Date of Award
Spring 1985
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Topetzes, Nick J.
Second Advisor
Dupuis, A.
Third Advisor
Tagatz, Glenn E.
Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate empirically strategies that the writer may employ in the revising and editing components of the process approach to written language utilizing auditory/oral feedback techniques. It has been stated that the revising and editing components are the least researched and least understood of the various stages in the process approach to written language. Yet, at the same time, these two components provide the writer with an examination and refinement of the written word. In an effort to provide a linguistic leap from spoken to written language, auditory/oral feedback techniques were employed to the revising and editing components, thus equipping the writer with skills to appraise and evaluate written language. Chapter One examines the problem and its setting. Limited prescriptive research has been generated concerning the complex nature of the composing process of written language. Articles have alluded to the importance of the teaching of writing, but few have demonstrated what linkages are necessary for the learners to become competent writers. Chapter Two focuses on the review of the literature. It was agreed that written composition, when taught effectively, involves a process beginning with pre-writing activities, sense of audience, initial drafting, peer evaluating, revising, editing, and final drafting. The literature also reveals inexperienced writers were inattentive to revising and editing the components, crucial steps in the process. Chapter Three provides information relevant to the methodology of the study. High school students not meeting the standard on a competency test of written expression were chosen. Dictation and choral readings of the exercises, reading sentences in inverted order from the writer's text, comprised editing strategies. Revising strategies included the reading of individual texts into a tape recording utilizing the monitoring mode for immediate feedback and evaluation. Chapter Four reveals statistically significant gains on the revising subsets but not editing subsets. Holistic measurement was statistically significant as a result of the revising component. For further study, revising and editing components could be researched utilizing the capabilities of a word processor. In addition, empirical evidence relating critical thinking skills to the process approach of written composition warrants attention.