Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

This report presents first year (1984-85) findings of The Writing Project, a 2-year school-based study of the use of word processing to improve learning disabled children's writing skills. Based in three Massachusetts school districts, the project focused in the first year on intensive observation of 14 fourth grade children as they wrote with word processors. Two contrasting teaching environments were identified: the compliance model, aimed at promoting students' mastery of specific writing conventions and writing structures/ideas presented by the teacher; and the facilitation model, aimed at helping students generate and expand ideas and structures of their own. Facilitative models which promote student involvement in composing were found to have three overall characteristics: (1) teachers give children strategies for generating and organizing their own ideas; (2) teachers focus children's attention at the drafting stage on developing ideas in writing, rather than revising and editing, or on mastering the word processor; and (3) teachers reinforce children as capable thinkers and writers. (DB)

The survey reported in this document was undertaken to determine the experience and opinions concerning written technical communications of prominent and successful engineers in a wide variety of engineering fields. A questionnaire sent to 245 engineers asked 11 specific questions, 8 of which dealt with the respondents' own experiences and the writing necessary in their positions (the amount done, its importance, and its effect on their own and others' advancement) and 3 of which dealt with the respondents' opinions about courses in technical writing in scientific and engineering curricula. Replies were received from 73.6 percent of those surveyed and indicated that respondents spend 24 percent of their time writing, the writing is very important to their positions, and the ability to write effectively has helped them in their own advancement. In addition, 80.5 percent feel that technical writing (clear, direct, and logically developed) should be required of all engineering students, while 16 percent feel it should be an elective course. (JM)

A multi-year study examined whether elementary school students can engage in historical thinking in a meaningful way, and what kind of writing activities best serve this purpose. Subjects were 17 students of varying language proficiency levels selected as the focus of research from the entire class of 31 primarily Hispanic and African-American students in a split fourth/fifth grade classroom in an inner-city school in Oakland, California. Data on historical thinking was collected during a 6-week period when the students were engaged in a unit on American Indians and Spanish colonization in the Southwest. The unit included two writing assignments: a "day in the life" activity concerning American Indian life, and a mock correspondence describing colonial New Mexico. Writing assignments were evaluated and analyzed. Results indicated that: (1) most students wrote quite detailed narratives for the first assignment, but most stopped far short of perspective taking; (2) several of the students had difficulty, in their role as Spanish colonists in the second assignment, distancing themselves from the Indians; and (3) more of the students succeeded in the second assignment than in the first in creating characters who thought and acted in culturally and historically appropriate ways. Findings suggest that at least some fifth-grade students with somewhat limited language skills can engage in perspective taking. The most persuasive explanation for the students' marginal success may be that most of them lacked sufficient knowledge about how things were done in the past to succeed in the assignment. (Contains 24 references.) (RS)

A study explored how writers with extensive experience and learning in an academic discipline used both topical and rhetorical knowledge to construct synthesis essays. Subjects, 20 psychology graduate students and 20 business graduate students, wrote synthesis essays on either the topics of "supply-side economics" or "rehearsal in memory." Half of the subjects completed think-aloud protocols, and their composing processes were analyzed for different qualities and frequencies of elaborations and rhetorical awareness and for task representation. Analysis of variance indicated that (1) "high knowledge" writers evidenced unique elaborative and rhetorically sensitive performance; (2) high knowledge writers included more "new" information in their essays in the top levels of essay organization; (3) low knowledge writers elaborated less but did rely on structural and content-based awareness to compose. Findings confirmed the interrelatedness of comprehension and composing processes and illustrated how writers, with varying levels of topic familiarity, use both their knowledge of disciplinary topics and their experience as readers and writers to compose synthesis essays. (Fifteen tables of data, four figures, and one note are included; 180 references and two appendixes of data are attached.) (RS)

A study examined the integration of computers into the writing practices of a ninth-grade remedial English class in an urban high school in the San Francisco area. Computers and word processors were introduced midway into the school year. The class was observed and recorded daily through the academic year, and all written work collected. Six students were selected for in-depth focus as they carried out writing tasks. Analysis focused on how classroom writing practices were structured and carried out and how students participated in writing tasks before and after the computers arrived. Although many changes accompanied the use of computers, the study concluded that the teacher's structuring of writing instruction had the greatest impact on both student writing and the ways computers entered into that writing. Findings suggest that computers do not function as independent variables in classrooms, but rather as part of a complex network of social and pedagogical interactions. (Six tables of data and five figures are included; 58 references are attached.) (SG)

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Noting that skills and knowledge taught in schools have become abstracted from their uses in the world, this paper clarifies some of the implications for the nature of the knowledge that students acquire through a proposal for the retooling of apprenticeship methods for the teaching and learning of cognitive skills. The paper specifically proposes the development of a new cognitive apprenticeship to teach students the thinking and problem-solving skills involved in school subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics. The first section of the paper, after discussing key shortcomings in current curricular and pedagogical practices, presents some of the structural features of traditional apprenticeship, detailing what would be required to adapt these characteristics to the teaching and learning of cognitive skills. The central section of the paper considers three recently developed pedagogical models that exemplify aspects of apprenticeship methods in teaching thinking and reasoning skills. The section notes that these methods--A. S. Palincsar and A. L. Brown's reciprocal reading teaching, M. Scardamalia and C. Bereiter's procedural facilitation of writing, and A. H. Schoenfeld's method for teaching mathematical problem solving--appear to develop successfully not only the cognitive, but also the metacognitive, skills required for true expertise. The final section organizes ideas on the purposes and characteristics of successful teaching into a general framework for the design of learning "environments," including the content being taught, pedagogical methods employed, sequencing of learning activities, and the sociology of learning--emphasizing how cognitive apprenticeship goes beyond the techniques of traditional apprenticeship. Tables of data are included, and references are appended. (Author/NKA)

Observing the composing processes of students working over real time in naturalistic settings, two exploratory studies asked: (1) What skills and assumptions do freshman and advanced writers invoke when they are searching for information to be used in writing? (2) What strategies and goals do students bring to a typical writing-from-sources task like the research paper? and (3) How do particular classroom contexts influence student performance? The research paper was used as a vehicle. The first study observed the way eight freshman and eight advanced writers planned and searched for information, revealing two differing purposes: content-driven (a fact-finding mission) and issue-driven (arguing for a position). The second study examined how students perform the many tasks involved in writing research papers. Eight students at Carnegie-Mellon University, randomly selected from courses requiring research papers, kept a daily process log of all paper-related activities from the time they received the writing assignment to the time they finished writing. The resulting material (over 500 pages) revealed two strategies in use. Low-investment strategies centered around the rote reproduction of other authors' ideas for the teacher-as-examiner. High-investment strategies centered around the transformation of source material to produce original conclusions. The teacher's role in influencing these strategies was a powerful one: high-investment writing was fostered by providing intermediate feedback, focusing on high level goals, providing an audience other than the teacher, and getting writers started early. (Fourteen references conclude the study.) (SR)

This report argues for and illustrates an approach to the study of writing in school settings that integrates ethnographic analysis of classroom interaction with linguistic analysis of written texts and teacher/student conversational exchanges. The report explores the relationships among classroom contexts, computer-based innovations, writing practices, and actual written texts--based on long term participant observation in two urban, sixth-grade classrooms, over a 2-year period. The first two sections define the construct of a classroom writing system and discuss both the outside forces on the classrooms and the particular patterns of social organization that pre-dated the introduction of computer technology. The third section focuses on the function and use of the computer with QUILL software within each classroom writing system; the fourth section discusses the importance of teacher expectations in shaping student writing by using a case study to trace the development over time of a single composition, from first to final draft. The final section examines the conflicting purposes at work within a classroom writing system and the demands that those conflicting purposes put on both teachers and students in carrying out sensible writing and response in classroom encounters. The report concludes by discussing the interrelated implications that a writing systems approach has for equity, writing instruction, evaluation of innovations, and teacher education. Ten figures and four tables of data are included; 57 references and one appendix about the Quill software tools are attached. (KEH)

Noting that reading and writing should be interactive in the same way that listening and learning to speak are interactive, this report describes several teaching methods designed to integrate the teaching of reading and writing on elementary and secondary levels. The first section examines the use of dialogue journals in a third and fourth grade classroom, and argues that better writing and reading instruction occurs when student and teacher come to know one another through the journals. Subsections discuss (1) building a classroom environment that fosters reading and writing; (2) collaborative learning to produce a book written by students; (3) letter writing as an assignment for basic writers; (4) an assignment to create a tourist guide of San Francisco for teenagers; and (5) workshops to help students understand what writers do. The second section outlines features of effective classroom practices, such as verbal stimuli and flexibility to allow group or individual work. This section also examines the administrator role in such writing programs. The third section examines literature pertinent to the reading writing relationship, while the final section suggests ways in which teachers can bring about positive change in the way reading and writing are taught. (Three pages of references are included.) (JC)

Noting that computer based environments for communication may have profound effects upon classroom social organization and the development of literacy, this paper reports on a project that used QUILL, a software system that includes both tools that facilitate writing and new environments for communication. Following a brief introduction to the project, the paper presents an example of writing produced by a sixth grade student in a classroom that used QUILL. It then provides a linguistic analysis of the example, highlighting several anomalies that could lead readers to dismiss the writing as "bad." The paper next examines the social context in which the writing was produced and explains how this perspective can provide an explanation for the apparent anomalies. It further shows how the writing process is reflected in the writing product, but not revealed by an analysis of that product alone. In conclusion, the paper points out that while programs such as QUILL can enhance the learning of reading and writing by providing new techniques for teaching and learning, they can also produce profound changes in a classroom's social structure. (FL)

College teachers of English for Science and Technology (EST) are encouraged to conduct research in preparation for designing appropriate writing instruction. Specific recommendations are made for creating such a program, providing adequate support, and organizing its content, with examples offered from the program in computer science writing at the University of Aizu (Japan). An EST writing program should offer student discipline-related knowledge, knowledge of writing in the discipline, and instructional activities tailored to specific skill levels and student needs. At the University of Aizu, instructional design research began with a survey of 87 computer science faculty, a review of professional literature, and computerized analyses of English grammatical constructions and vocabulary used most frequently in computer science discourse. The last analysis revealed 22 different kinds of writing within the field with four primary functions: to obtain approval or resources; organize information for efficient access; generate new information; and disseminate new information. Relevant writing genres for these functions were selected, including dialogues, object descriptions, narratives, process descriptions, and abstracts and bibliographies. Specialist, non-specialist, and high-frequency vocabulary and problematic grammatical constructions in computer science were also identified. Instructional activities were constructed using this information. (MSE)

This study is the 11th and last report from the Reading-to-Write Project, a collaborative study of students' cognitive processes at one critical point of entry into academic performance. The report consists of an Introduction and seven essays, each of which discusses ways to teach a variety of aspects of reading and writing which have been tried out in classrooms or are the result of experimental research, and each of which begins with a self-analysis technique or assignment that teachers can use to introduce students to new concepts and strategies. Each essay includes samples of student responses, suggests diverse ways in which new concepts can be introduced in the context of students' own responses, provides a rationale for teachers and students explaining how each particular concept is important, and concludes with a list of suggested readings. Essays and their authors include: (1) The Interactive Nature of the Reading Process (Kathleen McCormick); (2) Repertoire: Matching What's in Your Mind to What's in the Text (Margaret J. Kantz); (3) Reading for More Than Information: Helping Students Move Beyond Content Reading (Christina Haas); (4) A Sequence for Interacting Prior Knowledge with Information from Sources (John Ackerman); (5) Reading to Develop a Thesis (Lorraine Higgins); (6) Moving from Sentence-Level to Whole-Text Revision: Helping Writers Focus on the Reader's Needs (Karen A. Schriver); and (7) Images of Academic Discourse: Expanding Our Students' Perceptions (Jennie Nelson). The Reading-to-Write Project references list concludes the document. (RS)

This study is the 11th and last report from the Reading-to-Write Project, a collaborative study of students' cognitive processes at one critical point of entry into academic performance. The report consists of an Introduction and seven essays, each of which discusses ways to teach a variety of aspects of reading and writing which have been tried out in classrooms or are the result of experimental research, and each of which begins with a self-analysis technique or assignment that teachers can use to introduce students to new concepts and strategies. Each essay includes samples of student responses, suggests diverse ways in which new concepts can be introduced in the context of students' own responses, provides a rationale for teachers and students explaining how each particular concept is important, and concludes with a list of suggested readings. Essays and their authors include: (1) The Interactive Nature of the Reading Process (Kathleen McCormick); (2) Repertoire: Matching What's in Your Mind to What's in the Text (Margaret J. Kantz); (3) Reading for More Than Information: Helping Students Move Beyond Content Reading (Christina Haas); (4) A Sequence for Interacting Prior Knowledge with Information from Sources (John Ackerman); (5) Reading to Develop a Thesis (Lorraine Higgins); (6) Moving from Sentence-Level to Whole-Text Revision: Helping Writers Focus on the Reader's Needs (Karen A. Schriver); and (7) Images of Academic Discourse: Expanding Our Students' Perceptions (Jennie Nelson). The Reading-to-Write Project references list concludes the document. (RS)

This study is the 11th and last report from the Reading-to-Write Project, a collaborative study of students' cognitive processes at one critical point of entry into academic performance. The report consists of an Introduction and seven essays, each of which discusses ways to teach a variety of aspects of reading and writing which have been tried out in classrooms or are the result of experimental research, and each of which begins with a self-analysis technique or assignment that teachers can use to introduce students to new concepts and strategies. Each essay includes samples of student responses, suggests diverse ways in which new concepts can be introduced in the context of students' own responses, provides a rationale for teachers and students explaining how each particular concept is important, and concludes with a list of suggested readings. Essays and their authors include: (1) The Interactive Nature of the Reading Process (Kathleen McCormick); (2) Repertoire: Matching What's in Your Mind to What's in the Text (Margaret J. Kantz); (3) Reading for More Than Information: Helping Students Move Beyond Content Reading (Christina Haas); (4) A Sequence for Interacting Prior Knowledge with Information from Sources (John Ackerman); (5) Reading to Develop a Thesis (Lorraine Higgins); (6) Moving from Sentence-Level to Whole-Text Revision: Helping Writers Focus on the Reader's Needs (Karen A. Schriver); and (7) Images of Academic Discourse: Expanding Our Students' Perceptions (Jennie Nelson). The Reading-to-Write Project references list concludes the document. (RS)

Noting that within the area of literacy, writing is a young area of study, this research report looks at the impact of the national Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy's 10 years of sustained research. The paper first considers how Center research projects and activities have been tied together to address three interlocking sets of questions: (1) What writing demands are made upon students in key educational, family, community, and workplace settings? (2) How do students meet these demands? and (3) How do teachers help students meet these demands, and how can student progress be measured? The paper then states that in Center projects that involve teacher research, a striking role was found for writing in the professional development of teachers, based on reflection and inquiry that grows out of various forms of teacher research. The paper then points out that one of the biggest challenges facing the United States today is finding ways for varied cultural groups to come together in multicultural classrooms and communities. The paper provides several case studies illustrating this line of research, including one study of immigrant adolescents learning to write in English. The paper then elaborates on research into the changing literacy requirements in the workplace, discusses diverse methods of writing assessment, and considers cultural differences between readers and writers. The paper concludes by stressing the centrality of writing and literacy for an individual's success in school and the workplace and its importance to the effective functioning of the larger community. (NKA)

Noting that within the area of literacy, writing is a young area of study, this research report looks at the impact of the national Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy's 10 years of sustained research. The paper first considers how Center research projects and activities have been tied together to address three interlocking sets of questions: (1) What writing demands are made upon students in key educational, family, community, and workplace settings? (2) How do students meet these demands? and (3) How do teachers help students meet these demands, and how can student progress be measured? The paper then states that in Center projects that involve teacher research, a striking role was found for writing in the professional development of teachers, based on reflection and inquiry that grows out of various forms of teacher research. The paper then points out that one of the biggest challenges facing the United States today is finding ways for varied cultural groups to come together in multicultural classrooms and communities. The paper provides several case studies illustrating this line of research, including one study of immigrant adolescents learning to write in English. The paper then elaborates on research into the changing literacy requirements in the workplace, discusses diverse methods of writing assessment, and considers cultural differences between readers and writers. The paper concludes by stressing the centrality of writing and literacy for an individual's success in school and the workplace and its importance to the effective functioning of the larger community. (NKA)

Arguing that the use of peer groups in a writing classroom theoretically supports the goals of the paradigm shift from emphasis on written product to writing process that has occurred in recent years, this paper examines the complexities confronting teachers who attempt to use groups for instructional purposes. Following a brief introduction, the first section of the paper traces the emergence of the use of peer groups in the writing classroom, touching upon the shift from product to process to collaboration and upon research in the area of collaborative and group learning. The second section of the paper discusses how language learning theory supports group work. In particular, this section examines the social context of schools and theories of language learning and the various features of collaboration. The third section looks at research on peer response, and the final section discusses future research directions. A five-page list of references concludes the paper. (FL)

This study investigated the level of generalizability across a few high quality assessment tasks and the validity of measuring student writing ability using a limited number of essay tasks. More specifically, the research team explored how well writing prompts could measure student general writing ability and if student performance from one writing task could be generalized to other similar writing tasks. A total of four writing prompts were used in the study, with three tasks being literature-based and one task based on a short story. A total of 397 students participated in the study and each student was randomly assigned to complete two of the four tasks. The research team found that three to five essays were required to evaluate and make a reliable judgment of student writing performance. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)

This report contains the results of a study of the writing of college-trained personnel that examined: (1) the importance of their writing abilities in the world of work and in situations other than work, (2) the types of writing done on and off the job and the composing processes used, (3) the media college-trained people use for writing, and (4) the future writing needs of college-trained people. Following an introduction, the first section of the paper reviews existing surveys of the writing practices of college graduates. The second section reports the methodology and results of a survey of job related and unrelated writing of college-trained people, while the third section contains conclusions drawn about the writing of college graduates based on this survey and previous research and discusses the uses of writing in the near future. (HTH)

This report presents first year (1984-85) findings of The Writing Project, a 2-year school-based study of the use of word processing to improve learning-disabled children's writing skills. Emphasis is on how remedial teachers can integrate computers into their writing activities in resource rooms and classrooms. Based in three Massachusetts school districts, the project focused in the first year on intensive observation of 14 fourth-grade children as they wrote with word processors. The study found that the computer aided the child's sense of ownership, of being in control and "authoring" the writing, and of his/her involvement in writing. Teachers brought three different approaches to teaching writing with a computer: skill building; guided writing; and strategic. The strategic approach, which provided students with strategies for managing the writing process, appeared to result in the highest level of student involvement and independent work. The skill building approach resulted in the least positive impact on students' involvement and sense of ownership. A model environment for teaching writing with computers is proposed, guided by such principles as the basic capability of learning-disabled children as "authors" and the use of writing strategies that keep the child in control. Includes 21 references. (DB)

Based on the premise that planning in writing is a strategic response to both the writing situation and the writer's own knowledge, this paper describes the process adult writers bring to ill-defined, expository tasks, such as writing essays, articles, reports and proposals. The paper also states that in planning, writers draw on (nest and integrate) three executive level strategies: knowledge-driven planning, script- or schema-driven planning, and constructive planning. Research in both instructional and academic writing which suggests that writers may fail to turn to a constructive strategy even when ill-defined tasks demand it is examined in the paper. Based on a detailed analysis of expert and novice writers, the paper presents a theory of constructive strategy and isolates five critical features in which writers must create a unique network of working goals and deal with the special problems of integration, conflict resolution and instantiation this constructive process entails. The paper also describes the strategies writers use to meet these demands and some expert/novice differences that affect the integration of the entire plan. The theoretical framework presented in the paper also suggests some goals for instruction and the support of planning. Ten figures and four tables of data are included; 57 references are attached. (KEH)

A survey was undertaken to gather and record the perceptions that college writing program directors and teachers have of the goals of their writing programs, particularly freshman composition. Responses were returned by 134 writing program directors and 135 composition instructors from publicly or privately funded institutions, two-year colleges, four-year institutions, or universities with substantial graduate programs. A composite list of items was created for each response, which was then coded and keypunched for computer analysis. The results showed only two goals that were mentioned by both program directors and teachers: writing mechanically correct prose and writing coherent prose, both to which were mentioned as real goals and as ideal goals. In addition, directors and teachers perceived these to be goals for their department, their institution, and society at large. While there was a high correspondence between societal goals and real goals on the issue of writing mechanically correct prose, no such relationship appeared on the issue of writing coherent prose. The results indicated differences between the directors' and instructors' perceptions, suggesting that any attempt to evaluate freshman writing programs must begin by addressing those different perceptions of real and ideal program goals for their departments, institutions, and society. (HTH)

This study: (1) examined assumptions made about development of second-language writing skills by the teaching profession, as reflected in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines, and (2) investigated the relationship between those assumptions and actual skills development, as reflected in the work of competent English writers as they begin writing in Spanish. Subjects were students enrolled in three levels of Spanish instruction at a selective university. Writing samples written during class time (18 at the first level, 12 at the second level, 8 at the third level) were analyzed for general characteristics (quality of message, organization and style, and standards of language use) of the sets of samples at each level. The analysis provided evidence that there are clear distinctions in the writing products of students at various levels of foreign language study. However, this group of students did not appear to follow the developmental sequence implicit in the ACTFL proficiency guidelines when beginning to write Spanish but began by building on English language writing skills. Clear differences were also found in the sophistication and complexity of writing products at different levels of study. Implications for second-language writing theory are discussed. (Contains 70 references.) (MSE)

A study explored students' dynamic use of various forms of reading and writing to learn. In investigating the relationship between learner initiative, literacy, and the ability to conduct a critical inquiry of a topic of study, seven college undergraduates were asked to direct their own reading and writing engagements enroute to composing a persuasive essay. The main sources of data for the analyses were video-taped work sessions, think-aloud protocols, persuasive essays that the students produced, and students' responses to the debriefing interviews. Analysis of students' think-aloud protocols and debriefing interviews indicated that the reasoning in which students were involved, and how reasoning changed across the task, was a complex phenomenon mediated by both specific reading and writing engagements and the purposes for which these activities were undertaken. Results of the debriefing interviews, in conjunction with the think-aloud protocols and students' essays, revealed that an individual learner was capable of creating a kind of vicarious community of readers and writers exchanging different topical perspectives with one another as they moved back and forth between writing notes, reading articles, writing the essay, reading the essay, and reading their notes. Findings suggest that in order to foster students' ability to inform themselves about topics of study, ways of helping them begin to direct their own reading and writing activities in order to learn need to be explored. (Five figures and 11 tables of data are included, and 61 references are attached.) (Author/MG)

Designed to examine the experiences of writing teachers and their students in the United States and the United Kingdom, a comparative study administered questionnaires to "successful" teachers and secondary school students and conducted observational studies in a small number of classrooms in both countries. The sample of 560 U.S. teachers was gathered through the National Writing Project (NWP), which yearly identifies successful local teachers. Each teacher was asked to select two high achieving and two low achieving students to answer the questionnaire, with 715 students responding. In the U.K., 218 teachers were surveyed from a variety of geographical areas, grade levels, and types of schools, and 244 student questionnaires were administered. Topics for the teacher questionnaires included: (1) teacher training; (2) teaching conditions; (3) length of time, amount, and length of writing; (4) teachers' reasons for teaching writing; (5) teaching practices; (6) types of writing taught; and (7) keys to achieving success. The student questionnaire covered school leaving age, grading and examinations, amount of writing, and students' opinions about their teachers' practices. Results showed that U.K. teachers were student-centered while U.S. teachers were curriculum-centered. The U.K. teachers emphasized imaginative writing, while U.S. teachers emphasized analytic writing and critical thinking. Teachers from both countries believed in individualizing instruction, and students were optimistic about their educational opportunities. Observational studies are still in progress. (Three figures and 15 tables of data are included, and 39 references are appended.) (MM)

This study examined the teaching and learning of writing for secondary school students as it occurred in the interactive context of teacher-student writing conferences in the form of private teacher-student conversations about the students' writing or writing process. Following ethnographic procedures, the study examined naturally occurring conferences in a ninth-grade English class for six case study students. Covering an observation period of 6 weeks, collected data included audio and video tapes of conference talk, audio and video tapes of all other class activities, observational field notes, interviews with the teacher and focal students, and all drafts of focal student writing. A descriptive quantitative discourse analysis of conference talk across students and descriptive qualitative case study analyses for each of the six students showed the writing conference to occasion a kind of teacher-student collaboration in which the teacher assumed a special leadership role. Collaboration was seen as a shifting process shaped not only by conference participants but by the rhetorical circumstances of their talk; and collaboration was described along a continuum, varying both across students and with each student at different times. (Six tables of data are included; 47 references and 4 appendixes containing samples of coded conversation and student papers are attached.) (Author/KEH)

Because any reading or writing research project or teaching method rests on some kind of epistemological assumptions and some models of reading and writing processes, a coherent theoretical approach to the interrelationships of the reading and writing processes is needed. In light of the post-Einsteinian scientific paradigm and Peircean semiotics, reading and writing are seen as always involving individuals, with their particular linguistic/experiential resources, in particular transactions with particular environments or contexts. Analyses of the reading and writing processes reveal parallelisms in patterns of symbolization and construction of meaning. The processes associated with "literary" and "nonliterary" reading and writing concern the reader's or writer's stance, which can fall into different parts of the "efferent/aesthetic continuum": stance is determined by the proportion of public or private linguistic activity which is admitted into the scope of selective attention--the "efferent" stance, which is concerned chiefly with what can be "carried away" or used, draws on the public aspect of sense, whereas the aesthetic stance includes proportionally more of the experiential, private aspect. Differences between these processes defeat the notion of an automatic cross-fertilization of reading and writing activities. A well-rounded humanistic education encompasses both aspects of the continuum, teaching students to differentiate the circumstances that call for a particular stance. (A figure of the efferent/aesthetic continuum is included, and 21 references are appended.) (MM)

The goal of the Educational Technology Center (ETC) Computer-based Conferencing Project has been to explore the potential of computer-mediated communication to support teachers in collegial exchange about their subject and practice, and to develop recommendations for future applications and management of such conferences. The purposes of this study were to describe the kinds of exchange in our own networks; to identify influences on one particular kind of exchange--discussion of teaching practice; to draw upon these findings and information about other similar networks; and to develop recommendations about choice and design of future applications of computer-based conferences for teachers. Discussions include: (1) research design and methods; (2) descriptions of the Science Teachers' Network and the Laboratory Sites Network; (3) a comparison of the two networks; and (4) recommendations for common interest networks. (CW)

Based on the thesis that cycles of concern for an integrated, holistic approach to English language instruction have periodically emerged in reaction to historical forces that are essentially fragmenting in their effects, this thematic report explores events in 20th-century American educational theory, research, and practice that deal with English language education. Two fundamental and enduring facts about English education in the schools which the report examines are the subordination of writing to reading and the other language skills and the separation of language skills from one another--particularly the isolation of reading from writing. Using perspectives drawn from American educational and social history, the report identifies five forces--the democratization of schooling, the professionalization of educators, technological change, the pragmatic character of American culture, and liberationist ideologies--and probes their analytically separable but interacting influences on English language education. Following a summary of the evidence of the assertions that writing has been dominated by reading in schools and that writing and reading have been separated for most of their histories, the report provides illustrations of the prevailing opinion that integration in language education is the proper approach, giving rise to cycles of reform aimed at such integration. It then gives an overview of the 19th century emergence of English as an identifiable subject of the school curriculum, and addresses the ways in which the forces cited promoted both separation and integration of the teaching of writing and reading. (One hundred ninety-six footnotes are attached.) (NKA)

Adult ways of writing--of constructing textual visions of--children are linked to their ways of envisioning themselves and, more broadly, to their perceptions of fully "developed" adults. Thus, developmental visions have traditionally taken for granted the social and psychological worlds of privileged adults. This essay aims to make problematic such writing by reviewing new visions of language and of development that acknowledge human sociocultural and ideological complexity. Within these visions, children's differentiation of ways of using language are linked to their differentiation of their own place--potential or actual--in the social world. To more fully explore these new visions, the essay also offers a concrete illustration of writing children as social and ideologically complex beings. The essay discusses the case of "Sammy," a second grader in an urban school whose writing reflected his own struggle to figure out his place in the social world. It concludes by considering implications for both professional writing and classroom pedagogy. (Contains 119 references, and one figure and one table of data. An appendix lists the sex and ethnicity of the children in the second-grade classroom.) (Author/RS)

As part of a larger study of teacher-student conferences, a study examined naturally occurring one-to-one writing conference conversations between a ninth-grade English teacher (recommended as an excellent writing teacher) and three markedly different students. The study examined students' grapplings with the structure as well as the content of their writing, and it examined talk that by usual measures looks teacher-dominated, to ask how in the writing conference different students engage in the process of writing and learning to write. Data included field notes, audio and video tapes of teacher-student conferences and all other class activities, all writing from the three students, and interviews with the three students and the teacher. Results indicated that: (1) the force of participants' conference input effectively manipulated talk and the consequences of talk as participants enacted the dramas of composing; (2) all three students differed in the ways in which they encountered their teacher, and this variety reflects how individual composing processes are marked by diverse and changing encounters with others. Findings suggest that it makes little sense either for students or teachers to homogenize instructional talk and that productive talk need not be extended or memorable talk. (Three figures of students' essay drafts are included; 40 references and a transcription key are attached.) (RS)

As part of a larger study of teacher-student conferences, a study examined naturally occurring one-to-one writing conference conversations between a ninth-grade English teacher (recommended as an excellent writing teacher) and three markedly different students. The study examined students' grapplings with the structure as well as the content of their writing, and it examined talk that by usual measures looks teacher-dominated, to ask how in the writing conference different students engage in the process of writing and learning to write. Data included field notes, audio and video tapes of teacher-student conferences and all other class activities, all writing from the three students, and interviews with the three students and the teacher. Results indicated that: (1) the force of participants' conference input effectively manipulated talk and the consequences of talk as participants enacted the dramas of composing; (2) all three students differed in the ways in which they encountered their teacher, and this variety reflects how individual composing processes are marked by diverse and changing encounters with others. Findings suggest that it makes little sense either for students or teachers to homogenize instructional talk and that productive talk need not be extended or memorable talk. (Three figures of students' essay drafts are included; 40 references and a transcription key are attached.) (RS)

A study examined a number of concepts drawn from recent research on the social contexts of writing as it is conducted in academic and professional communities to determine how novice writers learn the rhetorical and linguistic conventions that constitute specialized, disciplinary literacy. These concepts were applied to a close inspection of three texts written over an 18-month period by an adult writer, Nate, entering a research community within a doctoral program at a major university. The texts chosen for analysis were introductions to end-of-term project reports which, written in the first three semesters, served as milestones in that they represented the culmination of a semester's thinking on a given research topic and the writer's compiled linguistic and substantive knowledge in his new discipline. The study suggests that the changes occurring over time and the linguistic and rhetorical features of these texts can be seen as indicators of this student's initiation into a disciplinary subspecialty. (One figure and one table of data are included; 42 references are attached.) (KEH)

Source: Digital Library of India Scanning Centre: Allama Iqbal Library, University of Kashmir Source Library: Allam Iqbal Library Kashmir University Date Accessioned: 9/22/2015 20:19 The Digital Library of India was a project under the auspices of the Government of India.

This paper discusses "Notes," a hypertext application program which was designed and implemented to investigate the effects of computers on the writing process generally, and in particular to experiment with tools to support the decisions writers make while acquiring and structuring knowledge taken from source texts. The paper outlines the theoretical basis for the design of the "Notes" program, exploring typical writing activities in some detail. The benefits and limitations of conventional note cards are reviewed, as well as expected benefits of the use of computer-based note cards. The "Notes" program and its relation to relevant research is described, and a formative evaluation is presented based upon interviews with participants of the "Notes" program as it was used with five sections of college experimental writing courses for two semesters. Two problems that need to be addressed are discussed: (1) the first concerns the representation of notes; and (2) the second concerns support for the process of taking notes. (An appendix of interview questions, "Notes" program samples, and 26 references are attached.) (NH)

Focusing on children's developmental use of written language in kindergarten and first grade, this report looks at connections between the social and academic dimensions of classroom life. The first section examines literacy as an aspect of growing up and becoming a member of society. By highlighting the social and academic divisiveness schooling may promote, this section provides a backdrop for looking into a classroom in which social and academic concerns are interwoven. The second and largest section of the report focuses on one class that was observed from kindergarten through first grade. After delineating the age, gender, and ethnicity of the focal children, the report describes the activities in which they engaged and presents excerpts of children's conversations. The behavior displayed by the children both as a group and individually is also discussed. The third section clarifies and qualifies the concept of unintentional helping, that is, how children's socializing can improve their writing skills, discussing the power of children's social lives and balancing this discussion with a consideration of their need for sensitive, guiding teachers. The concluding section reviews the potentially positive power of the children's social world to support written language growth and stresses several ideas that explicitly are not being suggested by the report, e.g., that children should be "turned loose" or that their work should not be evaluated. (JD)