Students' ESL writing skills in general are not at a desirable level. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of utilizing the STAD [Student Team Achievement Division] method to enhance descriptive writing skills among students in an international school in Selangor, Malaysia. This study employed an action research design.…

This report describes the development of grade norms for timed-writing performance in two modes of writing: persuasive and descriptive. These norms are based on objective and automatically computed measures of writing quality in grammar, usage, mechanics, style, vocabulary, organization, and development. These measures are also used in the…

In order to determine the effects of writing for different audiences and in different modes of discourse on the syntactic complexity of compositions written by sixth and tenth grade students, 240 students were asked to write in three different modes (argumentive, descriptive, and narrative) to be read by a teacher and a best friend. There was a…

The purposes of this study were (1) to investigate the effectivenss of activities centered around children's literature on pupils' use and understanding of figurative language, (2) to study the effect of the activities on pupils' reading vocabulary and comprehension, and (3) to examine the relationship of age, sex, IQ, and socioeconomic status to…