This paper describes a support services program for students with learning disabilities at California State University (Northridge) that utilized clinical and controlled research for prescription of services and compensatory strategies, including assistive technology, and preparation of a written composition curriculum emphasizing use of assistive…

Seven research-based papers on writing disorders of learning-disabled college students are listed and reviewed. The papers deal with persistent auditory language deficits in adults with learning disabilities; error patterns and instructional alternatives relating to college learning-disabled writers; syntactic complexity in written expression;…

While research on the composing process has revealed great variation among writers and among types of writers, research has largely ignored fluctuation in the writing behaviors of a single writer. A study contrasted both texts and behaviors of six graduate and undergraduate students of English as a Second Language (ESL) as they wrote a practice…

The special studies program at Hofstra University is designed for high school graduates applying to the university whose educational backgrounds require a more personalized approach to introductory college work. An attempt is made to minimize the risk of poor academic performance during the first year in college. A random sample of 24 students in…

Reviews research on sex differences in language use. Describes a study of the language patterns of 20 female college students in basic writing or freshman composition. Addresses instructional implications. Reviews relevant reading theories, discusses the relationship between women's language patterns and their reading schemata, and recommends…

This report describes the development over three trial semesters of a required course for sophomores at Baker University (Kansas) to develop reasoning and critical thinking skills that would prepare them for a required senior capstone course. The report describes the work of the faculty team that prepared two textbooks ("Reasoning and…

Describes the dynamics of problem solving through spoken discourse in one-to-one tutoring of second-language writing in order to determine whether these processes vary with either instructional approach or language used. Tutors' and students' cooperative efforts to solve problems in the students' draft compositions focused primarily on local…

Concentrating on the unintentionally dominant group, the author considers how Walter Ong demonstrates that novice writers have a narrow concept of audience that is really a narcissistic fiction projected as an ideal reader (1975). Given this, writing instructors can work to broaden their students' sense of audience to consider readers who are not…

A study of essays on a single topic (capital punishment) written by 22 American high school students and 30 second-year Japanese college students investigated: cultural differences in organizational patterns in argumentative essays; comparative use of rational and affective appeals; differences in content of rational and affective appeals;…

One teacher's experience with peer critique in a college-level composition course in English as a second language (ESL) suggests that it can be an effective classroom technique. If students are given very specific guidelines to follow, they often do a very credible job of analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of their peers' writing. Indiana…

A study to find patterns of cohesion and rhetorical structure that distinguish good from weak English essay writing is described. The corpus consisted of ten Swedish college essays written as part of the final exam in a first-year English course. Methodological problems encountered included the delimitation of units for the analysis of cohesive…

Some university English as a foreign language (EFL) composition teachers in Taiwan have experimented with audiotaping their commentary on students' writing to help students revise. However, there has been little research on how effective this is for Chinese students. Therefore, a study was designed to shed light on this issue by comparing…

This study compares the effectiveness of audio-taped feedback (ATF) with traditional written feedback (WF). Its focus is on the ATF and WF provided to 23 college sophomore English majors at a Taiwan university. Students were also asked at the end of the academic year to evaluate and compare both ATF and WF from their perspective. It is concluded…

Explores issues on instruction and evaluation of students who are nonnative speakers (NNSs) of English in institutions employing Writing across the Curriculum programs. The authors examine faculty expectations of NNS writing and NNS performance on Writing Proficiency Exams and conclude that these students are held to a double standard. (15…

Devises and validates an index of texture to be used to accurately analyze texts of developing writers as an aid in improving readability. An index reflecting conjunction, conjunctive reach, specificity, connectivity, topic, and topic shift was created. Results were a perfect correlation in rankings produced by the index and judges. (32…