Computer technology is expanding our profession's conception of composing, allowing visual information to play a substantial role in an increasing variety of composition assignments. This expansion, however, creates a major problem: How does one assess student work on these assignments? Current work in assessment provides only partial answers to…

Argues that teachers need to be aware of the diverse conceptual demands made by writing assignments in various disciplines; illustrates this by analyzing four assignments. (DD)

A defense of tagmemic theory and its value in teaching composition. (DD)

Presents techniques for analyzing the processes by which a written response to fiction is formulated. (DD)

Study in writing processes, as presented in this paper, is based on the assumption that in order to write effectively, writers must be able not only to present ideas and feelings, but also to engage in the cognitive processes that will help them discover what they wish to say about a given idea, attitude, or set of data. These basic cognitive…

Although current theories concerning the composing process overlap in useful and interesting ways, a paradigm is emerging. This article discusses two of the major assumptions of this emerging paradigm: that there are distinct purposes for each kind of discourse (for example, expressive, literary, persuasive, and referential) and that the relation…

Several samples of writing are used to illustrate the lamentable quality of writing in the business world today. The sentence structures of these samples are dissected and recombined to form functionally more suitable and literate sentences. (JN)

Examines four approaches to evaluating writing, and notes the strengths and weaknesses of each. (RL)

This paper stresses the need for composition teachers to develop not only student writing skills but also the discourse theory by which those skills are taught. Several assumptions of current discourse theory are discussed, and with each assumption the author proposes research questions and procedures by which teachers themselves can evaluate the…

Procedures are suggested for helping students to revise their papers. (JH)

Provides several research questions regarding discourse theory, which can be answered by classroom teachers of writing using their students' writing. (DD)

Although certain features have been identified as most indicative of "syntactic maturity," these only partially answer the question, "What is mature writing?" Mature thought on the part of the author is reflected in writing in the following ways: recognizing that the audience is different from himself or herself; providing an appropriate context…

A study examining the writing of adults who do not consider themselves professional writers but who must master a variety of types of writing in order to meet the day-to-day obligations of their jobs is described in this report. The introduction of the report offers an overview of the work and findings of the study, which was conducted at various…