The role of apprehension in the writing competency and writing performance of 110 college undergraduates was investigated. The hypotheses stated that high apprehensives would perform differently than low apprehensives on standardized tests and on two essay tests. The hypothesis for writing performance on standardized tests was confirmed, but the…

Briefly reviews survey findings on writing achievement, discusses students' difficulties with writing, and suggests that teachers not only provide more opportunities for writing, but help students develop strategies for solving the problems that all writers confront: planning, drafting, revising, and editing. (SJL)

Doubts the ability of formulas to predict readability and questions their use as aids in writing readable prose. Points out that formulas also hamper the teaching of business writing because they emphasize written products instead of the writing process. (PD)

The use of symbols in the play of young children during the preoperational period of cognitive development provides the foundation in representation that will be needed later when using higher abstract forms such as written words. (JN)

Reports classroom observations and dialogues with children that show children's understandings and use of punctuation; reports data showing that children in a class in which punctuation was taught in the context of writing learned more about punctuation than children in a class in which it was taught in isolation. (ET)

Presents findings from an in-depth study of children's composing processes in an effort to explain handwriting performance in relation to child development and the writing process. (GT)

As children move toward learning specified forms of writing, they organize print in their environment and learn generalized communication strategies. Learning to write is developmentally similar to the acquisition of oral language. Ten stages are suggested for understanding the development of children's writing. (JN)

A case study of a six-year-old reveals that unfounded assumptions about language growth and development may debilitate rather than facilitate the process of language literacy. Recommendations are made for open-entry language activities where constraints are allowed to evolve in a risk free language environment. (JN)

Presents examples of messages to a reading teacher from kindergarten students that combine drawing and elementary writing skills. Emphasizes the important role of teachers and other adults and of reading and writing tools in the development of children's reading and writing abilities. (HTH)

Explains the rationale behind freshman English course assignments in writing, a rationale based on conclusions of three research projects that relate to the writing process. (MKM)

The editor of "English Quarterly" interviews Frank O'Hare about his work on sentence combining, his views about writing instruction and writing research, and about his own writing. (RL)

Summarizes a study of five unskilled college writers, focusing especially on one of the five, and discusses the findings in light of current pedagogical practice and research design. (DD)

Follows the development, from fifth grade through eighth grade, of a student poet, who can teach educators what it means to "feel expressed." Offers new ways to think about who children are, what they need to say, and what they need to be taught. Discusses the possibilities of poetry for gaining access to children's deepest capacities for…

Discusses research on the role of audience awareness in writing and human cognition, arguing that developmental writers exhibit egocentric tendencies and assume that the readers do not need elaboration or transitions. Describes four subskills of audience awareness: clear execution, adequate content, perspective differentiation, and role taking.…

Claims that writing systems that constitute a species of graphic systems, such as pictures and charts, are distinctive in that they bear a direct relation to speech. Argues that writing serves as a model for various properties of speech including sentences, words, and phonemes. Concludes that literacy contributes to conceptual structure of…