This qualitative study sought to discover how students evaluate their progress in writing. Previous research has addressed self-evaluation of single compositions and of writing ability, but no study has focused on students' perceptions of their own development as writers. / My study examined 11th- and 12th-graders' interpretations of their progress--through grades, teacher commentary, peer response, comparison with other student writers, and their own knowledge based on experience in reading and writing. Student "beliefs," compiled from interviews and informal discussions with writers over a period of nearly five months, revealed assumptions about writing progress strongly influenced by instruction and teacher expectations. / The students were generally accurate in their self-evaluation, but were not able to articulate a complex understanding of themselves as writers. They were conscious of problems they had solved and ways that their writing had improved, but most were not taking themselves seriously as writers or making efforts to accelerate their improvement. Very few writers were practiced at independent strategies of self-evaluation and revision so critically linked to development. / Three case studies were contrasted with patterns in the class as a whole to distinguish developmental characteristics. Students' use of terms and consciousness of problems contribute to an understanding of writing improvement that is highly variable. The findings suggest that meaningful diagnostic evaluation, instructional planning, and negotiated summative evaluation depend on the knowledge writers build of their own processes of growth in writing. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: A, page: 1359. / Major Professor: Gordon Brossell. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76295 |
| Contributors | Evangelista, Lisa Catherine., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 243 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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