A study focused on how the writer's knowledge of the language and use of a prewriting strategy for planning ideas affect the quality and efficiency of the writing. Three hypotheses were developed about how knowledge and strategy might influence writing performance: (1) independence (predicts that knowledge and strategy will independently improve…

Observing the teaching of revision from the teacher's perspective, a study conducted case studies of three eighth grade language arts teachers who taught writing by a process approach, but who used different instructional techniques, comparing what each teacher believed and said about the revision stage with how she actually taught the process.…

To understand and describe a developmental learning progression of choices students make in forming chains of relationships in their narrative texts, a study used the Cohesive Harmony Index to measure cohesion in children's written narratives. Data were obtained from 36 grade school children at intervals of four months over the students' first…

Three universes of discourse are at work when writers create or use a metaphor: the analogical or metaphorical universe from which they borrow words, things, and relationships (sometimes called the "vehicle"); the contextual universe in which the analogy is being used (sometimes called the "topic"); and the metauniverse, or the comprehensive…

In order to document the self-directed, spontaneous growth in literary output of a six-year-old child, her writings during a one month period were collected and compiled. It was discovered that the child used writing to organize knowledge about the environment and the operations of print, to maintain personal relations, to establish impersonal or…

This teacher's guide was designed to be used with instructional materials, contained in 16 packets and organized around writing prompts, developed and adapted for a research study on informational writing with fourth, sixth, and eight grade students. The guide points out the most instructive method for using the prompts, discusses various methods…

To study the effects of writers' attending to the informational needs of their readers (episodic perspective taking), each of 65 college freshmen was randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: (1) no attention to audience, (2) attention to audience during prewriting, and (3) attention to audience during revising. All three groups…

The first goal of a writing-across-the-curriculum program is to convince content area teachers that the movement can aid them in fulfilling their goals. Rather than trying to inspire individual faculty members, the writing-across-the-curriculum program at the Community College of Philadelphia restructures the classroom teaching situation. The…

To investigate how writing might be affected by composing aloud and computer composing--two factors that are increasingly being used either to study composing processes or to alter the typical context in which students write--a study described the composing process of five junior high school students. The students wrote four compositons, one in…

An approach to writing in a college-level English as a second language (ESL) course is based on recent emphasis in research on the processes involved and strategies used in the various areas of human endeavor. Recent research in writing has indicated that effective and unfrustrated writers carry out the writing task in ways that are very different…

Building upon the National Study of Writing in the Secondary School conducted in 1981, this volume presents the results of recent scholarly inquiry into the nature of writing. Background information for the study is discussed in chapter 1, while chapter 2 describes the additional data that have been gathered since the national survey: a study of…

The relationship between reading and writing is explored in this book. Titles of the book's essays and their authors are as follows: (1) "What Is the Value of Connecting Reading and Writing?" by Robert J. Tierney and Margie Leys; (2) "Reflective Thought: The Connection between Reading and Writing" by June Cannell Birnbaum; (3)…

Although it does not express the official position of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) or of the NCTE Committee on Instructional Technology, this annual report of the NCTE Committee on Instructional Technology discusses the impact of technological advances on classroom instruction. The first section of the report documents a…

A collection of working papers examining the underlying principles of language teaching, learning, and research includes the following titles: "Some Notes on Krashen's Learned/Acquired Distinction" (Stan Jones); "How Teaching Writing Can Affect One's Own Writing Process" (Toni Miller); "Sentence Combining: Some Questions" (Aviva Freedman);…

A participant observation study of a primary grade classroom, in which three first grade students were selected as case study subjects, illustrates the range of workstyles of beginning writers. Primary grade teachers are often concerned that their students are not producing writing comparable with their capabilities, but educators' conceptions of…