Investigating Instruction for Improving Revision of Argumentative Essays

Written Communication Jan 2011

Investigating Instruction for Improving Revision of Argumentative Essays

Jodie A. Butler Northern Illinois University ; M. Anne Britt Northern Illinois University

Abstract

Students are expected to come into the current college classroom already possessing certain skills including the ability to write at the appropriate academic level regardless of discipline and the ability to create well-structured arguments. Research indicates, however, that most students entering college are underprepared in both areas. One strategy that may help students write at a more academic level is teaching students to focus on spending their time on revision. In the current study, we examine two potential sources of difficulty in the revision of argumentative essays: a poorly developed argument schema and a poorly developed global revision task schema. We created and tested the effectiveness of two written tutorials designed to provide college students information to saturate their knowledge base as well as provide them with procedural tasks to complete. We found that without instruction, students focused their revisions on making local wording changes that did not qualitatively improve their essays. An argument tutorial helped students make higher level global changes, include more argument content, and improve the structure of the essay. A global revision tutorial also helped students make more substantive structural changes. Thus, both tutorials helped students improve their revisions, and the tutorials were completed independently by the students successfully.

Journal: Written Communication
Published: 2011-01-01
DOI: 10.1177/0741088310387891
Open Access: Closed
Topics: multimodality multilingual writers revision

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (4)

Li (2025)

Self-Regulated Strategy Development With and Without Peer Interaction: Improvin…

Written Communication
Backman et al. (2023)

Beyond Structure: Using the Rational Force Model to Assess Argumentative Writing

Written Communication
Holcomb et al. (2018)

First-Year Composition as “Big Data”: Towards Examining Student Revisions at Scale

Computers and Composition
Kuhn et al. (2016)

Tracing the Development of Argumentive Writing in a Discourse-Rich Context

Written Communication

Cites in this index (9)

Wolfe et al. (2009)

Argumentation Schema and the Myside Bias in Written Argumentation

Written Communication
Jones (2008)

Patterns of Revision in Online Writing

Written Communication
Myhill et al. (2007)

More Than Just Error Correction

Written Communication
Freedman (1993)

Show and Tell? The Role of Explicit Teaching in the Learning of New Genres

Research in the Teaching of English
Hill et al. (1991)

Revising on-line: Computer technologies and the revising process

Computers and Composition

Show all 9 →

Wallace et al. (1991)

Redefining Revision for Freshmen

Research in the Teaching of English
McCann (1989)

Student Argumentative Writing Knowledge and Ability at Three Grade Levels

Research in the Teaching of English
Bridwell (1980)

Revising Strategies in Twelfth Grade Students’ Transactional Writing

Research in the Teaching of English
Pianko (1979)

A Description of the Composing Processes of College Freshman Writers

Research in the Teaching of English

Also cites 35 works outside this index ↓

10.1111/j.1467-9817.2009.01432.x

↗
10.1016/0749-596X(88)90054-X

↗
10.1007/BF01464075

↗
10.2307/748198

↗
10.1207/S15326950DP3401_4

↗
10.1007/BF03172827

↗
10.1037/0022-0663.92.4.694

↗
10.3102/00346543057004481

↗
10.2307/357381

↗
10.1007/978-94-007-1048-1_5

↗
10.1037/0022-0663.74.4.557

↗
10.1080/01638539409544891

↗
10.1177/001872088402600308

↗
10.1037/0022-0663.87.2.230

↗
10.1037/0022-0663.99.3.445

↗
10.1037/0003-066X.41.10.1106

↗
10.1348/096317906X120231

↗
10.1080/01638539409544892

↗
10.1017/CBO9780511571350

↗
10.1111/1467-8624.00605

↗
10.1007/978-94-007-1048-1_8

↗
10.1207/S15326985EP3501_3

↗
10.1037/0022-0663.89.4.667

↗
10.1016/0749-596X(85)90057-9

↗
10.1007/s11145-007-9067-9

↗
10.1007/BF00182257

↗
10.1080/00377990209599887

↗
10.1037/0022-0663.97.2.157

↗
10.1037/0022-0663.77.5.562

↗
10.1007/978-94-007-1048-1_3

↗
10.2307/356588

↗
Stein, N.L. & Miller, C.A. ( 1993). The development of memory and reasoning skill in argumentative contexts: …

↗
10.1016/0959-4752(91)90013-X

↗
10.1037/0022-0663.88.4.682

↗
10.1080/13546780701527674

↗

CrossRef global citation count: 56 View in citation network →