In the past few years, the number of students placing into developmental or remedial college courses has grown considerably. Research is needed to explore the learning dynamics of underprepared students and to offer insights for practice. However research in the developmental field so far has lacked a scholarly, rigorous approach, and research in…

As integrated tasks become more common in assessing writing for academic purposes, it is necessary to investigate how test takers approach these tasks. The present study explores the processes of test takers undertaking reading-to-write tasks developed for a university English placement exam. Think-aloud protocols and interviews of…

Although peer review has been shown to be beneficial in many writing classrooms, the benefits of peer review to the reviewer, or the student giving feedback, has not been thoroughly investigated in second-language writing research. The purpose of this study is to determine which is more beneficial to improving student writing: giving or receiving…

Written language is a complex set of skills that facilitate communication and that are developed in a predictable sequence. It is therefore possible to analyze current skills, identify deficits, plan interventions, and determine the effectiveness of the intervention. To effectively accomplish these tasks, educators need to choose appropriate…

This book captures the diversity and richness of writing as it relates to different forms of abilities, skills, competencies, and expertise. Psychologists, educators, researchers, and practitioners in neighboring areas are interested in exploring how writing develops and in what manner this development can be fostered, but they lack a handy,…

This article points composition scholars toward two bodies of theory that are gaining attention in our discipline, performance studies and multimodal discourse theory. Each raises important questions about the ways we teach writing, the kinds of composition processes we value, and the means by which students construct authority in the university.…

This qualitative case study of 1 teacher and 10 students in an Advanced Placement English class explores the role of computer-mediated feedback in the creation of a classroom learning environment that was supported through hybrid learning experiences. Data sources included classroom observations, online conversations, interviews with 10 high…

Painters, musicians, and writers--among others--often begin as novices by modeling the practices of their best teachers or favorite masters. The purpose of this article is to suggest that the habits of working, published writers can serve students as informal models for how processes happen behind the scene of public work. Students can examine…

Literacy is a complex set of skills that comprise the interrelated processes of reading and writing required within varied socio-cultural contexts. Underdeveloped literacy skills have profound consequences for students, families, and society. These effects are academic, social, emotional, and economic in nature. Students with learning disabilities…

The intertextual nature of workplace writing is well attested, and the efficacy of intertextuality as a tool for investigating the ways in which genres are linked in workplace settings is also recognized (Berkenkotter, 2001; Bhatia, 2004). Intertextuality not only accounts for the links between texts, but is also an important factor influencing…

From brainstorming to outlining, rough drafts to peer editing, revision to final copy, all of the tasks involved in the writing process can be accomplished using technology. However, when faced with the research paper, students are often asked to keep track of sources and information on handwritten bibliography note cards. In this article, a…

States that new media poetry integrates characteristics of the new media in the theoretical basis of its poetics. Outlines its basis and shows how it affects poetic and verbal conventions, particularly with respect to the constitution of texts and the roles of author and reader, and with regard to its implications for views on language. (PA)

The Southern Oregon Write Site (SOWS) project originated as support for the writing process, but evolved into an online discussion forum. What the Internet adds to the writing curriculum is the freedom for students to read and respond to their classmates' writing. This document explains the set up of a Write Site and how it works, with reference…

In this discussion, the author highlights the relationship between language and identity by discussing notions such as language as a symbolic resource (Heller, 1995) and language as a badge of identity (Buruma, 2003) in a society. The reasons why a number of bilingual writers have decided to write in their second languages are explored, and issues…

A number of studies have found that writers produce text in bursts of language. That is, when creating a text, writers produce a few words, pause, produce a few more words, pause, and so on. Chenoweth and Hayes (2003) hypothesized that language bursts occur when writers translate ideas in to new language. This study tested this hypothesis against…