Coherence in Children's Written Narratives

JOANNE M. GOLDEN; CAROL VUKELICH

doi:10.1177/0741088389006001004

Written Communication Jan 1989

Coherence in Children's Written Narratives

JOANNE M. GOLDEN ; CAROL VUKELICH

Abstract

This study uses de Beaugrande's (1980) concept analysis system to analyze a group of children's written narratives. In addition to ascertaining the potential of this system as a means of assessing coherence, the purpose of this study was to describe how 20 third graders employed narrative concepts at the local and global levels. An analysis of a maximum of nine writing samples from each child produced in response to a weekly request to write a story revealed that (1) most children were able to establish coherence consistently at a local level, (2) children varied in their establishment of coherence across samples, (3) writing reflected degrees of coherence on a continuum from less to more coherent samples, and (4) a minority of children wrote narratives that were consistently coherent at the global level. The study also supported the value of the concept analysis system as one means of assessing coherence in written narratives.

Journal: Written Communication
Published: 1989-01-01
DOI: 10.1177/0741088389006001004
CompPile: Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access: Closed
Topics: editorial matter
Export: BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (18) · 4 in this index

Applebee, A. N.

The child's concept of story: Ages two to seventeen
10.2307/357898

↗
Bamberg (1984)

Assessing Coherence: A Reanalysis of Essays Written for the National Assessment…

Research in the Teaching of English
Cooper, C.

Research on writing: Principles and methods
de Beaugrande, R.

Text, discourse, and process

Show all 18 →

de Beaugrande, R.

Introduction to text linguistics

↗
10.2307/357897

↗
Fitzgerald et al. (1986)

Textual Cohesion and Coherence in Children’s Writing

Research in the Teaching of English
Golden, J. M. (1986)

English Research Quarterly
10.2307/377199

↗
Hasan, R.

Understanding reading comprehension
Iser, W.

The act of reading: A theory of aesthetic response
King, M.

How children learn to write: A longitudinal study
McCulley (1985)

Writing Quality, Coherence, and Cohesion

Research in the Teaching of English
Rentel, V. M.

A longitudinal study of coherence in children's written narratives
Tierney et al. (1983)

Cohesion and Textual Coherence

Research in the Teaching of English
van Dijk, T. A.

Macrostructures: An interdisciplinary study of global structures in discourse, interactio…
10.2307/356693

↗

CrossRef global citation count: 3 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Coherence in Children's Written Narratives

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

References (18) · 4 in this index

Related Articles