Two experiments look at factors influencing the ways children construct an abstract representation of story structure that contains the characteristics described by story grammars. (RWB)

Illustrates dimensions of variation in how young children orchestrate or manage the writing process, using data collected from a five-month study of primary grade writers. Finds children's composing behaviors consistent with their apparent intentions and with their styles as symbolizers and socializers in their classroom. (SKC)

Examines the life and works of Cynthia Rylant, an author of children's books. Rylant tells about her personal life, discusses her writing habits, how she chooses illustrators for her books, and her relationship with her editor. (NKA)

An author traces the development of a survival story, "The Sign of the Beaver," and examines the elements basic to the genre in some other well-known stories. (SD)

Analyzes the editing behavior of skilled and less skilled writers. Results show that while the more skilled writers almost always corrected more errors than the less skilled, the two groups performed similarly on their own essays where neither corrected many errors at all. (SRT)

Discusses how the works of Joyce, "Dubliners" and "Ulysses" specifically, can be used to help developing writers learn about the process of writing and as material for writing exercises. (SRT)

Describes a three-week seminar for education students that simulated the environment of the classrooms in which they will eventually teach and focused on the writing process, the reading process, and the reading-writing relationship. (SRT)

Recounts the difficulties and rewards of designing and establishing a computer-based writing lab--including problems with planning, funding, staffing, and expansion of physical space. (NKA)

Three research areas relevant to the relationship between writing and reasoning are reviewed: (1) cultural consequences of written language, including changes in reasoning ability; (2) individual consequences of particular writing experiences; and (3) the status of writing activities in American schools. Further research is needed to establish how…

Investigates the effects of writing ability and mode of discourse on cognitive capacity engagement across three stages of the composing process, noting that writing ability differentially affected cognitive capacity engagement across discourse modes when using the secondary-task method. (HOD)

Replies to an article that raised questions about whether the case study approach helps students address complexities faced by practicing writers by agreeing with its broad goals for writing instruction but disagreeing with its conclusion. (DF)

Describes the implementation of a content area writing program in a middle school. Observes that many teachers were resistant to the task and passed their frustration on to the English teachers. However, most were pleased with the improvement in students' writing due to the increase in the amount of required writing. (SRT)

Describes the efforts of the Crediton Project, an ongoing research project in Devon, England, to develop an assessment scheme that accounts for cognitive, affective, moral, and stylistic development in children's writing. (DF)

Presents comments by authors of children's and adolescent literature about qualities of good writers, which include being a good reader, caring about language, being well educated, being an alert observer, being a good story teller, and being a compulsive writer. (EL)

Describes some of the strategies of repetition and metaphor used by Black American novelist Richard Wright, as a model that students can adopt in their own writing, both for generating ideas and for revising them. Appendixes include various drafts of an interview statement by Wright. (HTH)