Do content revising goals change the revising behavior and story writing of fourth grade students at-risk for writing difficulties?

This study examined the impact of content revising goals on the revising behavior and story writing performance of fourth grade students at-risk for writing difficulties. Twenty-two students (11 boys, 11 girls) were randomly assigned to either a content revising or general revising goal condition. In the content revising goal condition, students revised four stories using each of the following content goals once: revise the story to add another character, set it on the planet Mars, place it 100 years in the future, and change the ending. In the general goal condition, students revised their four stories using a goal to make the paper better. Students wrote and revised a story before (pretest) and after (posttest) these four practice sessions using the goal to make the paper better. Using pretest scores as a covariate, students in the content revising goal condition made statistically more text-level revisions, more text-level revisions that changed meaning, and more text-level revisions rated as improved at posttest when compared to students in the general revising goal condition. The length and quality of posttest stories for students in the two different revising goal conditions did not differ statistically though. The study demonstrated that repeated application of content revising goals resulted in positive and independent changes in students’ revising behaviors. These findings also provide support for Vygotsky’s theory of the zone of proximal development.