Expert readers' responses to texts offer specific, meaningful insights useful in building English language arts models (ELA) for student writers. In the case of academic peer review, previous research has demonstrated that expert reviewers have specific expectations involving readers, texts, and processes. Identifying congruence between research…

In teaching writing, the "audience" became and still is fundamental, leading to the question of how students can learn to adapt their text to the assumed readership and at the same time, learn to write for their addressees. A study focused on how writers cope with the writing process, asking several questions about the concept of…

Offers a case study of a child who used school writing activities to perform rather than simply to communicate. Finds that, although the child's language resources contributed greatly to his success with written language, they did not always fit comfortably into the writing workshop used in his classroom. (PRA)

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)

In a pilot study based on a project underwritten by the United States Department of Education to add more study of international issues to writing courses, revisions in content to both a first your and an advanced composition course were tested during 1993-94. The method for the classroom procedures was also changed to enhance the greater…

Examines how students view their teachers' comments on their writing assignments. Reports the results of a survey on how students view comments. Offers suggestions for what teachers can do to create a shared context for commentary. (PRA)

An exploration was made of the discursive conventions for inscribing a reciprocal relationship between research activities and teaching practices typical of articles published in "College Composition and Communication." The study looked at 31 essays published in the 1993 volume. Ten recurring features of the articles were identified;…

A continuing concern of theorists in composition and rhetoric has been the problem of how to design effective writing assignments. With the recent movement in writing assessment from objective tests to writing samples, this problem has become even more important for those who produce "tests" designed to elicit writing samples. A study…

Two studies compared the impact of black and white audiences on black students' writing style. In the first study, eight students in an all-black intermediate composition class completed one argumentative draft addressed to black opponents and one addressed to white opponents on two different topics. The essays were examined for stylistic features…

Argues for a distinction between fluency and automaticity of procedures in writing. Presents empirical results that suggest a prominent difference between skilled and less skilled writing is the extent of metacognitive control over writing subprocesses. (MS)

Family Message journals, notebooks in which first-graders write a message to their families and receive a family reply each day, provide a fertile context for instruction and practice in writing for real-world functions and authentic audiences. Observation of classroom instruction, qualitative analysis of case-study children's and families'…

Notes that adapting the text to the audience is only possible when the physical task of writing becomes automatic and the writer is no longer absorbed by it. Describes a quasi-experimental study in which a procedural facilitation strategy is used to promote writing skills among Portuguese students, in particular, the skill of suiting the text to…

Traces the development of studies of writing related to teaching and learning that have appeared in "Research in the Teaching of English" (RTE) between 1966 and 1986. Finds that RTE has served to both maintain the dominant paradigm and act as a forum for calls to pursue other research approaches. (JAD)

Investigates the effects of letter writing on the writing of sixth graders. Describes the process of establishing a communicative relationship between the writer and the audience. Finds that students' writing improved in the following areas: length, syntax, paragraphing, openings and closings, questions, topics, and borrowed features. (PRA)

Describes how a university professor collaborated with a ninth-grade English teacher in a research project aimed at studying the collaborative writing processes of the students. Analyzes the various collaborative writing processes of the students, including audience awareness, planning, and revising. (HB)