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A self-questioning strategy to increase young writers' revising processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Colette Daiute*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
John Kruidenier
Affiliation:
Harvard University
*
Colette Daiute, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Larsen Hall, 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138

Abstract

Researchers who study the writing process have found that beginning writers do little spontaneous revising of their own texts. This study explores the possibility that beginning writers do not revise because they do not read their own writing. The assumption behind the study is that explicit self-questioning strategies would engage young writers in reading their texts; thus they would become more active revisers. The experimental intervention is a question-prompt computer program (added to a word processing program) that guides the 11 to 16-year-old subjects to examine their own writing by asking themselves questions about their texts. This process was intended to engage the subjects in reading the text closely and revising more extensively. Analyses of the number and nature of revisions indicate that self-reflective question-prompts engage students in reading their texts and lead to significant changes in revising strategy.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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