Connor, Ulla, 1948-2011-08-292011-08-291990Connor, Ulla. "Linguistic/Rhetorical Measures for International Persuasive Student Writing". Research in the Teaching of English 24, no. 1 (1990): 67-87.Connor, Ulla. "Linguistic/Rhetorical Measures for International Persuasive Student Writing". August 29, 2011. Available from IUPUI ScholarWorks. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/2654.0034-527Xhttps://hdl.handle.net/1805/2654This article submitted to IUPUI ScholarWorks as part of the OASIS Project. Article reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Permission granted through posted policies on copyright owner's website or through direct contact with copyright owner.This research developed linguistic/rhetorical measures to analyze and evaluate argumentative/persuasive student writing. 150 essays written for the IEA International Study of Written Composition by high school students from three English-speaking countries were used to test these measures. In a multiple regression analysis with an impressionistic holistic rating as the dependent variable, 11 independent variables explained 61 percent of the variation in the holistic score. The Toulmin measure, credibility appeal, and the syntactic factor of Abstract versus Situated Style were the best predictors of writing quality. Implications of this research for the evaluating and teaching of argumentative/persuasive writing are discussed.en-USLinguisticStructure AnalysisStudentsWriting SkillsWriting skillsLinguistics -- ResearchArticle