Indicates that if the cloze scores of students in a small group are well distributed, then it is possible to identify which essays would be selected as best and worst by an English professor. Shows that cloze testing constitutes a relatively effective placement instrument when the readers are unschooled. Includes statistical tables. (JD)

Constructs frameworks for understanding how organizations may function as rhetorical contexts. Compares traditional and modern approaches to rhetorical context and discusses where organizations, as a form of context, may fit within each approach. Describes two approaches to organizational theory that have implications for the study and practice of…

Suggests a number of criteria and procedures that represent a model of scholarly inquiry into the writing process. Discusses why some researchers are discontented with present models. Details what the author feels are acceptable, even desirable, operating assumptions, research methodologies, and ways of reporting results. (JD)

Concludes that the recent growth of interest in rhetoric has been reflected in the graduate curriculum in English. Looks at program size, content, and curriculum and offers brief outlines of each program studied. (FL)

Reviews Moran and Lunsford's biographical contribution to the field of rhetoric/composition, which includes 16 bibliographic essays and two appendixes. Notes that the book covers cross-disciplinary concerns and pursues important secondary subjects in composition. (EL)

Reports preliminary findings of a study of coauthorship and group authorship in six major professional organizations. (FL)

Using a random sample of 493 persuasive papers written by 17-year-olds during the 1978-79 National Assessment of Educational Progress writing evaluation, a study investigated the relationships among features of textual cohesion and primary trait assessments of writing quality and coherence, with manuscript length held statistically constant. (HOD)

Outlines two hypotheses about the reasons for obscurity in expository writing and notes that neither accounts for the general results of an exploratory study of the writing of postgraduates nor for the individual cases presented. Argues that a crucial factor is a person's implicit model of expository writing. (FL)

Outlines research done by teachers on writing apprehension and concludes that teachers are natural researchers because they continually pose questions about the nature of their students and the effectiveness of their teaching. (SRT)

Describes a study that developed a valid method of assessing coherence based on current linguistic theory and discourse analysis that was then used to reanalyze the "Describe" essays written by 13- and 17-year-old students for the 1969, 1973-74, and 1978-79 NAEP assessments. (HOD)

Reviews "Understanding Research in Reading and Writing," a textbook on the influences on reading and writing research as well as the impact of theoretical and methodological orientations on the structure and substance of research reports. (HOD)

Reviews discourse analytic and text comprehension studies for their contributions to a cognitive process view of writing, then reports on a study that combines discourse analysis with online pause data to determine how semantic propositions reflect sentence-level planning patterns. (FL)

Explores the difficulties writing teachers and students encounter with content area writing assignments, using observations and interviews from two social science classes. (HTH)

Examines three articles written jointly by the same researchers and reporting the results of the same study in three different specialized journals. Points out the inadequacy of the current heuristic for analyzing audiences, and provides the basis for creating a different audience analysis heuristic based on rhetorical analysis of discourse. (HTH)

Presents results from a survey of colleges and universities on writing across the curriculum (WAC) programs around the country--how they develop, the components that comprise them, and the premises that underlie them. Concludes that the WAC movement is a success. (HTH)