ERIC Number: ED235481
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1981
Pages: 35
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Effect of an Assigned Rhetorical Context on the Holistic Quality and Syntax of the Writing of High and Low Ability College Writers.
McAndrew, Donald A.
To determine what effect the perceived audience and purpose of a written piece has on its quality, 30 high ability and 30 low ability writers were selected on the basis of a college placement examination and instructed to write two essays. Half of the students were given specific rhetorical contexts (audience and purpose) as well as topics. Holistic evaluations of the essays indicated that (1) high ability students produced higher quality writing and low ability students produced lower quality writing regardless of the task assigned, and (2) the presence or absence of an assigned rhetorical context produced no significant difference in writing quality or use of syntactic structures. One possible explanation for the lack of interaction between writing quality and described rhetorical context is that all students were writing in response to the real rhetorical situation--a writing course controlled by an instructor. (MM)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Researchers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A