Revision of Form and Meaning in Learning to Write Comprehensible Text

Abstract

In this chapter we give a theoretical account of the roles of form and meaning in the revision process of inexperienced writers. The account is based upon theories about the writing process and cognitive constraints in working memory. From a review of empirical studies of children’s revising skills, it appears that their attention is almost exclusively focused on form related issues whereas revision on the level of meaning seldom occurs. We present a model in which the roles of form and meaning in revision on local and global text levels are systematically described. Next we explore the implications for instruction in which two dimensions of learning are distinguished: “explicitness of instruction” and “focus of instruction.” We go into the feasibility of facilitating linguistic fluency in order to improve meaningoriented revision processes. Finally some questions for further research into the effectiveness of instructional conditions are raised.