Date of Defense
1985
Department
Psychology
Abstract
This project concerned the effects of tutor interaction on the English writing behavior of undergraduate and graduate level students. More specifically, the project proposed to teach a group of students the process of editing their own writing samples. The project design consisted of individual subjects either prewriting or spontaneously writing 100 to 300 word samples to be proofread by both the tutor and the student. Mutually cited were the student's first, second and third most common writing errors. These errors were systematically recorded on charts containing ten of the most common errors made by students of English writing, as they pertained to direct revision. Following these proofreading sessions, if required, the tutor would point the student to specific grammar review exercises contained in A Concise Guide for Writers (Glorfeld, 1980). If the Guide did not include the student's problem area, other commonly used books found in the Academic Skills Center's Writing Lab were substituted. After completing the review work, the student would continue to produce 100 to 300 word samples per week. The results of the repeated write-edit-(review)-write cycle indicated that utilization of tutor interaction significantly effected the ability of college level students to edit their own writing samples.
Recommended Citation
Belden, Lori Elyse, "The Psychology of English Writing: The Art of Teaching Self-Editing" (1985). Honors Theses. 1012.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses/1012
Access Setting
Honors Thesis-Campus Only