Classifies students' responses to a plagiarism questionnaire into six categories. Concludes that students take plagiarism seriously and that their reasons are based most often on fairness, individual responsibility, and ownership. (JAD)

Describes a study of writing in grades one through eight designed to identify types of misspellings, to determine at what grade level problems emerge, and to identify developmental changes in the kinds of errors committed. Found that students' spelling improved over nine years but concludes that spelling is essentially self-taught. (JAD)

Discusses the composing processes of speakers of English as a Second Language (ESL), and suggests teaching strategies to be used with ESL writers. (MM)

Delineates various conceptions of and arguments about problem solving and proposes a means for dealing with these conflicts. Argues that composition studies should strive to find a common language with which proponents of opposing views can communicate with each other. (MS)

Discusses the role of affect in cognitive processes. Concludes that to study the affective as well as cognitive components of composing is to acknowledge their true interrelatedness. (MS)

Presents a systematic strategy for examining topic-related knowledge prior to writing. Discusses a theory-based rationale for the measure, a formalized method for analyzing topic knowledge, and a guide for using the instrument. (JD)

Concerns arise about two of the most widely used measurements in writing research because of faulty logic in the construction of the Writing Apprehension Test and the possibility of incomplete analytic procedures using T-unit analyses. Two experiments were conducted to address these concerns. Results are discussed. (Author/MT)

Describes how a group of language arts teachers established a year-long research project in collaboration with a university, and how, through participation in the project, they transformed their teaching, became more active professionally, and became critical, responsive users of current research. (ARH)

Claims recent research involving premature editing--thinking aloud for the study--is too narrow in scope to allow for basic writers whose writing processes do not resemble the model. Using eight basic writers produces evidence to support the claim that many or most basic writers can write without editing prematurely.(NH)

Middle school students use note writing not only as a natural response to real social and emotional needs, but (when caught by teachers) as an indirect means to communicate with adults. Although these notes are important, it is difficult to determine if note writing makes a difference in children's success at writing or developing social skills.…

Asserts that the main goal of writing instruction is to help students attain the competence necessary for academic discourse and the most effective way to do this is to teach the basic strategies for uncovering the rules that govern discourse in any particular context.(SRT)

Discusses a study that explored college freshman English students' feelings toward peer evaluation and concluded that this form of evaluation should be included to some extent in all composition classes. (DF)

Looks at the nature of introspective accounts and the usefulness of such accounts in studies of the composing process. Concludes that retrospective journal accounts are a rich source of information because they permit consideration of the complex context in which composing occurs. (FL)

Explores the background of "mutual knowledge"--an aspect of language theory--and modifies that notion so that it can be applied to composition theory and instruction, specifically audience analysis.

Examines what is known about writing in both a first and a second language. Describes a study in which unskilled English as a second language writers in a "developmental" college writing course wrote an essay in class, compares the study's findings with the findings of some major studies of the writing process. (SED)