Freshman composition students wrote five arguments according to specifications and created a metaphor to significantly support each argument. Fifty-four pairs of metaphor and no metaphor papers were rated. Results showed that student-produced metaphors did not increase argument persuasiveness, but quoted metaphors from published sources did.…

While Mosenthal's Context Pyramid Model of Classroom Writing Contexts is a useful framework for guiding research on writing, it is argued that the model is actually a special case of earlier conceptual frameworks for research on memory and cognition by Jenkins and Bransford. (BS)

Presents a list of ways to forestall student attempts to submit "recycled" papers, including requiring in-class assignments, joint reports, copies of reports, and a filing system for student reports. (EL)

Describes a study of the features of British children's narrative writing, at ages 7, 10, and 13. The results indicated a progression from a simple chronicle of events, through simple stories based on a disruption of the probabilities, to more highly developed stories. (HTH)

An analytic scoring system developed to identify and quantify specific formal features of written language is described. Under the categories of Conventions, Complexity, Fluency, and Organization, the system provides guidelines for determining correct and nonconforming structures and usage, describing clause construction and length, classifying…

Are student-written reports posted on the Internet well written? Do business communications students think they are? This paper describes an assignment used during the first few weeks of a business communication course. The assignment gives business communication students a chance to evaluate a report from an Internet site that serves as a…

This book provides the important support needed to ensure that preschoolers become confident, competent writers. The reader will get a detailed picture of early learners' writing development; learn to identify and build the knowledge and skills preschoolers need to understand how print works; and find out how to provide the appropriate setting,…

This book presents a method for the qualitative assessment of text difficulty, a method that relies on a total impression rather than on an analysis of text features. The method is based on matching samples of text to exemplars that have been scaled for comprehension difficulty. These exemplars range in difficulty from those suitable for the…

Suggests a method for analyzing structure and process in prose using algorithms based on graph theory and rules based in syntax. Describes application of the method to essays written by 52 fourteen year old pupils on a newly learned topic in chemistry. (Author/GC)

Reviews the ERIC documents that examine teachers experiencing the writing process and that describe the format of workshop and inservice programs that seek to involve teachers in writing. (JL)

Investigated effects of quality, attributed author sex and organizational position, and rater sex on evaluation of business memos. Alternative questionnaire versions of four memos were rated anonymously by 146 members of a professional personnel association. Analysis of variance yielded a large main effect for memo quality. (Author/JAC)

The effects of penmanship, complexity and accuracy of prose, length of answers, and use of quotations on marks awarded by English literature examiners were studied. The sex of students and examiners, untidiness, and prose complexity and accuracy were unrelated to grades. The results suggested that examiners avoid crediting students for…

Examines the four-category model developed by Andrew Wilkinson at the University of Essex (England) to assess growth in writing maturity. The four measures of development are stylistic, affective, cognitive, and moral. Each has several subcategories. Includes college student essays to illustrate the model. (HTH)

Argues that the evaluation of writing instruction requires special procedures and specially designed instruments. Provides instruments for evaluating a writing program's foundations, for developing teachers' awareness of the features of their writing classroom, and preparing questions and guidelines for evaluating writing assignments and teacher…

Reviews the research done on the evaluation of student compositions. (JL)