A four-level taxonomy is proposed to define the usefulness of rater written comments for supporting letters of recommendation. The taxonomy is used to classify comments on 220 rating forms by 25 raters from two surgery departments regarding performance by third-year medical students. Written comments were classified by the following taxonomy: (1)…

A few of the relationships between visual and verbal components are explored. Visuals are considered to be things that can be seen, visible things other than printed words that are used in a communication process. The term verbal applies to written or spoken words. The natural tendency for visual and verbal components to be mutually supportive has…

This book addresses the history, theory, and practices of the organization of recorded information. Chapter 1, "Organization in Human Endeavors," looks at the basic human need to organize and how it is approached in various environments. Chapter 2, "Retrieval Tools," is concerned with the formats and functions of basic…

Historically, policies and funding guidelines for most federal educational programs have not adequately recognized the diverse nature of rural schools. A dichotomy of rural and urban, or, even a tripartite classification (urban, suburban, and rural) would mask the internal diversity of rural schools. Current efforts to understand the condition of…

The syllable structure of Dholuo, a Nilo-Saharan language spoken in Western Kenya, is analyzed according to the generative CV-phonology model, which assumes that the syllable has a three-tiered structure: syllable node; CV-tier; and segmental tier. The consonant and vowel repertoires of Dholuo are outlined and charted, and syllable peak patterns,…

In second language instruction, it is important to examine the learner's effort in carrying out classroom activities in order to relate teaching activities to learning theories. Any impact of a teaching activity on the learner's language development must result from what the learner does, not what the teacher does or intends for learner to do. The…

This paper introduces a modification to the Rule Space diagnostic classification procedure to allow for processing of response vectors that contain missing data. Rule Space is an approach to diagnostic classification that involves characterizing examinees' performances in terms of an underlying cognitive model of generalized problem-solving…

The paper is a methodological inquiry into the interpretation of qualitative data. It explores a grounded-theory approach to the synthesis of data and examines, in particular, the construction of categories. It focuses on ways of organizing and attaching meaning to data, as research problems embedded in a cultural context are explored. A…

The University of Miami recently reclassified their "State of Florida" documents according to the classification system invented by Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in 1966. Using only in-house resources, the Government Documents Department of the University of Miami generated labels with printed call numbers for over 16,000 documents.…

The 10 papers in this collection were presented at an open forum and meetings of three sections within the Division of Bibliographic Control: (1) "Review of the Work of the Section on Cataloguing 1989/1990" (Nancy R. John and Inger Cathrine Spangen); (2) "Report from the Section on Classification and Indexing" (Dorothy…

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide archivists, librarians, local government officials, and staff of repositories responsible for preserving historical records in New York State with basic instructions on arrangement and description practices. The guidelines: provide information on describing archival and manuscript materials at a…

This discussion of the relationship between two related disciplines--cognitive psychology and instructional design (ID)--characterizes instructional design as a more applied discipline, which concerns itself more with prescriptions and models for designing instruction, while instructional psychologists conduct empirical research on learning and…

The former HEW National Strategy for Youth Development (NSYD) model was created as a community-based planning and procedural tool to promote youth development and prevent delinquency. To assess the predictive power of NSYD Impact Scales in classifying youths into low, medium, and high delinquency levels, male and female students aged 10-19 years…

The intended significance of text conventions must be understood if reasonably convergent text interpretation is to occur. If students can learn to recognize structural cues or signals, then they can group words into units with particular inner relationships. Expository text comprehension consists of integrating at least three structures: the…

Graphs are increasingly being used in written communication and writers expect readers to understand them. One definition of graphs--information transmitted by position of point, line or area on a two dimensional surface--excludes displays composed chiefly of numbers or words such as tables or outlines. However, it does include time lines, flow…