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Development in story writing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Aviva Freedman
Aviva Freedman*
Affiliation:
Carleton University
*
Aviva Freedman, Linguistics, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6
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Abstract

This study describes development in the realization of story structure in the written productions of schoolchildren at three grade levels (5, 8, and 12) when writing in two different modes: true stories and invented. The scripts analysed were randomly selected from the compositions produced by the entire population of the three grade levels in one Canadian Board (7,500 students). The instrument of analysis was based on the story grammar developed by Stein and Glenn (1979). The analysis revealed: (a) there is development by age in the degree of realization of an “ideal form” of story schema, that is, one involving some setting information plus one complete episode; (b) the rate of development differs depending on whether stories are true or invented; (c) patterns of such development are complex and cannot be represented by a steady curve upward.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , June 1987 , pp. 153 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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