Based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1984 assessment of the writing achievement of American school children, this report presents national and demographic subgroup achievement results for students in grades four, eight, and eleven, and discusses students' attitudes toward writing and instruction. The first chapter describes the tasks and evaluation criteria used in the study and highlights results of the study, including the following: (1) although many students appeared to know the basic elements of analytic writing, such writing was difficult for students in all grades; (2) while most students could express their points of view in persuasive writing, many had difficulty providing evidence for those viewpoints; (3) students had less difficulty with tasks requiring short responses based on personal experience; (4) students found it moderately difficult to write well-developed stories; (5) home environment is related to writing achievement; (6) students who indicated writing three or more reports and essays during a 6-week period had higher achievement levels than students who reported not writing during that time period; (7) students' positive attitudes toward writing deteriorate steadily across the grades; (8) students reported that their teachers are more likely to mark mistakes than to show an interest in what they write or to make suggestions for the next paper; and (9) content area writing increases between grades four and eight, and decreases again in senior high school. The next four chapters provide specific achievement data by grade level for informative, persuasive, and imaginative writing, and for writing performance among various demographic subgroups. The remaining three chapters focus on students' responses to questions concerning writing and writing instruction, specifically, their values and attitudes toward writing, how they manage the writing process, and what they write and the help they receive. (HTH)
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