This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: (1) reading and writing as a transaction process; (2) a literacy study among the Amish; (3) readers' representations of writers' aims in expository, persuasive, and ironic discourse; (4) the effectiveness of sustained silent reading and sustained silent writing on reading and writing achievement and reading attitude; (5) a case study of five illiterate black men in a literate society; (6) the effects of reading aloud to third grade students as reflected in their written composition skills; (7) a parents' curriculum for literacy development; (8) literary interpretation as a composing process; (9) reading and rewriting as component processes; (10) effects on content summary production and verbalization of the process for fifth-grade students; (11) Paulo Freire's literacy program and adult basic education in the United States; and (12) reading, writing, and mutual knowledge. (HTH)