Selected Prewriting Treatments: Effects on Expository Compositions Written by Fifth-Grade Students

Abstract The influence of prewriting treatments on the quality of written discourse produced by 5th-grade students was the central focus of this research. Students received 1 of 4 prewriting treatments: reading paired with prewriting, prewriting-only, reading-only, or neither reading nor prewriting. Differences in the quality of the students' compositions were examined on the basis of scores obtained from a T-unit measure, a holistic rubric, and an analytic measure. The study included 5 classes of 5th-grade students randomly assigned to classes at the beginning of the school year. Four classes (n = 96) were randomly designated as treatment groups, and the 5th class (n = 24) served as a pilot group. A significant (p < .001) multivariate F-ratio indicated that type of prewriting treatment significantly affected scores on expository compositions. Reading paired with prewriting before composing was found to be the most effective prewriting instructional strategy.