Learning to Write Instructive Texts by Reader Observation and Written Feedback

Abstract

Can young writers enhance the quality of their texts by observing real readers trying to comprehend them? What do these writers learn from such observations? In this chapter the authors suggest that writing instruction can be made more effective by making communication failures and successes observable. To a certain extent, writers are blind to the communicative failures in their texts since they have all the prior knowledge to fill in the gaps. On-line observation of readers may help them in detecting these gaps, and in learning to repair or avoid them.

An experiment is carried out in which four groups of students write an instructional text and receive different types of feedback for revision: self-evaluation, reader observation, reader observation with written comments from the reader, and reader observation of an unknown text. Effects are assessed on revision quality and on learning (knowledge of criteria for successful communication). Results show that all three observation conditions were more effective than the self-evaluation condition, and that observation supported by written comments was most effective with respect to both text quality and learning. Moreover, the readers who formulated these comments outscored the other readers on writing a first version of a similar text; they also could recall more criteria for successful writing.