A study examined whether patterns exist in the kinds and amounts of writing errors students make and whether teachers follow any sort of pattern in correcting these errors. Sixty compositions, gathered from a twelfth grade class taught by one teacher, were analyzed using the "McGraw-Hill Handbook of English." Student written errors were…

A study examined bilingual children's composing behaviors during classroom writing and their perceptions of writing. Students' descriptions of what occurred in their day-to-day environment were analyzed using ethnographic methods. The researcher observed five subjects--bilingual students in kindergarten through third grade--for 145 hours, and…

A study focused on the problems of poor performance in classroom assignments and state-wide writing assessments of middle grade students in the practicum setting. The goals of the practicum plan were: (1) to improve teacher competency in the steps of the writing process; (2) to improve student attitudes about writing; and (3) to improve writing…

A study tested the hypothesis that spoken language has a strong direct influence on the encoding process, and that speakers of nonstandard dialects have a different set of problems with the written language and make identifiably different errors than do speakers of standard dialect. The subjects, 13 standard and 13 nonstandard dialect speakers…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 17 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) reasoning strategies used by gifted and average fifth grade children in written discourse; (2) the effect of mode of discourse on the syntactic complexity of…

Noting that computer based environments for communication may have profound effects upon classroom social organization and the development of literacy, this paper reports on a project that used QUILL, a software system that includes both tools that facilitate writing and new environments for communication. Following a brief introduction to the…

Designed to supplement the day-to-day planning, teaching, and evaluation activities of writing teachers at all educational levels, this compilation contains 711 citations of documents that appeared in "Resources in Education" from 1966 to 1981. Section headings include (1) the prewriting stage; (2) informative, persuasive, and literary…

This is the second of two related documents that make up the final report of a study that analyzed the text of 26 student-teacher dialogue journals from a sixth grade classroom. The report defines "dialogue journal writing" as interactive, functional writing that occurs between students and teacher on a daily basis about self-generated…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 18 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) English language writing skills in Nigerian schools, (2) the effectiveness of writing as a counseling technique, (3) writing apprehension, (4) writing…

Celebrating the achievements of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) by highlighting the promise of its future, this book presents 12 essays that describe how WAC programs have adapted and continue to adapt to meet new challenges. Essays in the book explain strategies for continuing WAC programs in an atmosphere of change; explore new avenues of…

Until recently, writing instruction had been dominated by an emphasis on rhetorical forms, rules, and written products. This view has been superseded for the most part by a mode of instruction whereby teachers assist students in developing planning and revising skills, with less emphasis on grammatical rules. Similar trends are evident in second…

Composed of teachers, researchers, and teacher educators, the Written Literacy Forum suggests a model for bringing research and practice together. During its first two years of operation, the forum (1) investigated the means of rendering research findings in a form meaningful to practitioners; (2) created three formats for sharing research…

A case study examined the effects of primary trait scoring on evaluating seventh grade students' compositions. Primary trait scoring as used in the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township in Indianapolis is innovative in that (1) the scoring guide is assignment specific, written after adult raters read and discussed many papers; (2)…

Based on the idea that journal writing can help students discover gaps in their knowledge and explore relationships by allowing them to reflect on what they have learned, a study examined the usefulness of expressive journal writing in a first grade mathematics program. Subjects, members of a first grade classroom involved in a…

To support arguments for an integrative approach to the study of writing, this report summarizes past and current trends in writing research and the resulting implications. The introduction discusses pre-1970s, 1970s, and 1980s research trends, noting that current research focuses on the context in which writing takes place and points out the…