Characteristics of Graded and Ungraded Compositions.

positions? Do we want students to activate their knowledge of grammar in order to produce error-free compositions? Do we want them to concentrate on producing sentences that will most effectively convey their ideas? Do we want them to focus their attention on both grammar and meaning? Or do we have in mind more general objectives such as clarity of expression, organization, and content? Traditionally, foreign language teachers have assigned compositions at the end of grammarbased chapters as a means of testing their students' ability to utilize recently learned grammar to prepare an error-free product. They read the compositions and marked the errors. They then returned the graded papers to the students, either hoping that they would study the corrections in order to eliminate those errors