The Effects of Content and Audience Awareness Goals for Revision on the Persuasive Essays of Fifth- and Eighth-Grade Students
Midgette, Ekaterina; Haria, Priti; MacArthur, Charles (2008). Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, v21 n1-2 p131-151. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ785479
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examining107Students, grade8
Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively
Review Details
Reviewed: October 2019
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Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively Practice Guide
(findings for Secondary Writing)
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Meets WWC standards without reservations because it is a randomized controlled trial with low attrition.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Tone |
Secondary Writing vs. General goal comparison condition |
0 Days |
Content and Audience Awareness Goal (intervention) v. General Goal (comparison);
|
1.23 |
1.24 |
No |
-- | |
|
Audience engagement |
Secondary Writing vs. General goal comparison condition |
0 Days |
Content and Audience Awareness Goal (intervention) v. General Goal (comparison);
|
0.39 |
0.53 |
No |
-- |
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Opposing reasons |
Secondary Writing vs. General goal comparison condition |
0 Days |
Content and Audience Awareness Goal (intervention) v. General Goal (comparison);
|
1.55 |
0.15 |
Yes |
|
|
|
Rebuttals |
Secondary Writing vs. General goal comparison condition |
0 Days |
Content and Audience Awareness Goal (intervention) v. General Goal (comparison);
|
1.03 |
0.08 |
Yes |
|
|
|
Elaboration of reasons |
Secondary Writing vs. General goal comparison condition |
0 Days |
Content and Audience Awareness Goal (intervention) v. General Goal (comparison);
|
2.27 |
1.78 |
No |
-- | |
|
Reasons |
Secondary Writing vs. General goal comparison condition |
0 Days |
Content and Audience Awareness Goal (intervention) v. General Goal (comparison);
|
3.60 |
3.10 |
No |
-- | |
|
Position |
Secondary Writing vs. General goal comparison condition |
0 Days |
Content and Audience Awareness Goal (intervention) v. General Goal (comparison);
|
2.53 |
2.44 |
No |
-- |
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Coherence |
Secondary Writing vs. General goal comparison condition |
0 Days |
Content and Audience Awareness Goal (intervention) v. General Goal (comparison);
|
1.25 |
0.90 |
Yes |
|
|
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Overall Persuasiveness |
Secondary Writing vs. General goal comparison condition |
0 Days |
Content and Audience Awareness Goal (intervention) v. General Goal (comparison);
|
3.89 |
3.39 |
Yes |
|
|
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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Suburban, Urban
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Race Asian 5% Black 45% White 33% -
Ethnicity Hispanic 17% Not Hispanic or Latino 83%
Study Details
Setting
The study took place in one public elementary school and two public middle schools in an urban/suburban school district in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
Study sample
The analytic sample was composed of 60 boys and 47 girls. Forty-five percent were African American, 33 percent were Caucasian, 17 percent were Hispanic, and five percent were Asian. The report presents SES information at the school level; 29 percent of the students at the participating elementary school and 39 percent of the students at the two participating middle schools came from low income families as indicated by eligibility for the free or reduced price lunch programs. No students had disabilities or were English learners.
Intervention Group
From the previous MRG: The study was carried out in two sessions. The authors do not report the duration of each session or the amount of time between sessions. In the first session, all students were asked to write a persuasive essay on a prompt in intact classroom groups. In the second session, the students in the three conditions were physically separated into three rooms. In each condition, the students were asked to reread their essays and revise their papers according to their assigned group condition. Students in the general goal condition were given a general goal and guidelines for improving their essays (e.g. “make any changes that you think would improve the essay”). Students in the content goal condition were given a content goal and guidelines that instructed them to think of additional reasons to support their opinions and of examples and evidence to support their reasons. In addition to receiving a content-oriented goal and related guidelines, students in the content and audience awareness condition were given an audience awareness goal and guidelines that instructed them to think who might disagree with their opinion, what reasons those people might give, and how to defend their own opinion. Students in each condition were given specific guidelines to revise their essays.
Comparison Group
See above.
Support for implementation
The report does not discuss support for implementation.
Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers
Review Details
Reviewed: June 2012
- Randomized Controlled Trial
- Meets WWC standards without reservations
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
-
Female: 48%
Male: 52% -
Suburban, Urban
-
Race Asian 4% Black 30% White 53% -
Ethnicity Hispanic 13% Not Hispanic or Latino 87%
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