In order to describe the process by which teachers who are learning to use writing conferences move toward a more constructivist view of teaching and learning (emphasizing interaction between teacher and student, the negotiation of meaning, and the role of language in learning), a study presents three case studies. Subjects were three New York…

A comparison of responses, gathered in 1970 and 1987, to the "Composition Opinionnaire" which was prepared by the Commission on Composition of the National Council of Teachers of English to meet the critical needs of schools in 1970, was designed to determine any change or lack of change in teachers' values concerning the described…

Contributing to research delineating the cognitive processes of writers who are revising their own texts after feedback from members of their intended audience, a study (1) determined whether more able writers would be more responsive to their readers' feedback than would less able writers; and (2) verified results of a previous study indicating a…

To link writing assessment more closely to writing pedagogy, a project added a process instrument--a self-evaluation or "postwrite"--to a formal holistic writing assessment. Subjects were 348 freshman composition students at Goucher College. The postwrite asked students, after they had finished writing an essay, to answer four questions…

When students write syntheses in response to a rhetorical task, does the rhetorical nature of the task exert some special influence on the students' composing processes? How do these processes differ? Three case studies, quantitative analyses of papers written by seventeen undergraduates, and a tentative model of a synthesizing process address…

A survey investigated the use of Electronic Networks for Interaction (ENFI) in composition programs, an approach using group real-time conferencing on computer networks. Real-time conferencing means that a group (from 2 to 20 participants) meets via computer synchronously and communicates in writing as a group (in one large group or in smaller…

A study examined how well existing audience theory fits what really happens when writers write on the job. This ethnographic study focused on the process of revising one chapter from a guide to the DOS computer operating system designed for use by novices as well as intermediate and skilled users. Preliminary findings confirmed much of audience…

Investigating the relationship between learning and academic journal writing, a study examined features of journal entries and students' characteristics. Subjects, students enrolled in an introductory linguistics course for English, English education, and elementary education, were asked to keep a journal during the course. To determine students'…

A case study investigated how writers use information from reading for writing. Specifically, it examined what happens when writers are asked to read about an unfamiliar topic and then use that information to write an argument. A student was requested to complete four tasks that represented stages one might go through to write an argumentative…

A case study examined purpose in the writing of four college freshmen enrolled in a basic composition course. Discourse based interviews were conducted with the subjects before and after they responded to each of three writing tasks designed to provide them with different choices for audience, mode, and focus. The data revealed two central ways in…

PORPE, a comprehensive strategy system utilizing writing, was originally created for students who wanted to know how to study for essay examinations in their college courses. With PORPE, students are involved in (1) predicting potential essay questions to guide subsequent study; (2) organizing key ideas using their own words, structure, and…

By adopting the principles of activist education common to women's studies programs--appreciation of the heterogeneous student population and its varied writing needs; simultaneous study of theory combined with active political work; concern for the personal and the political; and a practice of democratic classroom and administrative…

The annotated bibliography presented in this document reflects the focus of the first year of a three-year federally funded research program intended to shed light on the writing processes of learning disabled college-aged writers. With special emphasis on the use of technology in creating workable, mainstreamed curricula, this bibliography…

As part of a three-year federally funded research program intended to shed light on the writing processes of learning disabled college-aged writers (with special emphasis on the use of technology in creating workable mainstreamed curricula), this paper records in an interview format the responses of students to the program, including word…

William G. Perry, Jr.'s, ideas on the development of student writers were used as a frame of reference for a study of the discursive development of students enrolled in writing seminars at Skidmore College (New York). Perry posits that students execute a series of maneuvers in which they first try to assimilate new perspectives they are…