Introduces a theory of the cognitive processes involved in composing in an effort to lay groundwork for more detailed study of thinking processes in writing. (RL)

Discusses the Bay Area Writing Project's offshoot, the National Writing Project (NWP). Describes the NWP's development, design, attributes, and limitations. The program's success depends upon the commitment of administrators and all teachers, not just those teaching English. (WD)

Notes that while there are some similarities in secondary school teachers' and students' perceptions about the kinds of written work usually done in class, there are also very marked differences in perceptions, particularly regarding essays, short answers, and poetic writing. (HOD)

Details a study that investigated incremental effects of intensive instruction in creative writing on 10 indicators of writing performance of seventh-grade students: vocabulary, morphology, sentence openings, sentence lengths, sentence types, organization, clarity, end punctuation, general clarity, and spelling. (FL)

Studies predominant types and patterns of awkward sentences in student writing. Suggests that four types of syntactic problems--mismanagement of clause structure in errors of embedding, of syntax shift, of parallel structure, and of direct/indirect speech--are associated with patterns of semantic problems. Suggests pedagogical approaches for these…

Analyzes three examples of research in technical communication to illustrate the distinctions among modernism, antimodernism, and postmodernism. Suggests that antimodern rejections of the scientific enterprise within composition studies and technical communication are valuable in a culture in which science seems to have unlimited authority. (RS)

Chronicles a research project that collected and examined first-grade children's writing over a year. Develops a system for classifying the children's genres that has two major groups: writing about actions/events; and writing about objects/things. Describes emergent genres of writing from the children, looking beyond spelling. Cites active roles…

Argues that the very qualities that critics most object to in scientific work are those that afford the most productive communal discussion. Suggests that by disparaging objective methods and advocating increasingly subjectivist methods, compositionists may be impairing their ability to improve their own work and use it to promote social justice.…

Finds that second-language university students believed that dialog journal writing, as a strategy for learning English, enhanced their motivation to write and increased their fluency. (SR)

Discusses the adequacy of two modes of presenting information on a computer screen, the "alternating" (screen by screen) presentation and the "simultaneous" screen presentation (different information on one screen at the same time). Tests subjects performing writing tasks using one online document or two documents, using either…

Echoes Robert J. Conners' call for a reexamination of sentence pedagogies in composition teaching. Offers an explanation of the unsolved mystery of why sentence combining improves student writing, using insights provided by work in contemporary research in linguistics and in language processing. Argues that educators invite words and phrases, the…

Argues that the preparation of novice literacy researchers should change in response to the growing diversification of epistemologies and methods employed in literacy research. Suggests ways in which coursework related to research methods and epistemologies, research apprenticeships and mentoring, and the reading and writing of literacy research…

Takes a critical look at the issue of scaffolding in children's writing, beginning with a consideration of the ways in which children's productions of text have been supported in previous research on writing development. Suggests that while scaffolding can assist children it may also, at times, hinder children in demonstrating their full range of…

Foregrounds issues of race, ethnicity, and education, and ties together two important issues in teaching basic writing: how social and pedagogical issues in higher education shape possibilities for bicultural students' writings, and how these students can use their developing sense of literacy and their texts to explore identity. Discusses…

Presents a case study of a developmental college freshman that shows a dramatic change in spelling over the course of several weeks after completing self-instruction materials on phonics. Concludes that this case gives hope for adults with poor spelling habits and solicits suggestions from college instructors who work with students having similar…