Dealing effectively with L2 writers requires a clear understanding of the nature of L2 writing. In an attempt to develop such an understanding, 72 reports of empirical research comparing L1 and L2 writing were examined. The findings of this research indicate a number of salient differences between L1 and L2 writing with regard to both composing processes (and subprocesses: planning, transcribing, and reviewing) and features of written texts (fluency, accuracy, quality, and structure, i.e., discoursal, morphosyntactic, and lexicosemantic). Implications of the findings for L2 and L1 writing theory; future comparative writing research; and the practical concerns of assessment, placement, staffing, and instruction are discussed.

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Mitochondrial genomes of vertebrates are generally thought to evolve under strong selection for size reduction and gene order conservation. Therefore, a growing number of mitogenomes with duplicated regions changes our view on the genome evolution. Among Aves, order Psittaciformes (parrots) is especially noteworthy because of its large morphological, ecological, and taxonomical diversity, which offers an opportunity to study genome evolution in various aspects. Former analyses showed that tandem duplications comprising the control region with adjacent genes are restricted to several lineages in which the duplication occurred independently. However, using an appropriate polymerase chain reaction strategy, we demonstrate that early diverged parrot groups contain mitogenomes with the duplicated region. These findings together with mapping duplication data from other mitogenomes onto parrot phylogeny indicate that the duplication was an ancestral state for Psittaciformes. The state was inherited by main parrot groups and was lost several times in some lineages. The duplicated regions were subjected to concerted evolution with a frequency higher than the rate of speciation. The duplicated control regions may provide a selective advantage due to a more efficient initiation of replication or transcription and a larger number of replicating genomes per organelle, which may lead to a more effective energy production by mitochondria. The mitogenomic duplications were associated with phenotypic features and parrots with the duplicated region can live longer, show larger body mass as well as predispositions to a more active flight. The results have wider implications on the presence of duplications and their evolution in mitogenomes of other avian groups.

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I conducted semi-structured interviews with ten American rural, white, straight-identified men who have sex with men to understand how they perceive their sexual identity and sexual behaviour. All ten tell other people that they identify as straight, and eight actually identify as straight. I detail three main themes: changes to sexual attractions, reasons for identifying as straight, and the meanings attached to sexual behaviour with other men. Half of the participants reported experiencing major changes to their sexual attractions, challenging the assumption that male sexuality is static. They described several reasons for identifying as straight, demonstrating that attractions and behaviour are not the only bases for sexual identity. The participants also explained that they experience sex with men in a variety of ways, many of which reinforce their straight identity. The results indicate that heterosexuality is a performance, rather than a natural expression of sexuality, and that interpretations-not just attractions and behaviour-are central to being straight.