This study explored the development of students' written story structure over a three-year period. Twenty longitudinal writing files, each containing three science fiction stories written at the end of students' grade 3, 4, and 5 years, were studied. The idea development of these sixty stories (20 written at each grade-level) was examined through the use of two methodologies, a genre-independent Idea Analysis, and a genre-specific Narrative Analysis. These analyses were used to explore three aspects of idea structure: (a) idea production, (b) idea elaboration, and (c) narrative structure {i.e., setting, character, and plot development}. / In the area of idea production, the following trends were identified: (a) significant growth from grades 3 to 5 in the number of idea units in students' stories, with a sharp increase in idea-unit production from grades 4 to 5, (b) steady growth in the proportion of embedded {i.e., complex} idea units in students' stories, and (c) steady growth in the proportion of Internal -State units {i.e., descriptions of story-characters' thoughts and feelings}. In the area of idea elaboration, proportions of both Descriptor- and Constraint-use remained stable across grades; in contrast, proportions of Rationale-use (a more specialized form of idea elaboration) increased steadily from grade to grade. Description was the highest-frequency of these three forms of idea elaboration, and the only one used universally by students. In the area of narrative structure, the number of setting elements in students' story openings increased steadily from grade to grade, with particularly strong emphasis on delivery of setting information in grade 5. Character description and narrative goal-setting means also increased steadily from grade to grade; however, within-grade variability was noted. The possibility that dialogue-use mediates growth in these two areas was explored informally. The developmental and instructional implications of these findings were discussed, and recommendations made for future study.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.35613 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Senecal, Lynn. |
| Contributors | Bracewell, Robert (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001610903, proquestno: NQ44577, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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