Presents a personal selection of recent research on writing and learning that provides a coherent view of children as active, intentional learners. (RL)

Provides both anecdotal evidence and research data from a freshman composition program to work out a relationship between theory, research, and pedagogy. (RL)

Research in written composition must not only face up to the fact that composition tests must meet the same requirements for validity and reliability that other tests must meet, but it also faces the unique difficulty of figuring out a way to give a valid and reliable pretest. (DD)

Argues that a cultural materialist perspective on the work of critical ethnography in composition studies can provide a useful framework that accounts for and can help to resolve some of the significant ethical dilemmas to which recent critiques of critical ethnography in composition have pointed. Describes recent critiques of ethnography in…

Provides summary observations on articles presented in this special issue of the journal and makes an appeal for connecting work in second language writing to broader intellectual strands, domains, and dimensions of modern thought and contemporary lived experience. (Author/VWL)

Analyses several hundred essays written by an equal number of male and female college students in response to two separate prompts on a writing proficiency test. Finds partial support for the hypotheses that men focus on an individual's autonomy and women on relationships. Finds, however, that themes of autonomy are overall the most common themes.…

Offers a review of research on remedial/developmental writers, focusing on studies related to revising strategies, the development of writing abilities, spoken language, rhetorical context, semantic abbreviation in writing, composing processes, writer's block, and thought and language. (DMM)

Reviews the history of verbal data in a variety of fields, places protocol analysis in its historical context, and examines more recent claims and criticisms regarding protocol analysis. Concludes that protocol analysis, when conducted according to certain principles, can be an important tool for researching the composing process. (MG)

Looks at the relationship between error and creativity in the writing of ESL students. Shows how syntactic and lexical constraints combined with students' cultural and aesthetic preferences to produce remarkable poetic effects in their writing. (SR)

Finds that lower-level developmental variables are related to beginning writing skills. Identifies an orthographic-linguistic dimension and an automaticity dimension in the battery of developmental skills and writing products. (RS)

Questions traditional composition techniques and their effects on student thinking and problem solving. Demonstrates how one high school English teacher responded to these classroom issues by reading relevant research and supplementing it with a study conducted on her own students. (HB)

Finds that when children write without any picture, they use a more developed story narrative than when they are given pictures as an initial stimulus. Suggests that it is the content of the picture and the way in which it is presented that affects story structure. (RS)

Asserts that behind the issues of reliability and validity and ethnographic storytelling lurk the definitions of ethnography. Discusses ethnography's position in writing research and the author's problems with reconciling ethnographic research with positivistic methods. (PRA)

Describes the complex meanings of the term "tradition," and relates these meanings to the search for the traditions of composition theory and teaching. Illustrates the constitution and revision of traditions by examining the work of theorists William E. Coles Jr. and David Bartholomae and the reception of their work. (HB)

Examines writers' options in organizing comparisons. Finds that chunking of content in a systematic way is a strong predictor of holistic quality ratings, and that higher rated papers tend to be written by students with higher verbal abilities and more extensive topic knowledge. Demonstrates the complexity of the choices writers must make in…