Practices identified by experts as critical variables in eliciting writing samples were checked against 12 randomly selected studies using holistic ratings to derive descriptions of inferential statistical results for described samples. The studies often lacked precise information about these variables, limiting understanding of writing evaluation…

A database used in an analysis of writing errors of Swedish university students is discussed, including the major grammatical and vocabulary errors discovered. This study is compared with others, including a study of the writing errors of students from a variety of first-language backgrounds. Applications and directions for future research are…

Annotates 146 conference papers, journal articles, and doctoral dissertations from 1989 and 1990 dealing with research in the teaching of English. Includes sections on writing, language, literature, and teacher education. (SR)

Analyzes discourse features of compositions written in Spanish by secondary school students in Mexico, draws comparisons with those written in English by Anglo-American students in the United States, and discusses the implications of the results for teaching and evaluating composition skills in Spanish language programs. (29 references) (GLR)

Describes a study of the attitudes toward writing and self-evaluation of writing skills of 78 allied health students. Reports negative attitudes toward the writing process and skills deficiencies. Advocates incorporating writing into science course curriculum. (PAA)

Compares the quality and syntactic complexity of 2 types of essays written by 44 college freshmen in a basic writing course. Essays dealing with group-phenomenon events (intensification) had more words per clause, but received lower quality scores than essays dealing with individually experienced events (initiation). (PAA)

Reports on a procedure in which students read and evaluate each other's term papers. Contends that students improve their own writing and provide constructive, substantive feedback to their peers. Finds that the student reviews showed higher reliability than professional peer reviews of journal manuscripts. (CFR)

Describes an assessment strategy used by pharmacy faculty to grade student writing in a large-class, lecture-based course, outlining the steps the instructors took to recast an existing writing assignment so that it is carefully constructed and articulated, can be assessed quickly and consistently by multiple assessors (self, peer, instructor),…

Describes the use of student-developed rubrics, conferencing, and reflective journaling to improve writing skills in a third-grade classroom. A rubric--a written tool used to authentically assess a piece of work--lists criteria for the work and includes a system for evaluating each criteria. Rubrics enabled the students to evaluate their own work…

Reports the results of an analysis of science-related writing tasks of boys and girls. Indicates there were gendered differences in writing style and content, but similarities in quality. Reveals a narrower gender gap than that found when observing science and writing separately. Discusses practices for minimizing gendered differences in the…

Examined differences between native and nonnative English-as-a-foreign-language teachers' rating of the English writing of Chinese university students. Explored whether two groups of teachers--expatriates who typically speak English as their first language and ethnic Chinese with proficiency in English--gave similar scores to the same writing task…

A holistic scoring procedure was used to rate spoken and written narratives produced by 10 students (ages 9-11) with language disorder and 30 matched peers. Correlations between holistic scores and structural measures of language revealed that quality judgements were moderately related to textual-level measures of form and content but were…

This article describes a 9-week writing workshop in a fourth grade classroom. The workshop was based on a process-writing model, graphic organizers, and ongoing assessment using a six-trait writing assessment rubric. Although both high and low scoring groups made significant progress, the low group made the most progress. (Contains 13 references.)…

To test how to achieve a reliable score on an essay test, based on judgments of specific criteria such as grammatical accuracy or topic relevance, a workshop was conducted on interrater reliability at a teacher educators conference in South Africa. Experienced English teacher educators assessed two essay protocols. Results showed substantial…

A study analyzed the second-language essays of seven anglophone and one French-speaking Quebec university students enrolled in a literature course by using a cognitive-metacognitive framework developed for mathematical problem-solving and a think-aloud protocol. Results indicate the framework, with some adjustments, is a reliable tool for…