Feedback and Revision in Writing across the Curriculum Classes

Most studies dealing with feedback and revision focus on teachers and students in composition courses. However, there is insufficient evidence for assuming that these studies are applicable to writing situations in non-composition courses. To investigate the writing processes of non-composition students, this study describes patterns of feedback and revision in four writing across the curriculum (WAC) courses. The first and final drafts of 20 WAC students were analyzed by a team of readers to determine the following: 1) the apparent aims and criteria underlying the feedback they received on first drafts; 2) the extent to which the students utilized this feedback while revising; 3) the criteria most affected by the revisions; and 4) the extent of the revisions. Several patterns that emerged in this study resemble those found in research involving composition classrooms, although there are some differences as well. The study also highlights several issues for future research, including the source of a writer's or reader's criteria for effective writing and the comparative value of global and non-global revisions. Studies of the writing processes of composition students are legion. Notwithstanding mixed results and the elusiveness of a model sensitive to context as well as cognition, hundreds of studies provide a wealth of information about composition students' planning, feedback, revision, and the resulting products. Far less is known about the processes of students as they write for non-composition classes. Composition and non-composition students, of course, are one and the same. Composition students go on to write in history, biology, or other courses, and individual students maintain some consistent patterns across various writing situations (Kirsch, 1990; Langer, 1986; Perl, 1979). We are nonetheless aware that the nature of an academic situation can constrain writing processes for many students themselves admit - or complain - that the way they write for English teachers is not how they write for history, biology, or other teachers. Because context influences writing processes, we cannot automatically assume that research on student writing in composition classrooms informs us about writing done in writing across the curriculum (WAC) classrooms. While this study does not seek to determine cause and effect relationships between classroom contexts and writing processes, it does

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