This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 30 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) writing performance and its relationship to the writing attitudes, topic knowledge, and writing goals of college freshmen; (2) representational semantics; (3) the cognitive processes of competent third grade writers; (4) the role of audience in the revision strategies of basic writers; (5) discourse mode, enabling metaphors, and styles of closure in the composing process; (6) assessing the potential syntax development of third and fourth grade writers; (7) perceptions, processes, and productions of the beginning writer; (8) prepositions in the writing of children in grades three through eight; (9) prewriting behaviors of field dependent and field independent remedial writers in a college writing center; (10) rhetorical maturity and Perry's model of intellectual development; (11) the rhetorical design and function of the proposal; (12) the paragraph in academic writing; and (13) the effects of listening and writing skills training on writing performances of business communications students. (HOD)