Selected Essays and Letters: A Selection of Papers Collected During the 1969-70 Assessment of Writing. Report 10.

This study contains writing samples from 9, 13, and 17 year olds and from adults (aged 26-35). The study is one of a series undertaken by the National Assessment of Educational Progress to gather information about how Americans write. The respondents, chosen by random sampling, wrote a letter or an essay in response to an exercise. Separate chapters include samples of the writings of each of the four age groups tested. The papers included are roughly at the 15th, 50th, and 85th percentiles in their respective distributions, or in the lower, middle, and upper ranges. The writings were transcribed for computer reproduction and appear as printouts in this report. Each chapter begins with a table which presents the region of the country, sex, color (non-black or other), community size and type, and highest educational attainment of the respondent's parents. (Author/DI) Primary type of information provided by report: Results (Respondent Examples).