A study of writing samples and communications course grades of 477 applicants to a quantitatively based undergraduate school of management revealed that students were generally deficient in writing skills. Specific deficiencies included (1) failure to analyze audience or purpose, (2) lack of content, and (3) lack of organization. (CH)

Examines the CUNY-WAT program and questions many aspects of it, especially the choice and phrasing of topics. (FL)

Tells how to improve in-class essay exams by viewing them as a rough draft of a yet-to-be completed essay on which the teacher will make specific corrections, comments, and suggestions about how to improve it. Describes the grading of such exams and class discussion dealing with all aspects of the essay. (EL)

Discusses the problems of readers' different responses to essay test passages and the implications for the subsequent writing assignment. Describes a model of the writing assessment episode and discusses four generalizations about writing task interpretation. (HTH)

Describes a study of the influence of wording changes in essay questions on test performance. Results did not support the hypothesis that such changes would affect writer performance. (HTH)

Describes an exercise in which students must compare Congreve and Shakespeare and suggests that it is ultimately unfair to the student to remove the quotes from their context and pass judgment on them. (CRH)

Attitudinal data from questionnaires and student written products were used to investigate how students' attitudes relate to their performance on typical test writing tasks. (HOD)

Emphasizes the importance of having students write "artistic" responses to literature, thereby revealing what meaning the literary work has for them. (HOD)

This study examines the relation between essay length and holistic scores assigned to Test of English as a Foreign Language[TM] (TOEFL[R]) essays by e-rater[R], the automated essay scoring system developed by ETS. Results show that an early version of the system, e-rater99, accounted for little variance in human reader scores beyond that which…

In the ever-changing world of education, beginning teachers need resources to turn to as they face new, daily challenges. In a collection of 22 essays, the book's author shares insights and experiences from her first three years of teaching, using humor, honesty, and compassion to cover diverse topics. The essays can make new teachers feel like…

This issue of "Occasional Papers" is filled with stories by and about "strangers"--people of all ages who perceive themselves or have been perceived by others as outsiders either because of who they are, where they have come from, or even how recently they have arrived in this country. Successful educators know that the ability…

This collection focusing on Issues of Education at Community Colleges presents eleven essays by fellows in the mid-career fellowship program at Princeton University: (1) "Teaching the Methodology of Science: The Utilization of Microbial Model Systems for Biometric Analyses" by Joseph A. Adamo; (2) "Two Modes of Mathematics Instruction" by Simon I.…

Any outdoor educator knows about rules. Outdoor educators spend a considerable amount of time at conferences talking about them: risk management plans, accepted safety practices, and first aid protocols. You name it, they've got a rule. When a Buddhist friend asked if rules really made programs safer, the author's first response was yes. His…

This teaching guide is intended to encourage and facilitate the inclusion of the National Peace Essay Contest (NPEC) in the high school curriculum, featuring all of the details of the 1999-2000 NPEC. The guide contains lesson plans for teachers, bibliographic materials, and factual material to prepare students to enter their essays in the contest.…

Recently, the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) changed by including a writing section that gives the examinee an option between computer and handwritten formats to compose their responses. Unfortunately, this may introduce several potential sources of error that might reduce the reliability and validity of the scores. The seriousness…