Describes what happened when students, unsupervised, used a style-checking computer program to check their essays. The feedback (considered somewhat misleading) suggested that teachers need to guide students along the technological path. (seven references) (GLR)

How lecture note taking influences writing processes was studied in 4 experiments involving 392 undergraduates. The writing model of L. S. Flower and J. R. Hayes (1981) served as theoretical foundation. Results support the effects of external storage and encoding plus internal storage on writing processes. (SLD)

A preliminary descriptive framework of the rhetorical structure of the argumentative essay is proposed. Research results are used to show that a "categories analysis" can clarify the structure of written texts and provide pedagogically useful materials. (15 references) (Author/LB)

A case study shows how three university students see their experience of learning to write in the academic community in relation to their previous uses of writing. A clear finding is that they all had a strong sense of the university as another "world of literacy" that was difficult to enter and that offered not enough support. (LB)

Describes the "shrinklit," a rhyming summary of a literary work which serves as an alternative to student book reporting. Suggests that shrinklits are enjoyable because they contain relatively sophisticated humor and are easy for secondary students to mimic. Provides examples of shrinklits written by students. (SG)

Twelve students writing essays for a photochemistry course at the Open University of the Netherlands received either audiocasette or written feedback. Time spent in recording versus writing feedback differed minimally. Recorded feedback was considerably greater in amount. Students' final grades did not differ, but recorded feedback was more…

Discusses the motivation and reasons behind the new journal "Organization Science." Goals for the journal include hopes that it will play a role in enhancing research relevance and incorporate ideas and methods from other disciplines. (54 references) (MLF)

Developers of the Intelligent Essay Assessor claim that it saves time in evaluating college students' essays and improves the assessment. This and the growing number of other automated grading programs use the same technologies that make computer-based tutoring possible. Many academics remain skeptical of grading technologies, citing the…

Teaching materials for university-level second language learners were created with the aim of raising the learners' awareness of the rhetorical organization and salient linguistic features of essays. The teaching method relied heavily on explicit instruction and essential metalanguage. Concludes that explicit genre-based instruction with the…

Two multiple-choice tests and one essay test were taken by 231 students (50/50 male/female, 192 White, 39 East Asian, Black, Mexican American, or Middle Eastern). Multiple-choice tests showed no significant differences in equal employment opportunity terms; women and men scored about the same on essays, but minority students had significantly…

Examined essay-writing tactics ("rules of the game"), cheating behaviors, and approaches to studying in British psychology students. Found widespread occurrence of essay tactics and cheating, with a positive correlation between them. Essay tactics correlated positively with a deep approach to studying and fear of failure, while cheating…

Presents five short teaching tips written by five different authors on the following topics: newspapers, writing exercises for aspiring elementary school teachers, telephone directory as research tool, structured essay assignments, and teaching description with Raymond Carver's "Cathedral." (TB)

Describes National History Day, a year-long program using history to teach students research, analysis, and communication skills, in which students from grades 6-12 research topics related to an annual theme. Focuses on the 1998 contest with the theme of "Migration in History: Peoples, Cultures, Ideas." (CMK)

Analyzed student reflection papers from a service learning course and uncovered the benefits reported by student participants; also found similarities in responses despite students' higher or lower performances in the course. (EV)

Discusses both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessment of undergraduate students' written work. Provides information on a framework for criterion-referenced assessment and offers the guidelines for criterion-referenced assessment of undergraduate essays in the appendix. Considers the problems with implementation of criterion-referenced…