The more children read, the more they write and the better they spell. As the quality of a child's reading content rises, so does his or her writing. Emergent literacy research suggests that reading and writing occur simultaneously and encourage the growth of one another. Research has also concluded that writing frequently for authentic purposes…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) continuously monitors the knowledge, skills, and performance of U.S. children and youth in a variety of academic subjects. The data collected are available in a series of major reports. The NAEP Facts series takes selected data from these reports and uses them to highlight specific issues of…

A study examined a set of 78 journal articles identified as influential in technical communication (published between 1988 and 1992) and a preliminary list of 63 articles frequently cited between 1993 and 1997. The texts were organized into six topical groups: profession, rhetoric and composition, document design, social construction and…

This action research project described a program for increasing student skills in writing. The targeted population consisted of fifth grade academically talented, regular education, and inclusion students in a middle class, western suburb of a Midwestern city. The inadequacy of student writing skills was documented through writing samples, local…

A ethnographic study examined the ways a young child's mind grasps the idea of the written word. The 5-year-old subject, called "Craig" in this article, had an unending thirst for print, read at the second grade level, and had fluent speech and vocabulary. Craig was followed over the previous 8-month period from the time he first gained…

A study examined the integration of computers into the writing practices of a ninth-grade remedial English class in an urban high school in the San Francisco area. Computers and word processors were introduced midway into the school year. The class was observed and recorded daily through the academic year, and all written work collected. Six…

This paper argues that teaching writing effectively to diverse students of non-English backgrounds will require an examination of existing views about the nature of writing and a critical evaluation of the profession's ability to work with bilingual individuals of different types. Part 1 of the paper suggests that existing compartmentalization…

A study examined what children write when responding to literature they have read in school. The study investigated whether girls' writing differed from that of boys in the same classroom, as well as whether a classroom teacher responded differently to her children's journal writing based on gender or reading proficiency. One sixth grade class,…

Intended to determine whether, given the expense of the commercial Writing To Read (WTR) program, equal or better results could be obtained through other means, a study assessed the effectiveness of three methods of promoting composition in kindergarten and first grade classrooms. Three groups of kindergarten and first grade students from low…

Evaluative criteria implicit in written comments on student writing can embody a definition of text which leads students to see text as superficial and formal instead of deep and meaningful. Students develop their perceptions of professors' values from the cues they receive via comments. A major problem, especially among faculty from different…

A study investigated current research on approaches to instruction, modes of instruction, and foci of instruction in the teaching of writing. Surveys of students and faculty at Northeast Iowa Community College were conducted to determine the status of composition instruction with regard to approaches to and modes and foci of instruction.…

A study identified stages of student writing maturation across several grades and developed classroom resources to enhance the maturation of students. A total of 3,600 essays written by students in grades 4 and 6-12 attending urban and rural schools in eastern Ontario, Canada, were holistically scored. The original limited and quite specific…

Noting that teachers and students who actually use an educational innovation in a classroom setting recreate it, this paper analyzes the implementation of ENFI (Electronic Networks for Interaction), an innovation that uses computers and local area networks in the teaching of writing. The paper presents ENFI's idealization in terms of its…

To analyze the appropriateness of textual media in the construction of meaning, this paper first provides a review of the psychological research on semiotics and multiple intelligences that supports a broadened notion of text. The paper next reports on preliminary research on the construction of non-print texts in disciplines other than…

A study examined the issue of language correctness in Alberta's English 30 diploma examination papers written in January and June 1993 which received a score of "satisfactory" on matters of convention. A total of 160 papers (which received either a score of "satisfactory" on all scoring categories, scores of "limited"…