ERIC Number: ED255928
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1985-Mar
Pages: 12
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Situated Protocols: Studying a College Student's Writing in Classroom Contexts.
McCarthy, Lucille
A study examined the writing experiences of three college students during their freshman and sophomore years to determine how students in a classroom setting determine the writing requirements of that discipline and for that teacher, and how they go about producing their writing assignments. The study used ethnographic observation and interviews, and analysis of composing protocols and student writing. The protocols were "situated" in that the researcher had observed the class for which the student was composing the paper, and what had taken place before and after the protocol draft. This knowledge was an asset as the researcher classified and counted one student's conscious concerns in the protocol/interview transcripts. The writing for the student's two courses did not appear to the researcher to be different, but the interviews and protocol data revealed that the student's chief writing concerns were different for each class; because the subject areas differed and were unfamiliar, the student did not realize that he had written papers in the required summary format before. In one instance the protocol findings contradicted the ethnographic data: the student felt he no longer needed to concentrate on getting a thesis statement and three subpoints, but on the subsequent paper he was not able to find his own essay structure. Analysis of successive drafts indicated how the composing aloud protocols served as the basis for the student's writing development. The situated composing-aloud protocols were a valuable tool for helping the researcher understand the student's writing experiences across disciplines and across time.(HTH)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A