Written Communication Apr 1987

Editing Strategies and Error Correction in Basic Writing

DEBORAH McCUTCHEN ; GLYNDA A. HULL ; WILLIAM L. SMITH

Abstract

Two studies investigated the editing strategies used by college basic writing (BW) students as they went about correcting sentence-level errors in controlled editing tasks. One study involved simple word processing, and a second involved an interactive editor that supplemented the word-processing program, giving students feedback on their correction attempts and helping them focus on the errors. In both studies BW students showed two clearly different editing strategies, a consulting strategy in which grammatical rules were consulted and an intuiting strategy in which the sound of the text was assessed for “goodness” in a rather naturalistic way. Students consistently used their intuiting strategies more effectively; however, errors requiring consulting strategies showed a larger improvement after intervention by the interactive editor. Cognitive implications of the editing strategies are discussed in terms of the requisite knowledge involved in successful application of each strategy.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1987-04-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088387004002002
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
basic writing voice and style digital rhetoric grammar and mechanics
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References (6) · 1 in this index

  1. 10.2307/356486
     ↗
  2. Hull, G. A.
    Research in the Teaching of English
  3. Hull, G. A.
    Writing on-line: Using computers in the teaching of writing
  4. Perl (1979)
    The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers
    Research in the Teaching of English
  5. Shaughnessy, M.
    Errors and expectations: A guide for the teacher of basic writing
Show all 6 →
  1. Smith, W. L.
    conference of the National Council of Teachers of English
CrossRef global citation count: 16 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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