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…

Outlines two hypotheses about the reasons for obscurity in expository writing and notes that neither accounts for the general results of an exploratory study of the writing of postgraduates nor for the individual cases presented. Argues that a crucial factor is a person's implicit model of expository writing. (FL)

Reports on a study in which college students wrote compositions that elicited their technical knowledge of three topics, then completed a questionnaire that assessed which of four information sources had contributed to their knowledge of the topics--formal education, mass media, social interaction, and direct experience. (FL)

Describes a study that explored the collaborative writing processes of a group of business executives over the course of a year as they prepared a vital company document. Shows how context affected the writers' conceptions of their rhetorical situations and their writing behavior and how the rhetorical activities influenced the structure of the…

Treats, in a systematic and principled manner, representations studied in situated literacy and an associated methodological approach based on semantic analysis that characterizes the representations. Illustrates application of the method for four situated-literacy examples: mother/child word-naming games; children's story writing; journalistic…