ERIC Number: EJ1028445
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0671
EISSN: N/A
"Im Gonna Tell You All about It": Authorial Voice and Conventional Skills in Writing Assessment and Educational Practice
Humphrey, Regan C.; Walton, Marsha D.; Davidson, Alice J.
Journal of Educational Research, v107 n2 p111-122 2014
Writing assessments have attended to the mechanics of writing, reflecting a value on the teaching of writing conventions. One quality of writing rarely assessed is authorial voice, a personal style that communicates the author's stance toward events reported and the author's relationship to the audience. The authors explore associations among authorial voice, writing mechanics, and academic performance. In the fall and spring of 1 academic year, 115 third- through fifth-grade students wrote personal narratives that were coded for 2 measures of mechanics and 4 measures of authorial voice. Students and teachers completed measures of academic performance. Mechanics, but not voice, predicted academic performance. The authors suggest that mechanics-focused state standards discourage authorial voice, and they propose attention to voice as a springboard to develop other writing skills.
Descriptors: Elementary School Students, Writing Evaluation, Academic Achievement, Writing Skills, Authors, Personal Narratives, Elementary School Teachers, Literary Styles, Expressive Language, Metacognition, Metalinguistics, Cultural Influences, Student Surveys, Measures (Individuals), Likert Scales, Reliability, Academic Ability, Peer Evaluation, Reputation, Correlation, Factor Analysis, Curriculum Development
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Grade 3; Grade 4; Grade 5
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A