In response to the New York State Fifth Grade Writing Test indicating inadequacies in students' writing abilities in a Southwest Bronx elementary school, a study employed Evelyn Rothstein's developmental, systematic instructional approach to improve students' writing competencies. It was hypothesized that, as a result of the instructional program…

This paper provides empirical data on two approaches to statistically equate scores derived from the direct assessment of writing. These methods are linear equating and equating based on the general polychotomous form of the Rasch model. Data from the Maryland Functional Writing Test are used to equate scores obtained from two prompts given in…

In order to find out what a three-member peer group in freshman composition was discussing during their meetings and how--if at all--they talked about writing, their conversations about their first drafts for the class were taped and analyzed. Analysis showed that in addition to discussion of their drafts (text talk) and social chat (off-task…

This document describes a software program, CREATE, which was developed at Drexel University to guide students in creating English compositions. A second program, ReCREATE, guides students in reading their finished papers and making global revisions. CREATE asks 20 questions that a teacher might ask a student in a pre-writing conference. Unlike…

To discuss how training programs for new teaching assistants affect them and, more specifically how a training seminar affected the way they grade papers, twelve teaching assistants read about evaluation, participated in six paper grading sessions, and were assigned an experienced teaching assistant who checked sets of marked essays for validity…

The 1981 and 1984 studies of revision, developed by the Wisconsin Pupil Assessment Program, are described in this document, which examines how well students are able to revise their own papers. Contents include an explanation of how the 1981 and 1984 evaluation criteria were created; an overview of the results of the 1984 revision study for grades…

The Basics Skills English 100 course at Slippery Rock University, having changed from a traditional approach to an approach that reflects knowledge gained through research about the needs of basic writers, shows the progress basic writers can make in a summer program. Thirty students met six times a week for five weeks in one-and-a-half hour…

This paper, as an illustration of the procedures involved in a cooperative effort, describes a project in which the Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL) designed and developed a minimum standards test in collaboration with a large urban school district in California. The activity described focuses on the writing sample included in the test. The…

Designed for college freshman composition classes, this guide describes a writing assignment for teaching students to write a formal review of a favorite children's book. The book analysis worksheet serves as a springboard for questions and a vehicle for teaching persuasive discourse, the business of publishing, the organization of libraries, the…

Pointing out that teachers and supervisors need to study, analyze, and synthesize diverse issues in the teaching of handwriting, this paper explores several relevant issues. The following issues are discussed: (1) whether handwriting ought to be taught as a separate subject; (2) the conflict between the behaviorism approach--which utilizes precise…

Intended for teachers and administrators, this collection of essays focuses on the dual meaning of practice--practice of writing skills, and teaching practices in composition instruction. The process section focuses on the types of activities that build composition skills. The product and program sections shift focus to professional practice, the…

A pilot essay was included in the 1985 Spring and Fall administrations of the Medical College Admission Test. A sample of 320 of the essays written by Fall examinees who had expressed an interest in allopathic medicine was used to calculate interrater reliability estimates. Sixteen of 20 readers who had been trained by White's suggestions for…

Designed to help teachers in writing programs collaborate to reach a consensus on grading standards for freshman essays, the "Buddy System" was instituted on a voluntary basis at a Pennsylvania college with an English department with a traditional literature orientation. To participate, the instructors were required: (1) to choose at…

A case can be made for teachers to use audience-oriented teaching strategies that encourage children to write for a wide range of readers. Even so, questions remain about how writers, especially student writers, actually learn to consider an audience of readers when they write. Research suggests that a developmental trend exists in which children…

Developed to provide teachers with a framework for writing instruction, this handbook presents the objectives for writing in the elementary schools from kindergarten through grade 8. After a brief overview of the handbook, information covered includes: (1) a description of writing types (creative expression, narration, exposition, persuasion, and…