A study explored the effect of different kinds of music on children's writing content. Nineteen students from a second grade class in Charlottesville, Virginia, participated in 10 15-minute writing sessions, accompanied in each session by one type of background music (classical, jazz, popular, or country) or by silence. All writing was analyzed…

Many educators, students, parents and other taxpayers rely on the perception that literacy is some narrowly defined ideal, and that students must all conform to that ideal to become successful, (in other words) productive citizens. Sharon Crowley posits two ways of thinking about texts. In one, texts are discursive bits produced to engender more…

A study investigated whether college students' writing skills have deteriorated in recent years. Writing samples from upper-level undergraduate or first-year graduate courses from 1956 (at a public university), 1965 (at a private university), and from 1978 and 1993 (at a private college) were examined. Samples were analyzed for errors in spelling,…

Emphasizing the writing product rather than process, this paper presents two writing samples each for three students and evaluates them using five questions: (1) What are the strengths of the paper? (2) What are the weaknesses? (3) What are the apparent differences between the two writing samples? (4) What other information do you need about this…

Claiming that literary newswriting is not a contradiction in terms, that is, an oxymoron, this essay examines some of the criteria against which literary newswriting can be measured, defines what constitutes literary newswriting in contemporary newspapers, and explains how it contributes to modern newswriting. The paper argues that (1) modern…

This examination of an evaluation of writing based on process rather than on product argues that one of the primary functions of evaluation as a part of teaching should be to diagnose the writing strategies that underlie a writer's current performance, not just textual problems. The first half of the paper discusses the various ways teachers use…

This report discusses a plan to help Georgia school systems develop their own evaluation instruments for student writing. The report indicates that the use of actual writing samples in assessing writing skills can be valid, reliable, and economical. It includes attachments with sample writing scores from a school, the purposes and statistics that…

The discrepancy in the application of terminology in labeling systems for scoring writing samples is discussed in this paper and current scoring systems that exclude frequency counts of writing features are described. Two-thirds of the paper discusses and gives examples of general impression, marking, analytic scale scoring, and primary trait…

Explains that peer evaluation in news writing courses is an effective way to increase the amount of information provided to student writers without adding to an instructor's grading load. Suggests several feedback structures, including source questionnaires, grading grids, and directed peer evaluation guides. (MM)

Discusses the problems that teachers face in dealing with developmental writers, including (1) why they are academically disadvantaged, (2) where to begin instruction, (3) how to determine assignments, and (4) how to evaluate their progress. (JD)

Notes that the ways in which feature stories "go wrong" tend to cluster into patterns, and presents a classroom developed list of tag-words and one-line definitions for marking feature assignments and use in group critiques. (HTH)

This study sought to determine whether teachers' evaluations of student essays are influenced by sex role expectations. Contrary to similar research on non-teachers, the pre-service and in-service teachers in this study evaluated elementary students' essays consistently, regardless of sex of the author. (Author/JDH)

Describes a classification of organizational patterns for whole essays and a method by which both teachers and researchers may use it to analyze student essays. Reports the results of such an analysis applied to a controlled study of undergraduate writing. (HTH)

The experiment described examines the strategies adopted by a small number of adolescents in writing, first with a pen, and later with a word processor. The writings of individual children, of male, of female, and of mixed groups, are considered. The word processor is not found to be an essential prerequisite for revisions, but a facilitating…

Points out the difficulty in judging a student's writing ability on the basis of one piece of writing. Suggests alternative evaluation procedures. (EL)