A comparative evaluation on silent and read-aloud revisions of written drafts

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the effect of silent and read-aloud revision methods on revising the written drafts of students. In the study, 50 fourth-grade university students took part as the participants of the research. The participant students were asked to write two different drafts with 250-300 words each during data collection process. Consequently, they were asked to revise the first text silently and the second one aloud. The drafts written were copied and reviewed by two different experts, and deviations to be corrected or improved were marked on the papers and annotations were added where necessary. Marks and annotations provided by the two experts were recorded on the “form for identifying and classifying the deviations in written texts” previously developed by the researchers. The participants’ self-evaluations of their own texts were recorded on the same form. The data noted on the form were transferred to the statistical program to analyze. Frequency, percentage, mean scores, paired samples t-test were utilized in the data analysis, and p?.05 was set to be the significance level in the interpretation of the results. The result of the data analysis illustrated that the participants had moderate revision skills; their read-aloud revision as a surface evaluation and their silent revision as a semantic evaluation were found more functional.