This study examined students' essay performance on topics from the Test of Written English (TWE) under time limits of 30 minutes, as currently administered, and 45 minutes. In the main groups of the study, each student wrote an essay on one topic under the current time limit and on another under the 45-minute time limit. A total of 820 intensive…

Calling for a radical reexamination of the traditional foundation of composition instruction--the thesis/support form, this book argues that the essay, with its informality, conversational tone, meditative mood, and integration of form and content, is better suited to developmental, epistemological, ideological, and feminist rhetorical…

The goal of teaching philosophy is to develop philosophically literate students and to ensure that students develop philosophical literacy by design and not by chance. Perhaps the best method for teaching philosophy to beginning students is the public model, in which the practice of defending positions in the public arena forces students to become…

The results of a small research project that studied the effect computer administration has on student performance for writing or essay tests are presented. The introduction of computer-administered tests has raised concern about the equivalence of scores generated by computer versus paper-and-pencil test versions. For this study a sample of…

This publication provides autobiographical essays by students originally from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, all of whom arrived in the United States as refugees between 1975 and 1982. Following an introduction is an initial essay, "Becoming a Refugee, Being a Refugee, Ceasing To Be a Refugee," by L. Nguyen-Hong-Nhiem. The student essays are…

An alternative to multiple-choice testing is suggested for educational assessment. The use of what is called "multiple-rating items" is proposed. A multiple-rating item calls for the examinee to rate all of a set of things instead of picking one as with a multiple-choice item. The respondent has to provide a specific rating of each…

This kit provides 24 essays on book repair: (1) "Conservation at the American Philosophical Society: An Institutional Profile in 1992" (H. Kyle); (2) "The Book Repair Program at Brigham Young University: An Institutional Profile" (R. Silverman); (3) "Book Repair and Conservation: Conservation Center for Art and Historic…

This book presents 23 essays, research studies, and personal narratives on topics that reflect the neglect and frustration experienced by the "silent majority" in the field of composition within academia. The essays and their authors are as follows: "Tosca Was a Woman" (Susan Pepper Robbins); "Invisible Diversity: Gay and Lesbian Students Writing…

One of the first papers that Freshman Composition instructors still teach is the expressive or personal experience essay. Native English Speaking (NES) instructors who teach expressive writing believe that students looking back on their past selves gain new perspectives or reach new understanding of themselves or their world. This discovery often…

This study examined the effect of English grammatical proficiency on the ability of learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to transfer essay organization skills, newly learned in their first language (L1), to the second language (L2). The subjects were 104 inexpert EFL upper secondary school students from three schools in Iceland. The…

Three installments of "Writing Assignment of the Month," a regular feature of the National Council of Teachers of English publication, "Notes Plus," are presented in this compilation. The articles describe writing exercises which have proven to be successful in the classroom. The first article gives suggestions for introducing…

The synthesis of four instructional models for argumentative writing--the Toulmin, Hiduke, Winder, and Crebbe-Debate approaches--with basic discourse theory produces a practical and positive method of teaching college students to write effective persuasive essays. A battery of questions based on a modified communication triangle--subject…

The kinds of life events that may affect cognitive development were explored for 777 students, mostly freshmen, enrolled in introductory social science courses at Western Washington University Bellingham (Washington). Cognitive functioning was assessed using the Measure of Epistemological Reflection (MER) of M. B. Taylor (1983). Students also…

The purpose of this paper is to compare the precision of direct and indirect measures of writing assessment using the test information functions from a graded response Item Response Theory (IRT) model. Subjects were 192 sophomore English students from a parochial high school in Wisconsin. Both direct and indirect measures of writing ability were…

A study examined the relationships between the quality of writing on composition examinations and topic selection, outlining, rough drafting, and revision. A sample of 1,372 grade twelve students' essays was examined. Among the issues examined were how topic selection affects the final essay score, if and how selection of topic affects the type or…