Considers how the concept of psychology of composition suggests a different interpretation of what it means for composition to be an interdisciplinary field. Explores the character and significance for composition of "syntopical studies" and draws on syntopical reading of the psychological literature to lay the foundations for a possible…

Describes a cloze test designed to measure writing flexibility, then examines its effectiveness in distinguishing experienced college-level writers from the inexperienced ones. Concludes that the measure is effective and that responsiveness to style features is a significant component of experienced writing. (FL)

Proposes a rationale for adopting a theory of rhetoric and composition, delineates a set of assumptions underlying the formulation of such a theory, and discusses four recently proposed theories. (CRH)

Attitudinal data from questionnaires and student written products were used to investigate how students' attitudes relate to their performance on typical test writing tasks. (HOD)

A survey of 190 academic departments in 34 universities indicates that considerable variability exists across fields in the kinds of writing required and in preferred assessment topics. (FL)

Describes the methodology and results of a study to determine whether writing instruction caused anxiety. The results indicated that teaching technical writing in freshman composition was more effective in lowering student writing anxiety than were literary-essay or rhetorical teaching approaches. (HTH)

Reports on a recent study of first grade writing efforts that confirms the importance of scribble in the writing process when it is an accepted language behavior in the classroom. (FL)

Examines the questions: (1) What criteria do raters use when making holistic judgments of brief, impromptu essays? and (2) Do raters judge such essays in the same way they think they do? (FL)

Reports on the work being done by Martha King with the writing of primary grade children. (FL)

Discounts Collier's study of the effect of computer-based text editors on the quality of students' revision, arguing that editing is not an innate skill and that the computer predictably would not improve upon a process with which the students are not familiar. Collier replies that he excluded several methodological alternatives to reduce the…

Reports on a survey of high school content area teachers concerning the types of writing that occurred in their classrooms. Concludes that most of the teachers require some sort of writing, with writing for evaluation the most common type. Finds little use of writing as a means of learning. (FL)

Reports on the predrafting processes of several high and several low writing apprehensive students engaged in academic writing and analyzes the differences related to writing apprehension. (HOD)

A study examined the assessment of instructional documents written by undergraduate engineering students in a 300-level technical writing course. The six documents were independently ranked by nine readers--three writing faculty, three engineering faculty, and three technical writing professionals. Besides ranking the documents, the nine readers…

Since revision is an integral part of writing instruction, a study explored the value that students attach to guided revision of their speaking outlines prior to presenting the speech. Subjects, 140 students taught by five different instructors, both ranked and rated the helpfulness of 10 instructional approaches in improving their public speaking…

This book, the seventh volume in the Studies in Writing International Series on the Research of Learning and Instruction of Writing, is an account of the current state of using writing as a tool for learning. The book presents psychological and educational foundations of the writing across the curriculum movement and describes writing-to-learn…