This study examined the actual performance of lower-achieving candidates in Standard Grade English. Information was collected over two years from the examination scripts and folios of course work of over 300 low-achieving students in grades three through six at several large schools throughout Scotland. A number of schools were visited to study…

A study compared the effectiveness of two antithetical approaches to teaching writing (formal grammar instruction and the process approach) on students' knowledge of grammar and writing improvement. Subjects, 70 college students randomly assigned to four sections of a first-year writing course, were divided into treatment and control groups. The…

An informal study explored the dynamics of the task of writing college application essays, which urge self-revelation but are judged by omnipotent admissions committees. Four students in the top 17% of their class of 194 in a predominantly white suburban school completed think-aloud protocols as they drafted a response to an application question…

Focusing on work of interest to college English teachers and researchers, this book offers an annual classified listing of scholarship on written English and its teaching at the college level. The book cites 1,656 articles, books, dissertations, and papers that, with few exceptions, were published during the 1992 calendar year. It furnishes…

The production of non-narrative information (descriptive versus expository) across written and oral modes was examined for second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade Greek elementary school students. Written and oral protocols were taken from a total of 240 students at each of 3 grades and evaluated according to: (1) the size of the text produced, measured…

A study examined the writing performance of American schoolchildren based on a survey conducted in 1992 by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Nationally representative samples of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students attending public and private schools--approximately 30,000 in all--responded to a variety of writing…

To elicit some written comments about student views of revision, an English professor surveyed about 100 students in several different composition classes regarding what they would do if given the opportunity to revise a class paper. More than 80% of the responses explicitly mentioned errors in spelling, mechanics, or grammar. Several students…

A case study of one 14-year old boy whose writing skills were falling behind those of his peers explored how a tutorial program would enhance his skills. The tutorial sessions, which occurred twice a week for one school year, followed a process approach to writing that invited the boy to brainstorm possible topics, attempt multiple drafts, edit…

An ongoing study evaluated the effectiveness of a writing across the curriculum (WAC) program at a small liberal arts college. Fifty-five out of 99 full-time faculty responded to a survey seeking to compare WAC faculty who had voluntarily participated in at least a 3-day workshop to faculty not involved in the WAC program. Pre- and post-workshop…

A list of guidelines for error correction in the writing process is presented, as well as a specific classroom application of a correction code and error analysis chart. Although developed for Southeast Asian English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students, the code could be modified and applied to any target population. The procedure for using the…

This book presents an overview of reading/writing research, discussing specific reading/writing processes, instructional issues, teacher research, and directions for future research. Chapter titles are: (1) Alternative Research Perspectives (Sarah J. McCarthey and Taffy E. Raphael); (2) Reading, Writing, and Genre Development (Judith A. Langer);…

A project examined the ways in which college freshmen constructed a gendered cultural identity in their narratives of events during their acquisition of literacy, and the ways in which teachers constructed the gendered, literate identity of their student authors. Three female teacher-readers were asked to: (1) evaluate the quality of each of 13…

This report describes the procedures used to collect, describe, and evaluate school-based writing in a special pilot portfolio study conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to explore portfolios as an alternative method of assessing students' writing achievement. The report has three main purposes: (1) to explore…

A discussion of writing looks at research on the factors influencing written discourse and proposes a model of writing for academic purposes. First, studies of both cultural and individual aspects of the writing process are reviewed and the phenomenon of writing is viewed from both social and cognitive perspectives. The social perspective is that…

In continuing and building upon past efforts, the National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy, in collaboration with researchers and practitioners around the world, is forging new theoretical and pedagogical directions in writing and literacy. The Center's research projects and activities aim to respond boldly and straightforwardly to…