Abstract
During the course of composition, two kinds of mental representations are built up and stored in the long-term memory. These are a representation of the text written so far, and a representation of the text as intended, which includes the whole text, not just the parts already written. (Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1986). In the present study, the research subject was requested to compose aloud. The oral data collected are the representation of the text intended; the scripts are the representation of the text written. When a discrepancy existed between the think-aloud transcription and what was on the paper, it was referred to as transformation.During writing, the research subject made transformational operations like addition, deletion, reordering or substitution, and embedding (Emig 1971; Tse, 1984). Some of the transformational operations were observed from the revisions made by the writer. Other transformational operations could only be studied by miscue analysis (Goodman 1962, Peal 1979). After writing, the subject was interviewed. He was asked to explain the reasons for the transformational operations. His transformational strategies were also studied. To a great extent, the discrepancies between the two mental representations can also indicate the difficulties encountered by the subject in writing. The investigator can compare what the writer intended to write to what he has written. If the discrepancy is great, the writer is in great difficulties, or vice versa.
[ Index | New Horizons | Other Journals | Faculty Home Page | Enquiry ]
Mail any comments and suggestions to
en@fed.cuhk.edu.hk.