In 1986 I was fortunate to get not only some samples of the writing of fourth, seventh, eighth, and ninth grade writers, but also their scores on national standardized tests. Although the samples are small, I used the data to explore the nature of natural syntactic development, and I compared it to what I found in both literature and science textbooks that were written for those students. Since then, I have regularly complained that we need more such studies, based on larger samples, and that the data should be made available for anyone to check (or use for other research studies). This area of my web sites presents a revision of that study, with the data reworked based on what I have learned since 1986. The primary purpose of this site is to show that similar, larger studies are worth pursuing. I have, however, presented the data, including transcripts of the students' writing and my analysis of it, in such a way that teachers can use it either for their own edification or as exercises in their classrooms.

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