Suggests ways to increase the amount of writing in political science classes without overburdening teachers or students. Recommends the use of journals, the precis, memoranda, position essays, and candidate profiles. Maintains that it is more productive to focus on what students say, rather than how they say it. (RW)

In an effort to encourage the integration of writing as a communicative act in the second language classroom, information is presented about the purposes of writing in the second language classroom, types of writing tasks, proficiency levels in writing, writing activities, and writing evaluation. (Author/CB)

Provides an annotated list, organized by subject, of 151 books in the areas of writing (contexts, status surveys, instruction, processes, text analysis, assessment, rhetoric, and writing and learning), language (processing, development, interrelationships, and language and schooling), literature, and teacher education. (MG)

Described are the experiences of one teacher with the teaching of writing in college level microbiology, virology, and immunology courses. Assignments, methods, evaluation, and student responses are discussed. (CW)

Examines teachers' responses to students' first drafts of writing assignments. States that teachers should lead students to rethink and rewrite through positive, constructive feedback. Suggests three ways to encourage students to rewrite/revise, including: dialogue feedback, student conferencing, and reader reaction summary. (MM)

Discusses writing assessment's recent evolution toward "tests worth teaching to." Urges further departure from accountability evaluation models toward an ecological model (Part two of this article appears in v10 n2 p4-10 Apr 1988; see EJ 371 768). (MM)

Discusses the effectiveness of teacher comments on student compositions. Asserts that establishing a written dialogue between teacher and student, including reactions to the student's composition and the student's reactions to teacher's comments, helps students develop their ideas further and provides more experience in expressing those ideas in…

Teachers in Iowa's North Scott School District have become writers helping their students learn through the writing process approach. The district's reading assessment is based on student writing samples, cumulative writing folders, and a holistic evaluation system. Includes two references. (MLH)

Reviews research on handwriting instruction that focuses on these questions: (1) Do learners need particular writing instruments and paper? (2) Should educators encourage students to trace or copy? and (3) How can educators evaluate learners' writing? Offers implications and suggestions for handwriting instruction. (BB)

Outlines research necessary for determining the validity and reliability of Test of Written English, an essay test that directly measures writing ability and complements Test of English-as-a-Foreign-Language's (TOEFL) indirect assessment of writing skills. Research should cover such aspects as construct, criterion-related, concurrent, content, and…

Discusses how research in error analysis and discourse analysis can help teachers understand basic writers. Argues that the role of teachers is to recognize basic writers' attempts to construct meaningful prose by focusing on both the meaning of the text and the meaning of students' writing errors. (MM)

In a study of peer response activities in second-language writing, two questions were investigated: whether students give good advice to their peers and what differences exist between student and teacher comments. Examination of 30 papers from 3 writing classes suggests that teacher and peer responses serve important and complementary functions.…

Investigated levels of grammatical knowledge among 99 trainee primary school teachers in England and Wales. The study focused on clause and sentence structure to investigate the students' ability to apply their knowledge to analysis of children's writing and to explore the implications of proposed revisions to English in the national curriculum.…

Theories of writing development put forth by C. Bereiter (1980), B. Kroll (1981), and K. Perera (1984) are reviewed and presented as frameworks for practitioners working with students having language learning disabilities (LLD). The theories are considered with regard to the assessment of written language, and written language intervention…

Effects of using different combinations of internal and external matching variables were examined using a generalized Mantel-Haenszel statistic, a technique based on meta-analysis, and logistic discriminant function analysis with data from a writing assessment for over 4,200 8th graders. Results did not support use of an external matching…