This literature review looked at relevant research articles published in reputable journals from 2018 to 2022 to try to shed light on the areas: (1) Implications of using thematic progression pattern to improve the coherence and unity of student essays; and (2) The effects of thematic problems using the thematic progression approach in the…

Integrative learning is a cognitive outcome that reveals students making intellectual connections, bringing sources together, and integrating them into one. What are the kinds of sources integrated by students in writing, and what are the categories or forms that characterize those integrations? How are the sources integrated by students in…

This article reviews recent literature (2011-present) on the automated scoring (AS) of writing and speaking. Its purpose is to first survey the current research on automated scoring of language, then highlight how automated scoring impacts the present and future of assessment, teaching, and learning. The article begins by outlining the general…

In recent years corpus linguistics research findings have begun to trickle down into some student language learning texts, both in terms of the focus and the specific material taught. However, when it comes to writing pedagogy, the materials, templates and the models presented to students tend to show a remarkably conservative (and uniform)…

This review assessed the use of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) for teaching written composition strategies to students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorders. We examined the participants and the settings in which SRSD has been used, the writing strategies tested, genres addressed, and the effects of SRSD on outcome measures.…

Proficiency in writing increases opportunities in higher education, employment, and social relationships. Many students in the United States, however, are struggling writers. In particular, the writing performance of students with disabilities in secondary grades continues to lag behind grade level peers. The purpose of this article was to review…

In this article, the author revisits her essay, "Students as Readers of Their Classmates' Writing," by providing a review of the literature on peer review over the past three decades and comments on patterns she sees in waves of peer review research and theorizing. She describes her subsequent experience with peer review in her own classes, and…

Text analysis traditions in France and the United States include discourse analysis, critical linguistics, French functional linguistics, Bakhtinian dialogics, and "generous reading." These frames have not been used, however, in cross-cultural analysis of university student writing. The author presents a study of 250 student texts from…

Offers an analysis of the work submitted for publication to "College English." (RL)

Based on the premise that the most viable form of discovery for the ethnographer is the personal essay--which has been called "the expression of the self thinking" (Alfred Kazin) or writing as learning and thinking--this paper examines the work of anthropologist Clifford Geertz in the light of that definition. Particular attention is…

This experimental, statistical study investigated the effects that Francis Christensen's "Generative Rhetoric of the Sentence" (1967) would have on overall writing quality and the number of subordinate clauses attached to the main independent clauses for more complex sentences in college freshmen's essays. In the experimental group of 42 students,…

We investigated expectations regarding a writer's responsibility to proofread text for spelling errors when using a word processor. Undergraduate students read an essay and completed a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of the author and the quality of the essay. They then manipulated type of spelling error (no error, homophone error,…

This experimental, statistical study investigated the effects that the testing of grammar and writing mechanics would have on the overall quality and reduction of errors in college students' essays for freshman composition. In the experimental group of 42 students, the professor assigned several exercises in grammar and mechanics as a review…

A classroom implementation of strategy and self-regulation instruction examined whether instruction would help students to plan and revise their essays and if students had the competence to regulate their writing. Also sought to determine if such instruction would improve their attribution, self-efficacy, and self-determination.Suggests that…

Reviews current literature on coherence in written text, defines coherence in broad terms, and then presents a three-lesson revision unit based on modern coherence principles. In this unit, students "deconstruct" assignment prompts, prepare first drafts, examine another student's first draft, and then revise their essays and examine the revisions.…