Presents an Italian study of children assigned to write two persuasive appeals for funds. Reports that improvement on the second request was related to request features demonstrated between the two assignments. Concludes that training did have some effect, but both control and experimental groups improved in their second performances. (DK)

Reports on a study of the writing skills of 51 Italian fourth graders who used word processors for several months. Concludes that word processing can help motivate children and teachers to do more writing and that further improvement in writing skills would occur if the children received writing instruction. (CFR)