Most U.S. colleges and universities expect students to improve their writing ability by taking first-year composition (FYC) courses. In such courses, non-native English (L2) writers with diverse language backgrounds study alongside their native English (L1) speaking peers. However, it is not clear how different these populations are in terms of…

The stagnation of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Writing scores demonstrates the need for research-based instruction that improves writing for all students, especially English learners. In this article, we synthesize the literature on effective instructional practices for this diverse group of learners and describe how these…

Students with disabilities (SWD) in general education science classes are expected to engage in the scientific practices and potentially in the writing of arguments drawn from evidence. Currently, however, there are few research-based instructional approaches for teaching argument writing for these students. The present article responds to this…

This article describes a cognitive argumentation schema for written arguments and presents three empirical studies on the "myside" bias--the tendency to ignore or exclude evidence against one's position. Study 1 examined the consequences of conceding, rebutting, and denying other-side information. Rebuttal led to higher ratings of…

Argues that the context of writing improvement helps explain writing error. Findings imply that undue efforts by teachers to prevent mistakes may hinder improvement. (RAE)

Describes a study of writing in grades one through eight designed to identify types of misspellings, to determine at what grade level problems emerge, and to identify developmental changes in the kinds of errors committed. Found that students' spelling improved over nine years but concludes that spelling is essentially self-taught. (JAD)

Examines the potential of the Advanced Placement Document-Based Question as constructed and presented by an exemplary teacher to engage students in historical reasoning and writing. Analyzes how five students responded to four document-based questions over a year, tracing how organization, document use, and citation language indicate how writers…

Investigates normative longitudinal change in student writing during college. Selects nine measures as good representatives of nine factors--factors of independent and bound ideas, idea elaboration and substantiation, local cohesion, establishment of logical boundaries, free modification, fluency, and vocabulary. Finds that eight of the nine…

Finds that when using e-mail, students made significantly greater reference to documents, their contents, and rhetorical contexts than when using synchronous conferencing; made greater reference to both writing and response tasks using synchronous chats than using e-mail; and students' individual media preferences showed no significant differences…

Examines whether the cognitive strategies of outlining and draft writing enhance college students' writing performance. Reports that outlines improved the quality of writing, but did not enhance efficiency. Rough drafts did not affect quality or efficiency. A survey of faculty revealed that outlines correlated positively with productivity, whereas…

Compares the performance of students who cooperated on an instruction writing task with that of students who worked alone. Concludes that cooperating dyads can improve the communicative quality of their instruction writing. (FL)

Analyzes how students from different interpretive communities shape academic texts. Examines subjects' texts in terms of writers' manipulation of both content and procedural knowledge. Suggests that mere participation in an interpretive community without explicit instruction in its ways of writing can enhance students' ability to write in that…

Analyzes think-aloud protocols with native speakers of English learning French or German. Shows that as the writer's experience with the language increases, fluency increases, the average length of strings of words proposed between pauses or revision episodes increases, the number of revision episodes decreases, and more of the words proposed as…

Examines production processes of five publication houses to determine how or if requirements for expertise in the subject area, writing, and design skills are being met. Interprets the production process for technical manuals in terms of a process model of writing and strategies for improving the quality of documentation. (SKC)

Presents a description and qualitative case study of three high school classrooms, in two of which the teachers actively elicited student dialog and thereby improved writing. Draws on M. Bakhtin, R. Rommetveit and Y. M. Lotman to suggest that a combination of writing and dialogue (spoken interaction) lead to more chances to learn than either…