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This study develops an integrated reading/writing curriculum for the "new" college students. It is based on four assumptions. The first is that the reading of long, complete selections (books, speeches, essays) facilitates comprehension. The second is that the writing of at least three-hundred word essays improves writing ability. The third is that writing is a recursive process. The last is that collaborative learning is valuable because it enables students and teachers to share power and responsibility for planning and evaluating not only course content but also student and teacher performances. The assumptions are derived mainly from the cognitive structure theory of Frank Smith and the non-directive psychological theory of Carl Rogers. The humanist approach of Carl Rogers is applied to the pedagogical process by Rogers himself; Richard Young, Alton Becker, and Kenneth Pike; Kenneth Bruffee; and Peter Elbow. Psycholinguistic and particular composition and writing theories are cited to support the theories of Smith and Rogers. All these theories explore how one grows in understanding and becomes a mature reader and writer. The research leads to instructional principles, and from them, 1 developed the rationale for the content of the curriculum, the procedure for selecting materials, and the eight course components. The integrated reading/writing curriculum includes these components: 1) Orientation; 2) Assigned Readings; 3) Personal Reading; 4) Informal Writing; 5) Formal Writing; 6) Conferences; 7) Special Help; and 8) Evaluation. Each of the components includes an overview, materials needed, teacher's goals, student goals (surmised), proposed activities, and evaluation by teacher and students. The proposed curriculum is complete and ready for use as a pattern in an actual classroom. The study analyzes the curriculum to see if it has remained true to its theoretical base. I develop analysis criteria for the instructional principles and the course components are duly analyzed according to these criteria. The results show that the curriculum did reflect the theoretical foundation. I conclude that it is not only possible to develop a curriculum from a theoretical base, but that it is possible to develop a non-directive, humanities-based curriculum for non-traditional students, in a formal educational setting. Such a course of study can include components which help these students learn how to improve their reading and writing abilities. For further research, I suggest that the curriculum could be field tested in both urban and rural settings. I also suggest that others may wish to experiment with different humanist and/or liberal arts based curricula. / Ed. D.

published_or_final_version / English Studies and Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Arts

This thesis attempts to determine if the acquisition of rhetorical and grammatical skills such as a sense of audience and organization are best attained through an alternate pedagogy based on a methodology from Wendy Bishop or if they are better attained through a traditional approach.

A theoretical construct for examining the use of reading in composing, developed from the literature review and pilot study, was tested using audio-videotaped protocols of students composing two drafts of an essay, followed by retrospective interviews. Fifteen skilled and fifteen unskilled college writers, so designated by tests and a writing sample given by the English department, participated in the study at a rural, two-year technical college in a Sunbelt state during the 1984-85 school year. The construct for examining reading in composing included the focus of reading: word, multi-word, sentence, multi-sentence, paragraph, multi-paragraph, and draft levels; the purpose of reading: to verify, clarify, provide direction, edit, or refresh memory; the effect (or outcome) of reading: no/change or change, using Faigley and Witte's revision classification scheme to describe changes; and the amount of reading, which was a count of all occurrences of reading. The construct was useful in identifying the aspects of reading in composing. Thus, a major benefit of the study is empirical data on reading-in-composing for both skilled and unskilled writers. A profile of each group's use of reading was developed. Then a comparison of reading by the two groups was made using chi-square and percents. The findings revealed that (1) 29 of the 30 students were readers of their texts; (2) the skilled writers wrote and read twice as much as the unskilled writers did, but the proportion in both drafts was the same; (3) reading occurred within and between drafts for both groups; (4) both groups read most often at the multi-word level; (5) both groups read for all five purposes and when ranked by frequency, the order was the same for both groups; (6) the effect of reading differed significantly in the no-change/change categories with the skilled writers making more changes. Findings which were statistically significant included: the size of the corpus; the focus of reading; the difference in no-change/change decisions; and the categories of change at surface, meaning-preserving and meaning-changing levels. The study confirmed that writing is a recursive process with reading as a major component and that both skilled and unskilled writers are readers of their texts. The study revealed that protocol analysis and the Faigley and Witte classification scheme for revision can work well together. Second, the amount, focus, purpose, and effect of reading can be examined through thinking-aloud composing protocols. Third, reading is a more appropriate term than re-reading to describe the reading which occurs during the composing process. / Ed. D.

In this study, I examine two writing samples using a heuristic based on Richard A. Lanham's definition of bureaucratic writing in Revising Business Prose: noun-centered, abstract, passive-voiced, dense, and vague. I apply a heuristic to bureaucratic writing to see if Lanham's definition holds and if the writing aids or hinders the information flow necessary to democracy. After analyzing the samples for nominalizations, concrete/abstract terms, active/passive verbs, clear/unclear agents, textual density, and vague text/writers' accountability, I conclude that most of Lanham's definition holds; vague writing hinders the democratic process by not being accountable; and bureaucratic writing is expensive. Writers may humanize bureaucracies by becoming accountable. A complete study requires more samples from a wider source.

This protocol-based case study research explored the general composing and thinking processes of five Thai EFL high school subjects who, while verbalizing their thoughts, composed in the first language (L1), Thai, and in the second language (L2), English. The composing sessions were audiotaped and videotaped; these tapes were then transcribed, translated, and coded for analysis, along with notes, drafts, and the written compositions.The L1/L2 protocol data yielded a number of interesting findings. Most subjects had a purpose in mind while composing their texts, but had little concern for the audience. Individually, each subject displayed a unitary composing style across languages, tending to compose in the Li and the L2 similarly, with minor variations. This suggests that composing knowledge and skills of the L1 were probably transferred to the composing in the L2.As a group, the subjects wrote the Li compositions in a similar manner, manifesting mental planning and reliance on internal resources, as they alternated among writing, repeating, and rehearsing. The L2 compositions gradually emerged with frequent repetitions and brief pauses, and the L2 composing processes seem to be constrained by the subjects' imperfect mastery of the L2.In addition, when they stumbled on L2 lexis, grammar, and mechanics, the subjects mainly employed the L1. Use of the L1 seemed to facilitate the subjects’ writing in the L2 a great deal. In both the L1 and the L2 compositions, the subjects tended to comment and repeat portions of texts in words, rehearse in phrases, and engage in other composing activities at the sentence level. The translated segments which occurred in the English protocols were at the phrase level.A tentative composing process model of these Thai EFL subjects is proposed; implications for EFL composition instruction and suggestions for further research are also provided. / Department of English

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