Two experiments were conducted to determine what readers are likely to understand about the information contained in a medical insurance brochure intended for employees. Twenty-seven subjects were recruited through newspaper advertisements for a "reading experiment." The studies addressed questions concerning (1) how likely readers are…

Intended for writing teachers, this paper shows how "pithy prescriptions" for writing, such as "use definite, specific, concrete language," can be misleading or wrong. To support this thesis, the paper examines a technical writing book advocating short sentences and finds that it has sentences averaging 27.8 words in one section and 30.18 in…

To determine whether the structure of religious programs helps develop ethos (the image held of a communicator at a given time by a receiver) in terms of character, intelligence, goodwill, and charisma, an analysis was made of four religious programs: "The PTL Club", "The 700 Club", "Jimmy Swaggart," and "The…

A four-year study by the Bay Area Writing Project was conducted to determine the writing competency of inner-city secondary school students on proficiency tests. To determine whether patterns among secondary students reflected developmental trends, the study also examined samples of student writing from grades 4 through 12, for the years 1978,…

This study describes and evaluates key bibliometric patterns in the articles published by the former "Journal of Education for Librarianship" (JEL) during its first 24 volumes of existence from 1960 to 1984. Data from each issue of JEL were collected and analyzed using a statistical analysis software package, SPSSx (Statistical Package…

This is a report of the Netherlands/United States Textbook Study Project, the goal of which is to improve each nation's textbooks, especially in regard to the treatment of Netherlands in U.S. textbooks, the treatment of the United States in Netherlands' textbooks, and the treatment of relations between the two countries in each nation's textbooks.…

A study was conducted to examine news coverage of the U.S. withdrawal from Unesco. News reports distributed by the Associated Press, United Press International, New York Times News Service, and Washington Post-Los Angeles Times News Service were studied to determine how adequate a foundation they were providing Americans for independent judgment…

Since very little investigation has been made of stories told in organizations, a pilot study was designed to examine story types, values, and recurring themes in stories of a regional planning agency employing 21 staff members. In order to collect stories, tape recorded interviews were conducted with each staff member. Open-ended questions…

This paper discusses both the persistent and changing features of rhetorical criticism during the past 60 years. From a review of 75 critical studies that were published from 1915 to 1925, from 1965 to 1968, in 1973, and from 1975 to 1977, three observations are made: First, most studies of rhetorical criticism have been, and continue to be, case…

Describes a consultation analysis technique for coding conversion between a consultant (e.g., psychologist) and a consultee (e.g., teacher) serving a client (e.g., student). Consultation analysis classifies topics discussed in consultation, verbal processes exhibited during consultation, and the extent to which one participant in consultation…

Following issuance of an administrative policy statement detailing procedures for establishing long-term institutional relationships, the National Institute of Education (NIE) formally requested the Appalachia Educational Laboratory (AEL) to conduct a regionwide assessment of educational needs. Four major events are associated with the…

Twenty 10th grade students participated in a study designed to identify differences in the ways developing writers use words to create written texts. Essays written by the students were holistically evaluated and then analyzed for the types and the number of lexical cohesive ties used and the nature of the grammatical subject, or focus, of each…

Intended to provide information on applied research and development (R&D) priorities in vocational education and on the type of R&D required for each need, this report is divided into (1) an introduction to the problem and procedures, (2) a content analysis of selected documents, and (3) background papers for selected need areas. Chapter 1…

A case study of curricular change compares two leading models of organizational change. One model stresses the uncertainty and disorder of major changes and views them as dramatic events. The other model sees major organizational shifts as the result of ordinary day-to-day processes and emphasizes their routine nature. For this study, the…

A taxonomy of revision changes was developed and applied to 18 case studies of writers' revisions. Subjects were six inexperienced student-writers, six advanced student-writers, and six expert adult-writers. The primary distinction of the taxonomy was between surface (formal and meaning-preserving) revisions and text-base (microstructure and…