Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Smith, Penelope Lee

Titel

Dimensions of audience in two composition classrooms: Reader/writer/text interactions

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

1995

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Composition theory and research suggests that a full definition of "audience" should account for readers, the reading process, writing, the writing process, texts (oral and written), and context. However, these definitional elements have remained only implicit in the literature and, therefore, have not been applied in research within composition classrooms. This study investigated dimensions of audience in two one-semester freshman composition classes taught by instructors whose teaching approaches contrasted sharply. Descriptions of each classroom were based on following three assignments for two case study students. The following types of data were collected and coded: think-aloud protocols, interviews, audiotapes of classes, observational notes of audiotaped classes, and written texts. Findings described how instructors generate assignments and distribute assignments to students; how students interpret assignments, generate preliminary ideas and plans, compose drafts, and respond to one another's writing in peer response groups; how instructors collect, read and evaluate, and return students' graded papers; and how students respond to instructors' written comments. Two central claims emerged from the specific findings. First, the distinction between reading and writing, readers and writers often collapses in practice. The process of reading involves "writing" past, present, and/or future texts, and the process of writing involves "reading" past, present, and/or future texts. Second, the distinction between oral and written discourse often collapses in practice. That is, a written text is accompanied by past, present, and/or future oral discourse which may be "spoken" internally or aloud. Thus, in order to describe dimensions of audience in a composition classroom as they are reflected at each stage of the evolution of a writing assignment, we need to: identify the texts and accompanying discourses a student or instructor reads as she is composing; identify the texts and accompanying discourses a student or instructor writes as she is reading; and characterize each act of reading and writing by describing whether past texts and accompanying discourses are invoked, present texts and accompanying discourses are examined, and/or future texts and accompanying discourses are anticipated.