Traditional assessment in reading and writing does not accurately reflect what we currently know about the reading and writing process. It disempowers teachers, students, and parents; separates assessment, instruction, and learning; and employs externally defined criteria for cross assessment purposes. Efforts to develop useful alternative…

This study examined the effect of English grammatical proficiency on the ability of learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to transfer essay organization skills, newly learned in their first language (L1), to the second language (L2). The subjects were 104 inexpert EFL upper secondary school students from three schools in Iceland. The…

In order to become empowered and autonomous writers, students need to learn self-evaluation techniques to help them revise their writing instead of simply editing it. Basic writers and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) writers especially need concrete aids that can guide them, at least in the initial stages of learning, to write in a mode in…

Authentic materials can be used to promote second language acquisition. Research on their effects on each language skill (reading, culture, writing, speaking, listening) is needed. Print media (such as newspapers) which are available and motivation, offer real interaction with the target language and culture, and are a valuable instructional…

Recognizing that good writing skills are critical to achieving college and career success, the Communications Department at Moraine Valley Community College (MVCC) initiated a 10-month research and planning process which culminated in the establishment of a Writing Center (WC) in the fall of 1990. The objectives of the WC are to: (1) offer all…

A practicum aimed to improve the basic literacy skills of juvenile delinquents in a county jail by using relevant experiences as the basis of learning. Two corollary aims were to increase the number of high school diplomas generated through the General Educational Development (GED) test, and prepare students to function in the outside world.…

Understanding the rich variety of personality differences can help teachers to avoid using new technology in ways that separate students from their best sources of strength. Twenty freshman students who were asked to react to 16 statements about writer's strengths and weaknesses not only answered very predictably according to their (Myers-Briggs)…

A study examined the relationship between reading instruction and the development of decoding and spelling skills and the writing fluency of children with varying levels of phonemic awareness. First grade children from two classrooms in a rural Florida school district who began school high and low in phonemic awareness received either whole…

Creative writing has fallen out of favor with teachers of composition because they have tended to link creative writing to the belletristic tradition of the nineteenth century. But if the nineteenth century can be accused of taking invention out of the writing process, as many scholars have asserted, it is possible to assert that the twentieth…

Three installments of "Writing Assignment of the Month," a regular feature of the National Council of Teachers of English publication, "Notes Plus," are presented in this compilation. The articles describe writing exercises which have proven to be successful in the classroom. The first article gives suggestions for introducing…

As communication is a moral action involving personal choice, composition instructors must help promote their students' character development. Whether during audience analysis, invention, or disposition, composition always involves the development and testing of four virtues: honesty, courage, love, and a combination of hope and humility. Teachers…

An adaptation of an impressionistic scoring method developed for use on student placement in an English as a second language (ESL) program is described and a correlational study of its reliability is presented. The method was chosen because of its efficiency and apparent reliability. The original emphasis of organization, length, and content of…

A research project was undertaken to (1) identify the major cognitive processes involved in expository writing, (2) test a model of the organization of those processes, and (3) identify teachable aids that could be used by poor and average adult writers to improve their writing skills. Subjects were expert and novice student writers at…

An examination of student papers from three universities on the same tasks revealed that expository writing tasks were less demanding cognitively than argumentative writing tasks and that argumentative writing tasks were less demanding than speculative tasks. Another finding was that when students were able to translate a generalized task into…

As America enters the information age, industry will require a more knowledgeable work force, many new occupations will be introduced and old ones eliminated, and the nature of each occupation will be evolutionary. Information skills -- finding information, reading it, analyzing it, interpreting it, applying it, and communicating it -- will become…