Examines the relationship between syntactic complexity and quality ratings of narrative and argumentative writing of students in grades 6, 10, and 12. (HOD)

In order to determine the effects of writing for different audiences and in different modes of discourse on the syntactic complexity of compositions written by sixth and tenth grade students, 240 students were asked to write in three different modes (argumentive, descriptive, and narrative) to be read by a teacher and a best friend. There was a…

Uses Halliday and Hasan's taxonomy of cohesive devices to examine the kinds of cohesive ties used in arguments and narratives at grades 6, 10, and 12. Investigates whether there are differences between both grade levels and modes. (AEW)

The taxonomy of cohesion devised by M. A. K. Halliday and R. Hasen was used to examine the kinds of cohesive ties used in argumentative prose written by 105 sixth, tenth, and twelfth grade students. In this way, the study sought to determine whether there were differences between grade levels in the kinds of ties used and in the numbers of…

The compositions of sixth, tenth, and twelfth grade students were used to determine whether narrations or arguments of high syntactic complexity were rated higher than narrations or arguments of low syntactic complexity. Selection of the compositions was made in pairs--one of high syntactic complexity and one of low syntactic complexity--each…

Compositions in the narrative and argumentative modes of discourse were collected from 240 students (40 boys and 40 girls each from grades 6, 10, and 12) and analyzed for mean T-unit length to determine any differences in syntactic complexity across modes of discourse or grade levels. At each grade level, T-unit length was significantly greater in…