The critiquing and evaluating of resumes and cover letters by business people is important to college students. They know before submitting them what employers expect. (JOW)

Presents the position statement of the Conference on College Composition and Communication Executive Committee on writing assessment in both two-year and four-year institutions. Suggests that the primary purpose of the specific assessment should govern its design, its implementation, and the generation and dissemination of its results. Provides…

Responses of 78 of 150 business communication teachers surveyed showed that peer evaluation of writing largely consists of juniors and seniors who use a teacher-developed analytic scale to evaluate fellow students; and 52 percent of teachers consider it effective in improving writing skills and attitudes. (SK)

Describes a method of providing students with oral feedback to their written assignments on cassette tapes in a business communication class. (SR)

Describes a process for evaluating technical writing students who are working in groups. Discusses task sheets, progress reports, evaluation forms, and the final individual evaluation. (PRA)

Suggests that readability formulas are methodologically flawed and inappropriate measures of the readability of materials written for adults. Argues that the cloze procedure is preferable because it assesses the readability of material by its intended audience. Notes that possible users of the cloze procedure include school systems, government…

Maintains that putting a number or letter grade on student writing is fundamentally wrong. Argues that trashing the traditional grading system is the best thing that could be done to ensure better reading and writing among students. (SR)

Discusses aspects of collaborative writing in the workplace, including styles of management and collaboration; deciding whether to adopt a collaborative approach; research and implementation; collaboration in process; and evaluation, recognition, and rewards. (SR)

Describes a natural student writing evaluation method in which students write letters to their teacher about their reading. Shows examples of letters from four typical students. Speculates on the function of the letters for each student. (RS)

Examines writers' options in organizing comparisons. Finds that chunking of content in a systematic way is a strong predictor of holistic quality ratings, and that higher rated papers tend to be written by students with higher verbal abilities and more extensive topic knowledge. Demonstrates the complexity of the choices writers must make in…

Asserts that educators should consider the contexts of a deeply troubled society when viewing evaluation and teaching. Argues that thinking in terms of discrete testable skills can prevent students from taking responsibility for their own learning. Argues that teachers should seek modes of evaluation which reaffirm that dignity is of concern along…

Investigates convergent and divergent validity of inferences from selected measures of structure, coherence, and quality for compositions. Finds (1) strong support for validity of inferences from the structure measures, serious questions of inferences from coherence measures, and weak support for quality measures; (2) some evidence for the…

Discusses and tries to define the basic differences between high school and college-level writing. Examines key assumptions of the Summer Writing Program at Carleton College along with the criteria used for determining whether students should receive writing course credit. Reveals contradictions in stated criteria and praxis. (HB)

Describes the attempts of the Writing Task Force to shape an English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) writing curriculum model at the City University of New York. (PRA)

Provides analysis of the term "plagiarism" and distinguishes it from other ways students might employ sources. Defines a form of source usage called "patchwriting" that relies heavily on summary and which should be acceptable to writing teachers. Weighs the pros and cons of summary writing. (HB)