Presents a description and qualitative case study of three high school classrooms, in two of which the teachers actively elicited student dialog and thereby improved writing. Draws on M. Bakhtin, R. Rommetveit and Y. M. Lotman to suggest that a combination of writing and dialogue (spoken interaction) lead to more chances to learn than either…

Discusses writing instruction and the use of educational computer programs; provides a theoretical framework that includes cognitive tool partnerships, learning theory, writing research, and the Vygotskian theory of mediated learning; and describes a prompting tool that used the macro language of IBM's WordPerfect with college and middle school…

Investigates whether a general or specific working memory (WM) system is related to writing and whether individual differences in reading and/or processing efficiency underlie correlations between WM and writing. Indicates that WM measures contribute variance to writing, and WM performance improves under gain conditions--this enhanced efficiency…

Reexamines data from Carol Berkenkotter, Thomas Huckin and John Ackerman's landmark study of the first year in the life of graduate student Nate. Looks at Nate's work at significant junctures in his professional life. Suggests some of the limitations faced by sociolinguistic accounts of student experiences. (TB)

Compares revisions of the same chapter from a computer manual, one revision by a group using conventional revision techniques and another revision by a group using concept mapping. Finds that revision time was not significantly different between groups, nor were an editor's ratings, but that readers' comprehension was significantly higher with the…

Surveys a national sample of users and non-users of corporate style guides. Finds that corporate style guides are an economical quality tool that benefits both the user and the corporation because they generate consistency in documents, create a professional look in documents, and save time in generating documents. (TB)

Examines early literacy development through the close study of one child's experience of producing her first story, composed and written down by herself alone. (TB)

Reviews research on effective writing instruction. Recommends ways to integrate that research with findings from research on struggling writers and effective teaching practices. Discusses a model of collaboration between researchers and curriculum developers aimed at helping publishers translate research into instructional practice. Illustrates…

Examines diaries kept by 8 adults (born between 1856 and 1876) over a 70-year period of their lives. Analyzes the complexity of the narrative structure and the cohesion of the text. Finds that the diarists' narratives became structurally more complex across the life span, although they became less cohesive as ambiguous anaphors increased. (KEH)

Explores academic writing from the students' side of the desk, examining how different tasks and writing situations influence students' approaches. Finds that responses to assignments depend upon what the students were actually rewarded for producing. (MG)

Explores audience awareness of writing instructors as they compose for incoming freshmen and for a faculty committee. Finds that writers analyze the faculty audience less frequently than the freshmen audience, but they evaluate their text and writing goals more frequently when addressing the faculty. (MG)

Studies the editing efficiency of students who edit on video display terminals (VDT) and on hard copy. Finds that editing on VDTs enhances both the amount of and relative attention to structural editing by students. (MG)

Applies rhetorical theory to newsletters produced by two political-activist organizations. Illustrates applications of schema theory, social construction, and theories about audience to newsletters with sample passages. (KEH)

Reports observations made to explore sixth grade students' changing awareness of the characteristics of text, self as reader and writer, and monitoring strategies during the reading and writing of narrative and expository text. (SR)

Recounts an earlier case analysis describing ethical differences in collectivist and individualistic rhetorics experienced by a writer in a literature seminar and a public relations office. Examines how this analysis is problemmatized by alternative interpretations demonstrating how collectivist rhetoric practiced by researchers involves the…