Three pieces of writing were collected from 36 adolescent girls in each of three years to test writing-development scales measuring idea development, language use, and audience awareness. The scales were easy to apply in the classroom and capable of assessing students of varied disabilities. (SK)

Examines the ways that social theories of audience have informed the perspectives of "invoked" and "addressed" readers--terms put forth by Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford. Critiques these terms, particularly for their failure to adequately acknowledge the multiplicity of readers. Argues that compositionists should embrace a more comprehensive social…

Investigates five audience-related constructs related to the writing of adults demonstrating varying degrees of literacy competence. Studies 35 college-able writers demonstrating learning disabilities (LD), 22 LD writers attending a rehabilitation vocational training program, 35 remedial college writers, and 35 normally achieving college writers.…

Addresses interrelated sets of ethical considerations: the ethical principles for representing students and student writing in the teacher's own publications of two types--in textbooks designed for student use, and in research publications and conference presentations designed for the author's peers. Lists 10 points to make clear to students whose…

Investigates elementary children's knowledge of the situational, procedural, and functional aspects of writing across grade levels. Finds that children come to understand the purpose of each step in the writing process as they are engaged in it; children need to write for different audiences and purposes; and children shift their focus from…

Describes three primary parts of the Tenderloin Reflection and Education Center's writing workshop for women: workshop, performance, and publication. Discusses how this program helped to break down isolation, empower participants, and challenge social oppression. (MG)

Reports on a study that explored, first, how metadiscourse can enhance college students' awareness of readers' needs and, second, how the use of metadiscourse is related to the quality of the texts that students produced. Suggests that metadiscourse produces better student writing. (TB)

Notes new Internet writing environments differ significantly from print forms: they allow texts to evolve--to change their purpose and audience over time. Suggests they allow for new forms of collaboration--texts organize themselves without an omniscient editor shaping them. Concludes that, as a profession, composition instructors need to…

This study is a modest attempt to use three Korean primary school children and their English diaries as go-betweens to mediate in an apparent dispute between the founding fathers of socio-cultural theory about the nature of language and language awareness. According to Bruner, Vygotsky holds that mediation by others and self-mediation of written…

Combining the practical lessons of clinical practice and the literature of the disciplines of composition theory and psychology, this book merges what writers say about writing with what researchers and scholars say in a way that helps both experienced and inexperienced writers at the writing desk. The writers depicted in the book are comprised of…

"Genre" has become the keyword in a movement to create a more dynamic, dialectical, contextual conception of "dispositio," of structure as a factor in psychological and social processes of writing. A dynamic conception of genre as social process in symbolic action can be reached by combining Kenneth Burke's technique of…

A language-centered social interactionist approach toward writing and written communication involve writing and reading as acts of negotiation. Effective writing, which enables writers and readers to construct and share understanding, is a process of interpersonal contextualization. An analysis of the working drafts and revision of the…

This revised and updated resource contains a total of 43 essays that serve to initiate graduate students and more experienced teachers into the theories that inform composition studies. Under Section One--The Givens in Our Conversations: The Writing Process--are these essays: "Teach Writing as a Process Not Product" (Donald M. Murray);…

Examines how art and design students' approaches to writing are potentially enriched by their creative approach to design. Suggests ways in which the art and design training could be exploited and used as a resource to produce strategies that work with all students. Concludes the key is to ask students about their creative preferences and build on…

Suggests enlarging the sphere of feminist composition by including in it an approach to argument, ways to proceed if one is in conflict with one's audience. Explores the beginning of the feminist theory of composition. (MG)