Journal of Advanced Composition, Volume 4, 1983 Page: 6
230 p. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Journal of Advanced Composition
tion Studies and Science" (College English, 45, January 1983, 1-
20). And Michael Holzman has assessed the sentence-combining
movement in terms of its scientific bases in "Scientism and
Sentence-Combining" (CCC, 34, February 1983, 73-79). Their
general conclusions about the applicability and reliability of
social sciences methodology are the same that I draw here, but
neither article focusses on composing process research,
particularly protocol analysis.
For writing teachers, the majority of whom were actually
trained in the humanistic study of literature, it may seem un-
necessary to raise a caution about borrowing prestige from
science. Nonetheless, we live in an age that reveres science,
particularly the "hard" sciences whose empirical rigor and tech-
nological advances have provided dazzling, life-changing
results. Science enjoys a cachet unmatched by any other type of
study in our society, a cachet deservedly earned in the laboratory
sciences, but not in the social sciences. I mean no slight of social
sciences here, but want only to remind that research methodolo-
gy in the social sciences is not empirical in any strict sense and
therefore not capable of generating the kind of objective and
precise resultant knowledge possible in the laboratory sciences.
And the "science-based" research in composition studies has de-
rived from social science. Research on the composing processes
of students, particularly protocol analysis, is based upon case-
study methodology from psychology.
In case-study research of students' composing processes,
no one study has been more influential than Janet Emig's The
Composing Processes of Twelfth Graders (NCTE, 1971). Emig's
study provides the general case-study model followed by many
researchers of student composing processes since 1971. Essen-
tially, this method involves tape-recording student answers to
questions about their composing procedures on various writing
projects, or, in later studies, taping their utterances while they
are actually in the process of composing (when they have been
asked to "compose aloud"). Emig and her many successors have
tried to avoid any sort of prompting or other intervention, in
order to be able to record evidence that derives as much as
possible solely from the students as they deal with the writing
task at hand. Trying not to intervene, however, is not the same
as avoiding actual intervention. The case-study situation itself,
the tape recorder, and the unnatural business of "composing
aloud" create contextual variables that make empirical
objectivity in any "pure science" sense impossible. I have dis-6
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Lally, Tim D. P. Journal of Advanced Composition, Volume 4, 1983, periodical, 1987; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc28596/m1/12/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .