Selected Prewriting Treatments: Effects on Expository Compositions Written by Fifth-Grade Students

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-1-1999

Department

Educational Studies and Research

Abstract

The influence of prewriting treatments on the quality of written discourse produced by 5th-grade students was the central focus of this research. Students received 1 of 4 prewriting treatments: reading paired with prewriting, prewriting-only, reading-only, or neither reading nor prewriting, Differences in the quality of the students' compositions were examined on the basis of scores obtained from a T-unit measure, a holistic rubric, and an analytic measure, The study included 5 classes of 5th-grade students randomly assigned to classes at the beginning of the school year. Four classes (n = 96) were randomly designated as treatment groups, and the 5th class (n = 24) served as a pilot group, A significant (p < .001) multivariate F-ratio indicated that type of prewriting treatment significantly affected scores on expository compositions. Reading paired with prewriting before composing was found to be the most effective prewriting instructional strategy.

Publication Title

Journal of Experimental Education

Volume

68

Issue

1

First Page

5

Last Page

20

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