Students in grades 5 and 8 completed a state writing assessment, and their first and final drafts on the extended writing portion of the test were copied and scored using the state writing rubric. The rubric consisted of three primary traits: Content and Organization, Style and Fluency, and Language Use. Scorers were blind to the study purpose and…

Discusses "grade inflation," and the pressure on instructors to "play grade roll politics to save their own professional hides." Argues that the grade deflation movement works at cross purposes with its goal of elevating academic standards, and that it is at odds with composition theory and its process pedagogy. Suggests…

This study was conducted to gather evidence regarding effects of the mode of writing (handwritten vs. word-processed) on compositional quality in a sample of sixth grade students. Questionnaire data and essay scores were gathered to examine the effect of composition mode on essay scores of students of differing computer skill levels. The study was…