Assessing text quality as an indication of underlying skills still remains challenging; irrespective of the approach, many studies struggle with reliability or validity problems. If writing is considered problem-solving, a report must make the reader understand the described situation and call for its mental reconstruction. Therefore, text quality…

A psychological model can show the technical writer how to present information for effective communication by explaining how readers perceive, understand, learn, and remember. The principles underlying the model are the reader's psychological set, the mind's pattern-forming tendencies, the span of short-term memory, and the mind's need for…

Noting that although a great deal of empirical research has been done to investigate the writing rules commonly taught, this paper points out that no one has yet constructed a deep theory of the relationship between cognition and writing that confirms the writing rules and explains how they work. The paper then uses theories and research in the…

Problem solving skills such as patterning facts, locating problems, separating problems and solutions, and presenting effective written products are essential to success in the business community. Facts can be patterned using a grid relating a problem's effect at the individual, group, situational, and organizational level. Such a grid tests each…

Describes a laboratory course in developmental psychology as an example of teaching undergraduate students thinking and writing skills. Lists different written and oral communication employed: scientific experimental report writing, sequential and topical protocols of infant behavior, blooper examination responses, and oral presentations.…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 27 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) syntax in the writing of learning disabled and normal children; (2) tropes, invention, and the composing process; (3) speaking and writing relationships in…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 17 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) reasoning strategies used by gifted and average fifth grade children in written discourse; (2) the effect of mode of discourse on the syntactic complexity of…