The present study looked at how children establish a relationship between the conceptual and linguistic dimensions of linearization in descriptive text composition. Written productions were compared with oral ones. French-speaking participants, drawn from the fifth, seventh, and ninth grades, produced both a written and an oral description of a…

Displays student work in "portrait exercises"--writing designed to give students a feel for characterization and to prepare them for future writing. (RL)

The findings in the study suggest "reading-as-the-reader" can improve 5th- and 9th-grade writers' ability to compose descriptive writing consistent with their readers' informational needs. Participants included: 154 writers (78 fifth-graders and 76 ninth-graders) and 52 ninth-grade readers. The study adapted the referential communication design…

This study was undertaken to investigate approaches fifth grade children of similar mental ability follow when writing narrative compositions, to identify procedures unique to good and poor writers, and to observe sex differences relative to quality of written expression and ability to verbalize concerning the writing process. A sample of 230…