Advocates using audio cassette tapes for commenting on student writing. Maintains that taped comments are adaptable, effective, simple, and fast. Argues that taped comments can be focused on the writer, can respond to the writing, and can develop the writer's independence. (SR)

Describes a "Volunteer Reader" project in which volunteers from the community read and respond to student essays. Lists typical questions and answers that address the logistics of the project. Notes that the project has spread to the district level. (RS)

Examines the effects of essay topic variations on the writing performance of honors students and students of low ability taking Florida's College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST). Finds that the effects of variations in essay topics are not significant compared to general verbal ability in English and prior experiences in writing. (RS)

Study of the pragmatics of politeness conventionally draws on conversational data, but can be extended to some genres of written text. A framework is described that analyzes politeness strategies in terms of impositions (claims and denials of claims) and reveals some stylistic features in scientific papers and in popularizations. (Author/CB)

Provides 79 annotations of books and articles on research in writing; language; literature; and teacher education. (RAE)

Describes a sequence of writing and evaluation exercises that provides students with an authentic writing task and places it within a social context that is ideal for the process-writing classroom. Notes that this method provides a supportive and gradual introduction to peer evaluation for both teachers and students. (MM)

Observes that most research-based recommendations for evaluating compositions are difficult to implement. Shows how taped, oral commentaries provide a more effective way to respond to students' writing, addressing content-level issues, showing syntactical options, suggesting stylistic alternatives, and altering intonation to personalize the…

Presents ideas about how to involve students in the evaluation of their own writing, including peer evaluation, self evaluation, and primary-trait scoring. (MM)

The review of the Test of Written Language-2 (TOWL-2) raises concerns about alternate forms reliability, subtest reliability, content validity, and omissions. It concludes that the TOWL-2 is an expanded and greatly modified version of the original test but may not be appropriate for identifying a student's specific writing problems. (DB)

Describes a series of exercises in which students discover and work with a character, then place that character into the context of a short story. (MM)

Analyzed 17 personal attributes of 160 undergraduate students who wrote reports on a computer or by hand, and compared differences in the quality of computer and handwritten reports with each student's personal attributes. Concludes that some attributes do relate to computer writing quality. (JMV)

Argues that teachers knowingly or unknowingly use grades to reward and punish students for their behavior, attitude, appearance, family backgrounds, and lifestyles, as well as writing ability. Describes how the author has been suspicious throughout her career of her own grading biases, and how she attempted, through an experiment in anonymous…

Investigated the relationships between cognitive activities and text quality using think-aloud protocols. Found that some cognitive activities appeared to be relatively restricted to the first part of the writing process, whereas others dominated at later stages. The relationships between text quality and cognitive activities seemed to depend on…

Analyzes the Analytical Writing Assessment's (AWA) contribution as a performance assessment. Critiques its potential usefulness as a diagnostic tool for management education. Concludes that the AWA does not meet the expectations of GMAT-user schools who endorsed the test as a diagnostic instrument for identifying student deficiencies. States that…

Identifies the many different groups of scholars, teachers, administrators, and other professionals who lay claim to the field of writing assessment. Describes the various positions, and outlines the major beliefs and assumptions about what is important and valuable. Examines an intolerance for other positions within each position, and identifies…