Traces scholarly constructions of basic writers' identities. Asks what those students who are labeled basic writers are accomplishing in their speech and writing. Offers a speculative model for analyzing basic writing student discourse. Uses that model to examine the language used in a basic writing classroom. Reviews the implications of such work…

Finds that high school students (grade 10) who were exposed to the Multiple Exposure Vocabulary Method in combination with the Target Reading/Writing Strategy received a significantly better verbal score on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test than students who received more traditional instruction. (SR)

Studies attitudes of 12 middle school teachers and students concerning what makes a teacher good at conducting conferences. Identifies two key themes: the role of text-oriented instructor and of student-oriented nurturer. Notes that teachers considered the role of nurturer as being most important. Discusses aspects of the nurturing role. (SR)

Notes that adapting the text to the audience is only possible when the physical task of writing becomes automatic and the writer is no longer absorbed by it. Describes a quasi-experimental study in which a procedural facilitation strategy is used to promote writing skills among Portuguese students, in particular, the skill of suiting the text to…

Examines audience awareness in a 5-month naturalistic study of a fourth-grade classroom infused with technology and which valued collaboration and inquiry. Finds this classroom offered such pervasive opportunities for interaction between authors and classmates that it was difficult to distinguish between author and audience. Examines impact of…

Compares evaluation criteria for writing held in two contexts; explores the criteria used to evaluate English-language student writing by German and United States secondary school teachers; and compares the rank ordering of three essays given by teachers from these three groups. Presents results that have important implications for writing…

Argues that three familiar areas of inquiry in future second language (L2) writing research need to be investigated in more sociopolitically-oriented ways: written products, writing processes, and writer identity, and that qualitative case studies are well suited to explore the extraordinary diversity of L2 writers and writing contexts from an…

Suggests that using sociolinguistics as the subject of a semester-long course leads to real and exciting research rather than technically correct but lifeless "dummy runs" for real research in freshman composition courses. (MG)

Adds the student's theory of the writing process to three competing theories: expressive, cognitive, and social. Attempts to put writing in its proper place as one small facet of students' lives, rather than relegating students' lives to the secondary status of one more influence on their writing. (RS)

Determines whether French immersion programs result in detrimental effects on the ability of children in such programs to read and write in English. Finds that writing in English and French is fairly comparable across languages and that there is a transfer of processing behavior across languages. (MG)

Challenges the view of plagiarism as a moral rather than pedagogical issue and the view that students plagiarize when they know they are plagiarizing. Offers survey results indicating that students and instructors alike misunderstand plagiarism. Urges instructors to show students how to use secondary materials responsibly and to give students…

Uses four case studies to explore four areas in which computers affect the process of tutoring other writers: tutor-to-client dialogue; macrostructural revision; surface editing; and printing. Shows how the computer has some unexpected catalytic effects on human interactions. (MM)

Examines the effects of various writing tasks (notetaking, answering study questions, and essay writing) on learning, using recall of specific text elements and recall of the theme or gist of expository writing. Finds that students' topic knowledge, passage content structure, and the nature of the task influence students' text comprehension. (MM)

Traces the development of studies of writing related to teaching and learning that have appeared in "Research in the Teaching of English" (RTE) between 1966 and 1986. Finds that RTE has served to both maintain the dominant paradigm and act as a forum for calls to pursue other research approaches. (JAD)

Examines the transitions that writers (college seniors enrolled in a 12-week corporate internship program) make when moving from academic to professional discourse communities. Reports a consistent pattern of expectation, frustration, and accommodation as writers adjust to their new writing communities. (MM)