Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Five-Paragraph Theme, Audience and Writing Evaluation

Question: What are the roles of the five-paragraph theme and audience in evaluating writing samples?

Answer/Quote: “Student writers depend on the five-paragraph theme-genre as a safe, formulaic approach to an evaluation situation. Even  so, the results of the present study indicate that sensitivity to audience provides an additional resource, beyond genre competency, upon which proficient writers draw even in writing tasks that are not manifestly persuasive.” P. 19.

Comment: Add yet another use of audience when writing-- evaluation of writing samples. Something to consider. How, as a teacher, would I use this information? The raters are professional teachers. What are the characteristics of professional teachers? That’ll take some class discussion. By the way, the author refers to audience awareness as “social cognition.” I don’t know why. RayS.

Title: “Social Cognitive Ability as a Predictor of the Quality of Expository and Persuasive Writing Among College Freshmen.” DL Rubin and BA Raforth. Research in the Teaching of English (February 1986), 9-21.

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