The teaching and learning of writing is the focus of journal special edition

A special monograph of the British Journal of Educational Psychology, published this month, highlights the very latest psychological research into the teaching and learning of writing.

Contributions in this edition of the monograph series include:

• Steve Graham and Karen Harris from Vanderbilt University (USA) who reviewed teaching interventions and present 13 clear but evidence based recommendations for teaching writing; recommendations recently endorsed by the National Writing Project in the USA.

• Debra Myhill from the University of Exeter, who examined the translation of thought to text, and found that poor writing often contains more oral speech characteristics; concluding that children need to be helped to move away from writing the way they talk and to shape their texts more carefully.

• Julie Dockrell from the University of London, who investigated the poor writing skills of children with specific language impairment and found that limited vocabulary, lack of fluency and very poor spelling in particular constrain these children when trying to write.

• Anna Barnett from Oxford Brookes University who introduces details of a new handwriting speed test for educational use: the DASH.

• Charles MacArthur from the University of Delaware (USA), who reviewed research on the effects of word processing technology, and assistive technology such as spell checkers and word prediction, concluding that children need to be taught how to use electronic tools in order to gain from them.

The editor of the special monograph, Vincent Connelly from Oxford Brookes University, said: "It is very important that children become competent writers. These reviews all point out that more needs to be done so that the lessons from this latest research feed through to schools in order to support the teaching of writing and help devise new teaching methods built on the latest findings."

For individual papers in the Monograph series II, Number 6 - Teaching and Writing, contact The Media Centre, British Psychological Society. Tel: 0116 2529500, email mediacentre@bps.org.uk