Discusses study testing the validity and reliability of elementary teachers' evaluation of students' written essays; Form A of test appended; based in part on author's doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado, 1965. (RD)

Reports that, as Francis Christensen maintains, final free modifiers do occur more frequently in essay sentences by professional writers than in those by college students, but that students' prose is deficient in initial and medial modifiers also. (RD)

A program is described which integrates technical writing into the introduction to a chemical engineering course at the University of Texas. The students write seven essays on engineering topics. The essays are graded by teaching assistants from the English department. (BB)

Examines the ways in which composition essay anthologies shape and reflect the beliefs and teaching approaches of composition teachers. Focuses on how anthologies treat a widely reproduced essay, E.B. White's "Once More to the Lake." (TB)

Explores the purpose that progressive educational writing in the form of print publication is meant to serve and how it is meant to accomplish its goals. The paper challenges educators to rethink the nature of written discourse, in particular the notion of writing as the presentation of research. (SM)

A discussion of holistic scoring, developed for use on essays in composition courses, argues that it can be used effectively in other disciplines. Procedures for establishing criteria of quality, ideas for identifying writing features relevant to the discipline in question, and methods of providing feedback to students are suggested. (MSE)

Examines questions concerning the assignment of autobiographical essays. Discusses the links between gender and genre. Argues that writing teachers should reexamine their assumptions about "good" autobiographical writing and acknowledge the links between gender and genre. (MG)

Claims the literary critical essay does virtually nothing, as it is printed, read by a small number of literary people, and forgotten. Argues that teaching is doing and claims that the English department establishment either ignores or sneers at the kind of scholarship that tries to solve the problems of teaching literature and composition. (NH)

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,…

Composition teachers are faced with so many writing textbooks on the market that it indeed seems useful to examine them in detail, looking for any distinguishing characteristics as well as commonalities. A content analysis focused on one aspect of the 24 argument texts available: the sample arguments they include. The texts contained a grand total…

As Lewis Thomas has maintained, much of today's public anxiety about science is the apprehension that the whole is being overlooked by an endless, obsessive preoccupation with the parts, and this is a suitable analogy for composition teaching. Students and teachers alike tend to fret endlessly over minute details of writing, like grammar,…

In this article, the author compares the arguments of Susan Swartzlander, Diana Pace, and Virginia Lee Stamler (1993) who note the contradiction between the "shockingly unprofessional" practice of asking students to write about their personal traumas in writing courses and the common occurrence of such assignments with Jeffrey Berman…

Based on his experience of being trained in a process-centered pedagogy and of working in a product-centered program, a writing instructor discovers that the in-class essay is not only a useful or workable part of a regressive curriculum, but that it is effective and necessary for any progressive process orientation as well. Pragmatic, ethical,…

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of handwriting on the grades assigned to essays. Contrary to previous studies, this study employed a grading situation in which teachers holistically evaluated many papers as rapidly as possible simulating real grading conditions. Good handwriting was defined as that done by five experts in the…

In a study of factors that influence evaluators' ratings of student papers, 32 student essays were rewritten to make them stronger or weaker in content, organization, sentence structure, or mechanics; the essays were then submitted to evaluators in both their original and rewritten forms to determine the way in which the changes influenced the…