Date of Award

1985

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Abstract

This investigation attempted to profile the audience awareness of gifted and non-gifted fifth graders. At three writing sessions, students wrote to a friend, a teacher, and an editor, persuading each to go to the park. Compositions were examined for syntactic complexity, according to t-units, and for the kinds and numbers of persuasive appeals used. A repeated measures design with a 2 x 3 factorial arrangement of between subject treatments (group and sex) and a single repeated factor (audience at three levels) was used. The dependent variables were examined using ANOVA. Results were tested for significance at the .05 level. The significant findings were: (1) Students established context for writing and used environmental appeals most when writing to an editor and least when writing to a friend. (2) Boys established context for writing more than girls when writing to a friend and to a teacher. Girls, however, established context for writing more than boys when writing to an editor. (3) Gifted students established context for writing more than girls when writing to a friend and to a teacher. However, non-gifted students established context for writing more frequently than gifted students when writing to an editor. (4) Students used interpersonal appeals most when writing to a friend and least when writing to a teacher. (5) Girls used interpersonal appeals more than boys. (6) Students used simple requests, reservations, and societal appeals most when writing to a friend and least when writing to an editor. (7) Students used imperatives and intensifiers most when writing to an editor and least when writing to a teacher. (8) Boys used a wider range of appeal types than girls when writing to a friend and a teacher. Girls, however, used a wider range of appeal types than boys when writing to an editor. (9) Gifted students used more target oriented appeals and a wider range of appeal types than non-gifted students. Results showed strong evidence of fifth graders' awareness of audience. Students' compositions also suggest the importance of the assignment topic and the influence of students' previous experiences.

Pages

240

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.4139

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