Ten deaf college freshmen and a comparison group of five hearing students participated in a study of a method to identify long pauses in written composition that have important statistical properties. Subjects first wrote two initial drafts of short stories they had viewed on video tape. Later, they revised and recopied their two originals and one…

Indicates that using highlighters to mark errors produced a 76% class improvement in removing comma errors and a 95.5% improvement in removing apostrophe errors. Outlines two teaching procedures, to be followed before introducing this tool to the class, that enable students to remove errors at this effective rate. (JD)

A study examined whether self-evaluation of writing should precede peer evaluation, and explored effective strategies for peer evaluation of writing. Seventy-six advanced placement English students in a Raleigh, North Carolina, high school were divided into experimental and control groups. The control group participated in peer evaluation of…

Describes an informal classroom research project that explored how children perceive the changes they make in their writing and what they think about when they write. (HTH)

Eleven fifth- and sixth-grade learning-disabled students composed and revised stories using handwriting, dictation, and word processing. Dictated stories differed from other formats on product measures such as length, quality, and grammatical errors. Differences between handwritten and word-processed stories were found on the process measures of…

Examines the influence of prior knowledge on the quality of fourth-grade students' responses to three process-approach tasks: writing, conferencing, and revising. Results suggest that prior knowledge is a significant factor in all phases of process-approach lessons. (NH)

Two studies are reported which investigated the efficacy of an interactive approach to teaching writing revision skills for 11 adolescents with learning disabilities. Results from both studies indicated that interactive teaching successfully taught students to identify ambiguities and make their writing more salient. (Author/PB)

Shows that, although peer editing groups are effective, they also have their limitations, and advocates instead the use of revision workshops as a practical alternative. Contains a checklist used in a revision workshop. (NKA)

Follows a six-year-old boy and his writing-revising experiences at school, demonstrating how his independence as a writer develops. Teacher and peers initiate interactions with the writer as he listens and responds and gradually learns how to discuss writing and learns a sense of the purpose of revision. (HTH)

Examined are the kinds of questions teachers asked and the kinds of revisions 22 deaf high-school seniors made in the process of revising drafts of narratives. Asking students to provide more information and to rephrase specific language resulted in revised drafts which were rated better than their first drafts. (Author/JDD)

The study, with 26 junior high learning-disabled students, found that students' predominant conception and application of revision to written work was correction of errors. Fewer than half of all revisions were rated as improvements. The only type of revision that positively affected overall quality was addition of T-units. (Author/DB)

Readers as well as writers compose meaning. Using the same characteristics essential to effective writing--planning, drafting, aligning, revising, and monitoring--readers react creatively with the text. In response to the author's intention and their own knowledge base, they decide what they want to get from their reading. Constantly renegotiating…

Focusing on the nature of revision in lyric poetry, a study investigated poets' writing processes. Primary data sources included poets' commentary, letters, recorded conversations, interviews, and essays. Two case studies were also conducted--an evaluation of two poets at work (one a novice and one an experienced poet) and a textual analysis of…

A study is described which investigated the differences between English-as-a-second-language (ESL) writers and native-English-speaking writers and examined closely a range of ESL writers and their composing processes. The procedures used were those used by Sondra Perl in a study of the composing processes of unskilled college writers (1979).…

Describes a study designed to determine whether the use of computer word processing would improve both the amount and quality of revision done by high school student writers. The effects of word processing on composition length and revision, and students' attitudes toward writing and word processing are discussed. (47 references) (CLB)