editors and communication instructors. Shows that all 20 principles were rated as important to…