Examines how fourth and fifth grade students write summaries of both expository and narrative prose and lists eight qualities possessed by successful summarizers. (HOD)

Examines the relationship among writer, context, and text (1) by exploring the notion of context-independence as it pertains to writers and texts, and (2) by placing the issue of context and composition within a wider framework of context and language use. (FL)

Describes a replication of a study to determine what international writers and evaluators bring to their respective tasks in an effort to devise an international scoring scheme. A satisfactory list of rating criteria was developed, although the criteria were value-laden and thus embedded in a cultural context. (HTH)

Reviews what researchers have found out about prewriting, and postulates how this information can help teachers promote growth in writing. (CRH)

Examines one type of literacy event in a second-grade classroom--free writing--and, especially, its sharing time phase. (FL)

Focuses on the persona or ethos of the writer. Demonstrates that ethos can be an effective form of appeal in technical discourse, particularly in commanding the attention of the audience to instruction. Suggests specific directions for future research on specific ways to communicate a strong ethos in technical texts. (EL)

Suggests duplicating the depth and texture of real-life writing in the classroom by using the college organization and its functions to create more accurate writing assignments. (CRH)

Reports the results of a series of long-range studies that demonstrate that participants in short courses improve their communication skills as much as students enrolled in semester-long college classes. (AEA)

Argues that knowing something about students' cognitive strategies can help teachers to match their teaching to their learning. Reports on a study that investigated students' cognitive strategies. (FL)

Notes research showing that narration and opinion writing are two different crafts and that children differentiate between the two when they write. (FL)

Reports the results of a study indicating the anxiety of returning students is not as high as instructors think it is and that returning students experience a greater reduction in writing anxiety than do regular students in a freshman composition class. (AEA)

Concludes that mechanics had a greater influence on raters' judgments of student writing than either content or rating instructions. Findings suggest that evaluators may not be able to focus on individual criteria of writing quality. (FL)

Deals with the split in English departments between perpetuating humanistic study and teaching technical communication skills, and offers suggestions to promote appreciation of good literature as well as effective writing and the relation between the two. (CRH)

Acknowledges the gap between research and practice and calls for a coordinated effort among researchers to find out why some practices are used, why some things continue to be taught, and why others are ignored. (HOD)

This experimental, statistical study investigated the effects that a review of grammar and writing mechanics would have on the overall quality of college students' documents in technical/business communication. In the experimental group of 25 students, the professor assigned several exercises in grammar and mechanics as a review related to…