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The article discusses the theme of the special issue, which focuses on the exchange of writing concepts, theories, and practices across national, institutional, and disciplinary borders, highlighting the transdisciplinary and transnational nature of writing studies, and writing research.

The article describes the author's experience with daily essay writing and how it influenced her teaching practice. Topics include the author's personal journey of developing a daily writing practice, implementing an "Essay-a-Day" project in the classroom, and the positive impact it has on students' writing and personal growth.

A robust body of research has documented how expressive writing about difficult or traumatic experiences can be beneficial across a range of domains. Relatively little research, on the other hand, has documented the impact of expressive writing activities on positive events. In this randomized controlled trial, adolescents (N = 350) beginning ninth grade in three schools serving mostly low‐income students of color participated in a 45‐min writing workshop. They were prompted to write about either a negative or positive life event, then edit their writing to include themes thought to insulate them from the possible threats to identity that can come with the transition to high school. We find evidence that positive expressive writing activities are more academically beneficial than expressive writing about negative events. Compared with students who wrote about a failure and subsequent resilience, students who detailed how they attained an important success showed a more positive trajectory for absences (β = −.417; p =.008) and detentions (β = −.962; p =.034), and those who wrote about a generally happy life event showed a better trajectory for grade point average (β =.622; p =.043). Exploratory analyses also show that, regardless of condition, including themes of the "self as competent" and "savoring" good experiences was associated with improved academic outcomes. Including themes of "resilience" was not, across conditions, associated with improved outcomes unless students at the same time included "self as competent" themes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information related to the role of collecting and naming instances of curriculum violence. It mentions that teacher need confirmation of their abilities to determine whether children could be harmed in their classroom whether the lesson is approved by a person writing about curriculum violence; and act of being an educator is a political decision.

Abstract Introduction Expressive writing interventions consist of brief writing sessions on thoughts and emotions and are known to yield positive benefits on adolescents' mental health. However, the psychological mechanisms explaining these effects are not clear. Method This review explored the psychological processes underlying school-based expressive writing interventions with adolescents. A thematic synthesis of qualitative research consisted of identifying, appraising and summarizing the qualitative evidence of eligible studies. Results Only six of the 510 identified studies met the inclusion criteria of this review. Results provide some validation for cognitive-processing , emotion-regulation , and disinhibition as psychological mechanisms underlying school-based expressive writing with adolescents. Conclusions However, these conclusions are still preliminary because of the paucity of the qualitative evidence found, both in quantity and quality. We recommend that more rigorous and in-depth qualitative research be undertaken to: 1) explore adolescents' subjective experience about the expressive writing intervention, using in-depth individual interviews; 2) thoroughly assess the content of students' texts written during the intervention; and 3) document the process of expressive writing interventions through observational methods. The results of such investigations would support the development and implementation of school-based expressive writing-type of interventions adapted to adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Type D personality is associated with psychological and physical ill-health. However, there has been limited investigation of the role of Type D personality in interventions designed to enhance well-being. This study investigated associations between Type D personality and the efficacy of positive emotional writing for reducing stress, anxiety, and physical symptoms.Design: A between-subjects longitudinal design was employed.Method: Participants (N = 71, Mage  = 28.2, SDage  = 12.4) completed self-report measures of Type D personality, physical symptoms, perceived stress, and trait anxiety, before completing either (1) positive emotional writing or (2) a non-emotive control writing task, for 20 min per day over three consecutive days. State anxiety was measured immediately before and after each writing session, and self-report questionnaires were again administered 4 weeks post-writing.Results: Participants in the positive emotional writing condition showed significantly greater reductions in (1) state anxiety and (2) both trait anxiety and perceived stress over the 4-week follow-up period, compared to the control group. While these effects were not moderated by Type D personality, a decrease in trait anxiety was particularly evident in participants who reported both high levels of social inhibition and low negative affectivity. Linguistic analysis of the writing diaries showed that Type D personality was positively associated with swear word use, but not any other linguistic categories.Conclusion: These findings support the efficacy of positive emotional writing for alleviating stress and anxiety, but not perceived physical symptoms. Swearing may be a coping strategy employed by high Type D individuals. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Type D (distressed) personality is characterized by high levels of both negative affectivity and social inhibition, and has been associated with adverse physical and psychological health. Positive emotional writing is known to reduce subjectively reported physical symptoms and increase positive affect. What does this study add? Positive emotional writing was shown to attenuate (1) state anxiety immediately post-writing, and (2) trait anxiety and perceived stress 4 weeks post-writing. The findings demonstrate that positive writing might be a useful intervention for attenuating the adverse psychological effects of Type D personality in the general population. Type D personality was associated with more frequent use of swear words, which may be a coping mechanism used by high Type D individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages in an overdue dialogue amongst some aspects of the thinking of Maria Zambrano and psychoanalytic theory. The discussion focuses on some epistemological and phenomenological ideas that were prevalent in twentieth-century European philosophy. The notion of the real, for instance, is one of the jambs of this comparison, particularly between Zambrano and Jacques Lacan's ideas. Reflecting upon how Zambrano, Lacan and Freud characterised the origins and limits of the subject and language is testimony of these problems and limits themselves. Division, traversement, schism and exile are distinct yet similar heterogeneities that are central in the thinking of these authors. The Zambranian schism between philosophy and poetry, where pathos and logos are divided, resembles the psychoanalytic understood schism between the psychic and bodily and recalls the problems of the Freudian pleasure principle. These schisms can in turn be understood as an exile of a mythical prelinguistic unity which is best characterised by Lacan as the fundamental castration of the subject of desire. The psychoanalytic reflection upon Zambrano's writing itself opens possibilities for future dialogues, perhaps in terms of a sinthomatic savoir-faire, which offers yet another layer to the discussion of her remarkable life and work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article,an effort would be made to establish how writing helps women,especially the downtrodden ones, forge their identities. Thepaper willf ollow the lives of three women who belong to different cultural and social background and attempt to show how thes ewomen,who fought against allodds, asserted their self by theact of writing [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argumentation schema theory guided four experiments on the processing of plausible and implausible reasons and warrant statements testing the hypothesis that most reasons produce greater agreement with claims than when claims are presented without support. Another hypothesis was that leaving warrants unstated often produces greater agreement than when the warrant is made explicit. In Study 1, American participants were more likely to agree with claims after they read arguments than beforehand—even those with implausible reasons and warrants. In Study 2, American history and environmental science majors read brief arguments and agreed more with implausible arguments than claims alone. Study 3, with Chinese participants, replicated some but not all earlier results. In Study 4, with Chinese participants, blatantly false claims supported by bogus reasons yielded marginally greater agreement than unsupported claims. These findings suggest that many people have uncritical argumentation schemata with low support thresholds, making them vulnerable to weak and bogus arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to obtain a better understanding of the way first-year university students construct persuasive arguments in writing by exploring their pattern of use of metadiscourse. A total of 181 argumentative essays produced by first-year university students while completing a timed writing task were analyzed by drawing upon the interpersonal model of metadiscourse as the analytical framework. The findings indicate that, while writers of low-rated essays differ significantly from those of high-rated ones only in the use of a few metadiscourse markers, they have problems using metadiscourse in constructing convincing arguments. Our study suggests that direct and explicit teaching and learning of metadiscourse should be implemented at both secondary education and at the early stage of tertiary education to enable students to use metadiscourse effectively in creating convincing arguments in English academic writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even with the recent surge of research on achievement emotions, few studies have investigated emotions in feedback situations and the appraisals associated with such emotions. The purpose of this study was to examine emotion appraisals of constructive criticism, negative, and positive feedback, to aid us in determining whether these appraisals differed by feedback type. In a task asking them to provide open-ended responses as they imagined receiving feedback on a writing task, undergraduates (N = 270) gave reasons for why they might experience unpleasant emotions from positive feedback and pleasant emotions from negative feedback along with reasons for both pleasant and unpleasant emotions emanating from constructive feedback. Open coding of responses yielded categories for each emotion-feedback pairing that, across all emotions, were collapsed into five appraisal categories: feedback suggests ways to improve, a mismatch between feedback and task exists, feedback targets the self or one’s ability, feedback says something about the relationship between feedback giver and receiver, and the task is judged for its value. Distributions of appraisal categories distinguished constructive feedback from positive and negative feedback. Implications are drawn for control-value theory and for classroom feedback practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research was to assess and to analyze the main writing difficulties presented by second to fifth graders of the elementary school, using Rasch model. Some 413 students from public schools participated, from which 227 (55%) were female. Participants were assessed with Writing Assessment Test, in the syllable, word and pseudoword subtests. Data were analyzed by the Rasch Model. It was verified that more complex structured syllables as consonant-consonant-vogal-consonant were the most difficult. The most difficult words had phonemes that could possibly be represented by more than one grapheme and had accent. In the more difficult pseudowords it was necessary to use well defined orthographic rules, like "m" before "p" and "b". Obtained results can help teachers to anticipate probable student difficulties and to plan differentiated educational strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presence has become a focus of much recent writing in the field of psychotherapy, and in Gestalt therapy in particular. But much of the writing is vague regarding exactly to what "presence" refers. It is the author's impression that there is confusion between two different experiences: presentness and presence; the difference between these experiences will be described in this short piece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study attempts to shed light on the relationships between English learning motivation, English writing anxiety, and self-reported overall English competencies along with English writing skills. A sample of 100 Turkish students at tertiary level of education (Nmales = 42, Nfemales = 58) participated in this study. The results revealed strong positive and statistically significant correlations between the dimensions of motivation and self-reported English competencies. In contrast, the dimensions of motivation and self-reported English competencies/skills were in strong negative and statistically significant correlations with participants' English writing anxiety levels. Statistically significant gender differences (in favour of males) were solely found in the case of self-reported English competence. Additionally, the levels of instrumental, resultative, and intrinsic orientation were significantly higher compared to integrative orientation. Future directions, contributions, and implications of this study were highlighted as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this reflective study, I perceive the impact of my own written feedback on students’ academic writing skills in particular and on learning in general. Anchored on Schon’s reflection-on-action (ROA) framework, my reflection arose from a content analysis of my written feedback on 80 student drafts and 44 feedback responses. I found that my written feedback is of two types:focus on formandfocus on meaning. Coding the feedback led to an identification of six feedback functions: instructive/using imperatives (18.36%); suggestive (15.31%); asking questions/probing (23.98%); stating a personal opinion (6.12%); corrective (29.59%); and affirming/negating (6.63%). The categorisation of feedback according to these functions was influenced by Wolsey’s feedback functions (2008) which was adapted by Alvarez, Espasa and Guasch. Results revealed that I employ corrective feedback, probing questions and instructive feedback more frequently than suggestive feedback, personal statement or affirmation/negation. I also found that my feedback on form (59%) is higher than my feedback on meaning (41%). I explain the relationship of these findings by identifying some confounding factors that enabled me to interrogate my assumptions, along with a discussion of their implications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Researchers have identified sources of individual differences in writing across beginning and developing writers. The aim of the present study was to further clarify the sources of this variability by investigating the extent to which there are differences in genetic and environmental factors underlying the associations between lexical diversity, syntactic knowledge, and semantic cohesion knowledge in relation to writing. Differences were examined across two developmental phases of writing: beginning (i.e., elementary school) and developing (i.e., middle school). Participants included 262 twin pairs ( M age = 10.88 years) in elementary school and 247 twin pairs ( M age = 13.21 years) in middle school. Twins were drawn from the Florida Twin Project on Reading, Behavior, and Environment. Biometric models were conducted separately for subgroups defined by phase of writing development. Results indicated significant etiological differences in writing components across the two phases, such that effects associated with genes and non-shared environment were greater while effects associated with shared environment were lower in developing writers as compared to beginning writers. Furthermore, results showed that child-specific environment was the largest contributor to individual differences in writing components and their covariation for both beginning and developing writers. These results imply that even direct instruction about writing in schools may be having different effects on children based on their unique experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the current state of writing instruction in science classes (Grades 6-12). A random sample of certified science teachers from the United States (N = 287) was electronically surveyed. Participants reported on their purposes for teaching writing, the writing assignments most often given to students, use of evidence-based writing practices, and the instructional adaptations made for struggling writers in science class. Typical practice was examined against a theoretical framework for disciplinary writing in science that articulates research-based and evidence-based practices to improve writing and learning outcomes for all students, including struggling writers. Descriptive results, exploratory factor analysis, and examination of differences between groups (middle school and high school teachers) revealed concerns about the quantity and quality of writing practices in secondary science classrooms, especially at the high school level. Although the majority of participants report to include writing purposely to accompany the inquiry process, most of the writing tasks teachers report to include in science require minimal composition. Participants report to include evidence-based practices for teaching writing and adapting instruction to support struggling writers at a frequency range of once per year to once per quarter. Results inform recommendations for teacher education, professional development, and instructional reform for disciplinary writing in science that supports all learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current research has suggested that writing apprehension and writing self-efficacy share a negatively correlated relationship, and writing self-efficacy and writing performance share a positively correlated relationship. Moreover, mood states have been shown to affect the ability of individuals to judge and perceive. The present study combined mood and writing research methodologies to examine the effect of mood on writing apprehension, writing self-efficacy, and writing performance. One hundred seventeen undergraduate participants were asked to write about a positive or negative life event, or a set of instructions to prime their mood, and then complete the Writing Apprehension Test, Writing Self-efficacy Test, and a timed essay. The results were analyzed using Analysis of Variance and multiple correlation tests. Although the results of the mood manipulation check indicated that the mood prime was effective in shifting mood states, there were no significant effects of mood on writing apprehension, F(2, 115) = 0.87, p = .421, η2 = .015, writing self-efficacy, F(2, 115) = 1.13, p = .328, η² = .019, or writing performance, F(2, 115) = 0.07, p = .935, η² = .001. As supported by previous research, writing self-efficacy and writing apprehension shared a significant moderate negative relationship, r = -.56, p < .05. The absence of mood effects on writing apprehension, writing self-efficacy, and writing performance may be attributed to participants' awareness of their moods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In UK universities, reflection is promoted not only for its intrinsic value but also for instrumental purposes, for students to gain and demonstrate skills and attributes which are valued by employers. In this paper, I examine reflective writing produced by students seeking an award offered by the careers department of one university. By looking at the evaluative language choices made by the student writers, I shed light on some of their practices regarding self-representation and their articulations of experience. I provide a critical account of what reflective writing looks like in this particular setting, and interpret this in the broader context of the goal to foster reflection among higher education students. I argue that the reflective writing engendered by this particular context and task is different in key respects from the reflection which is commonly advocated as an element of personal, professional or academic development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Writing is complex, and the more researchers understand the cognitive processes and engagement for writing, the more complex the relationships between cognition and producing writing appear. Writing theory is constantly shifting from a focus on mechanics and form to a focus on creativity and sociability. This literature review analyzes four leading theories for writing instruction: the cognitive processes theory, the sociocultural theory, social cognitive theory, and ecological theory. To demonstrate how these theories develop into practice, strategies supporting each theory and classroom examples are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To investigate preschoolers’ knowledge about symbol systems, we compared the written and drawn productions of 2–5-year-old U.S. children. In Study 1, children ( N = 88) wrote and drew four targets, including their own name and a picture of themselves. Children differentiated writings from drawings in the implements they used, the size of their productions, and their use of recognizable letters. Some distinctions were present in the youngest children and others became more prominent with age. In Study 2, adults ( N = 16) who judged whether the productions were writings or drawings performed above the level of chance for all age groups. Adults did better for children’s names and self-portraits than for other targets, suggesting that the name plays a leading role in U.S. children’s learning about writing. Overall, the results show that children begin to learn about formal differences between writing and drawing at an early age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with associate professor Emanuele Coccia is presented. Topics of the interview include the focus of his translated book "Sensible Life: A Micro-ontology of the Image" on the relation between image and existence in philosophy, the relation between morality and advertising in book "The Good in things" and how would astrological thinking influence the writing styles and focus of philosophical thinkers.

This essay draws on current research on learning disabilities (LDs) and writing pedagogy, writing assessment scholarship, and my own case study research to explore options for an inclusive, multi-method model of writing assessment with and for LD students. I highlight the experiences of one student writer (self identified as autistic) in particular: Max. In the first part, I engage concepts of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and arguments involving connections between LD and basic writing students. In the second part, I detail how peer-to-peer and portfolio pedagogies can enact principles of UDL for all student writers. In part three, I offer multivoiced case study research with Max and two other course-based tutoring participants: his instructor, Mya, and the tutor, Sara (self-identified as dyslexic). I describe the interactions of all three participants as they worked together and with other students in a developmental first-year writing classroom. I also touch on the subsequent collaborative activities we undertook together, including presenting our work at local and regional conferences. In the final part, I offer four principles for building and sustaining inclusive assessment mechanisms for LD and-- by design-- all student writers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that teachers often do not adequately prepare students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) to utilize organizational structures and basic writing skills that are necessary to produce cohesive essays. Among the challenges of effectively teaching writing to secondary students with EBD is how to deliver culturally responsive instruction to students who come from a variety of different backgrounds. This article presents specific strategies for infusing culturally responsive practices into scaffolded instruction for teaching written expression to youth with EBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although identical on the spoken level, Hindi and Urdu differ markedly on the written level in terms of reading/writing direction and orthographic depth, with discernible processing consequences. The present study used a divided field paradigm to study the impact of writing system characteristics of Hindi and Urdu on word naming latencies in skilled biliterate users of these languages. Hindi (read/written from left to right) was hypothesized to show a larger right field advantage than Urdu (read/written from right to left); Hindi words sharing form overlap with primes were expected to show a significant priming effect in the left visual field, but a significant right field effect for morphologically-primed naming. Both these expectations were confirmed. An overall right field advantage was obtained for one syllable Hindi and Urdu words; two syllable Urdu words showed either no visual field differences or a left field advantage, and the right field advantage for Hindi was significantly greater for two syllable than one syllable words. Further, Hindi words showed significant form priming (relative to control stimuli) in the left visual field and significant morphological priming (relative to form priming) in the right visual field. By contrast, Urdu words showed no significant form priming in either visual field, and significantly greater morphological than form priming in the left visual field. These results are taken to suggest that visual field asymmetries in word naming are sensitive to differences in reading habit-related scanning biases and to orthographic depth-related differences in word recognition processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the implication of training modality on the cortical representation of Chinese words in adult second language learners of Chinese. In particular, we tested the implication of the neural substrates of writing in a reading task. The brain network sustaining finger writing was defined neuroanatomically based on an independent functional localizer. We examined the brain activations elicited by Chinese words learned via writing vs. pronunciation, and by novel untrained words, within regions of interest (ROIs) defined according to the position of the activation peaks in the localizer, and at the whole brain level. We revealed activations in the reading task that overlapped with several parts of the finger writing network. In addition, our results provide evidence that the neural substrates of writing are differentially involved in reading depending on the stored knowledge for words, as revealed by the fine-grained response of several regions including the left superior parietal lobule and left precentral gyrus / superior frontal sulcus to the experimental manipulations. Training modality and the linguistic properties of the characters also impacted the response of the left mid-fusiform gyrus, confirming its involvement as the brain region where linguistic, visual and sensorimotor information converge during orthographic processing. At the behavioral level, global handwriting quality during the training sessions was positively correlated to the final translation performance. Our results demonstrate substantial overlap in the neural substrates of reading and writing, and indicate that some regions sustaining handwriting are differentially involved in reading depending on the type of knowledge associated with words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is about creating new ontologisations of sustainable child/hood/s and/as exceeding forms of contracts between generations through experimenting with bodily affects and sensing movements. Experimenting as writing that is and doing with texts to foster patterns of becomings, thus affirming the positive structure of difference: Writing as opening the self up to possible encounters with affective outsides, collapsing divides in me and simultaneously possibilizing child/hood/s as (a) matrix of becoming. This is about turning early childhood and care institutions and schools into postdiagnosis localities or places of transition, their main task becoming that of not passing on traditions but to prepare for future contingent events. Teaching children to act in disagreement that is and drivers of processes and change through creating better—as in minor—languages for being and doing differently together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the concept of unpredictability in teaching creative writing. Topics discussed include the importance of unpredictability as one of humankind's most treasured traits, the elements of the predictable such as cyclical, repetitive and habitual, and the variation in creative writing assessment.

The aim of the paper, with the help of an attachment framework, is to compare the processes of writing and psychodynamic therapy. The bounded yet empty space of the therapy session is compared with the four-square blank piece of paper that confronts the writer. Both writing and therapy are conceived as "prostheses" -- externalized, socially constructed structures whose purpose is to enhance human functioning. Writing helps the authors "see" what they are thinking, while therapy enables patients to begin to "hear" and learn from their inner dialogue. Insecure attachments compromise these processes; the role of therapy is to provide a secure-enough environment for mentalising to prevail. Joyce's distinction between the lyrical, epic and dramatic aspects of fiction can also be applied to therapy. Patients start from affect-expression, begin to see themselves and their feelings in an interpersonal context, and move, eventually, to more objective and impersonal states of non-attachment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the importance of writing, especially in light of college and career readiness emphasis, and the observations that time spent writing in context diminishes over a student's years in school, this article proposes to reignite writing instruction in elementary classrooms through three practical approaches for supporting students in authentic writing. Examples using these three approaches in the literacy block are included so as to reignite writers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Taking their inspiration from a case history, the authors explore the effects of a writing workshop led by a professional writer for patients in a psychiatric hospital. This workshop allowed different modes of transference to unfold: transference to the analyst-therapist, transference to the writer who led the workshop, and transference to the other members of the group. The writing activity created conditions in which there could be a movement from hallucination to delusion-a delusion expressed in fiction through the act of writing. Psychotic patients 'invent' a writing that remains unfinished and that relates to the experiences of persecution. Writing thus makes it possible for them to tolerate language, through its transformation into writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing plays an important role in young adults’ lives. It is tied to academic achievement and also provides young adults with a voice in social interactions, a way to express their feelings, and an opportunity to reflect on life events. This study explores the writing practices of 2 adolescent girls: Suzanne and Molly. On multiple occasions they had been suspended from school, attended an alternative school, and both had been incarcerated. Suzanne and Molly identified themselves as writers, as their personal writing served as a coping mechanism, a tool for communication, and a way to voice their lived experiences. Despite the power of writing in their lives, their in-school writing instruction was almost nonexistent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Children are learning to write and children are learning to think. A commonly held belief in the teaching profession is that writing is a barrier to assessing understanding due to the added cognitive demands of the task. The application of a cognitive psychological model that engages children as writers across the curriculum enables their thinking when the task en`vironment is carefully controlled, allowing understanding to develop. Writing tasks such as note-taking, journal writing and problem-solving assessment are used within the context of a Year 6 History unit on the Stolen Generations. These transferable literacy skills are necessary for the 21st the century workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human adults tend to use a spatial continuum to organize any information they consider to be well-ordered, with a sense of initial and final position. The directionality of this spatial mapping is mediated by the culture of the subject, largely as a function of the prevailing reading and writing habits (for example, from left-to-right for English speakers or right-to-left for Hebrew speakers). In the current study, we tasked American and Israeli subjects with encoding and recalling a set of arbitrary pairings, consisting of frequently ordered stimuli (letters with shapes: Experiment 1) or infrequently ordered stimuli (color terms with shapes: Experiment 2), that were serially presented in a left-to-right, right-to-left, or central-only manner. The subjects were better at recalling information that contained ordinal stimuli if the spatial flow of presentation during encoding matched the dominant directionality of the subjects' culture, compared to information encoded in the non-dominant direction. This phenomenon did not extend to infrequently ordered stimuli (e.g., color terms). These findings suggest that adults implicitly harness spatial organization to support memory, and this harnessing process is culturally mediated in tandem with our spatial biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To disclose emotional experiences, people can either talk or write. Our research was intended to address content differences between social sharing of emotion and expressive writing. In the first study, 92 participants either talked to an experimenter or wrote alone about an emotional experience. In the second study, after watching an emotion-inducing film, 112 participants were asked to disclose their emotions by either writing, talking alone to a recorder, talking with an unknown peer, or talking with someone close to them. Computerised lexical analyses were conducted on all material collected with a central focus on affective and cognitive processes as well as on narrative style indices like personal pronouns. Consistently, results showed a higher proportion of emotion words in writing than in oral conditions. Personal pronoun use, emotional tone, and proportion of cognitive words also appeared to vary depending on disclosure mode and type of narrative target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigated the effects of goal setting and performance feedback on Curriculum Based Measurement in Written Expression (CBM-WE). This two-study investigation examined the utility of the intervention using two different delivery mechanisms. In Study 1, fourth grade students ( n = 114) were provided both with (a) feedback from their teachers regarding their performance on CBM-WE probes and (b) new weekly goals or no feedback and goals, once a week for a ten-week intervention period. Study 2 examined the effects of this intervention with a sample of fifth grade students ( n = 106) when feedback and individual goals were provided by peers within their classrooms twice weekly over the course of eight weeks compared to a practice only control condition. Results in both studies indicated that students receiving the goal setting and feedback intervention performed significantly higher on production-dependent writing indices post-intervention than control groups (ES = .12–.28). Implications regarding the usefulness of goal setting and feedback utilizing CBM procedures are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial numbers of students in the United States are performing below grade-level expectations in core academic areas, and these deficits are most pronounced in the area of writing. Although performance feedback procedures have been shown to produce promising short-term improvements in elementary-aged students' writing skills, evidence of maintenance and generalization of these intervention effects is limited. The purpose of this study was to examine the immediate, generalized, and sustained effects of incorporating multiple exemplar training into the performance feedback procedures of a writing intervention using a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Results indicated that although the addition of multiple exemplar training did not improve students' writing performance on measures of stimulus and response generalization, it did result in greater maintenance of intervention effects in comparison to students who received performance feedback without generality programming and students who engaged in weekly writing practice alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In five experiments, we consistently found that items included in summaries were better remembered than items omitted from summaries. We did not, however, find evidence that summary writing was better than merely restudying the text. These patterns held with shorter and longer texts, when the text was present or absent during the summary writing, with both short answer and multiple choice criterion tests, with a brief delay prior to the final test or with a several day delay, and regardless of whether the summary was written immediately after reading the text or after a short time away from the text. We additionally found evidence that writing a summary sometimes helped participants estimate how much they learned from the text. However, it seems that students do not write effective summaries because they are quite poor at picking out the important points from the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]