Identifies problems inherent in writing assessment. Suggests that the measurement of minority students' test results can pose difficulties. Cites the practical impossibility of finding objectively true answers to some questions and of making value-free assessments of what students learn. Highlights conflicting views of writing teachers and writing…

This paper describes the WRITE UP strategy for helping emotionally disturbed students overcome fears of creative writing, organize their thoughts and improve their writing skills. The writing process is covered from subject selection and brainstorming through composition to editing and the final draft, with grading seen as a teaching tool. (PB)

Comparison of the effects of error- versus message-oriented written feedback on second-language students' essays found that error corrections and rule reminders did not significantly improve students' written accuracy or enhance the ideational quality of their writing, whereas message-related comments promoted writing proficiency. (63 references)…

Describes a Computer Information Systems course in which verbal communication processes are thoroughly integrated into the course without disturbing the technical content. Discusses the speaking, listening, writing, and reading activities associated with the course. Describes the challenges (for instructors as well as students) associated with the…

Researchers analyzed data from a longitudinal study of black children at risk to study fifth graders' writing. Analysis of 186 students' compositions indicated students were optimistic despite their many problems. Writing achievement was low. Significant correlations appeared between affective characteristics and both structure and thinking. Girls…

Competent writers make certain decisions when engaged in discourse-level revising of their own written work. Discussion and description of those decisions illuminates and informs classroom procedures for developing such revising and reviewing skills. A reader feedback guide for use in small group work facilitates the process. (Contains 14…

This study compared the effects of drama and drawing planning activities with a traditional planning activity (discussion) on the quality of second and third graders' narrative writing. After 15 sessions, researchers found that drama and drawing were effective forms of rehearsal for narrative writing and more successful than discussion. (SM)

One Israeli elementary school uses creative writing to make English writing real for upper elementary students. After selecting meaningful topics, students brainstorm ideas to write about, narrow their selection to a specific aspect of the topic, choose a writing style from a list, produce a first draft, edit, and rewrite as necessary. Finished…

Examined writing-revision strategies of college students studying French. Students completed a computer-assisted writing task. Analysis of compositions, computer records, videotaped writing sessions, and student postwriting questionnaires showed that both good and poor French writers did not revise substantially or spontaneously for meaning,…

Explores the value of peer-response groups in English-as-a-Second-Language writing classes. Analysis of Asian students' journal entries, peer-response sessions, and draft and final versions of students writing indicated that students tended to be positive about peer response but had some concerns. During the sessions, students engaged in varied…

Investigated how francophone nurses, newly hired in an English-speaking hospital in Quebec, Canada, developed skill in writing nursing notes in English. Data from interviews and observations indicated that social context and mediation were an important part of nurses' ability to appropriate competence in a subgenre of nursing notes in English. (SM)

Argues for the inclusion of different kinds of writing and thinking in the classroom that ask students to situate their own experiences with writing in larger social contexts of which they are a part. Includes an in-depth analysis of one student's narratives of writing illustrating how she must think through social issues in order to understand…

Proposes an instructional progression that goes from writing to speaking in learning English as a Second Language. Specific focus is on writing to improve speaking, games for writing to speaking, free writes from personal experiences, creating a scene, autobiographies, and argumentation. (Author/VWL)

Examined whether negotiated help provided within the learners' zone of proximal development (ZPD) is more effective than help provided randomly and irrespective of the learners' ZPD. Data were collected during tutorial sessions on writing English compositions by two Korean learners of English. Findings provide support for a consciousness raising…

Focuses on ways in which the seventeenth century writing masters in England defined themselves and were viewed by their contemporaries utilizing images of the penmen in copybooks, selected literary sources, and educational treatises to illuminate the interactions between early modern liberal and technical traditions. (CMK)