Connors and Lunsford Essay

8/12/2019 Connors and Lunsford Essay

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Frequency of Formal Errors in CurrentCollege Writing, orMa and Pa Kettle Do Research

Robert J Connors and !ndrea ! "unsfbrd

Proem:#n Which the Characters !re #ntroduced

$he labyrinthine %ro&ect of 'hich this research is a %art re%resents an ongoing acti(ity for us, something 'e engage inbecause 'e li)e to 'or) together, ha(e a long friendshi%, and share many interests !s 'e 'or)ed on this error researchtogether, ho'e(er, 'e started some'here along the line to feel less and less li)e the 'hite*coated Researchers of our dreamsand more and more li)e characters 'e called Ma and Pa Kettle+good*hearted bumblers stri(ing to understand a 'orld'hose com%leity 'as more than a little daunting -eing fans of classical rhetoric, prosopopoeia, letteraturizzazione,andthe li)e, as 'ell as enthusiasts for intertetuality,plaisir de texte, differance,etc, 'e offer this account of our tra(ails+'itha%ologies to Mar&orie Main and Percy Kil*bride

Exordium:$he Kettles .mell a Problem

Mar)ing and &udging formal and mechanical errors in student %a%ers is one area in 'hich com%osition studies seems to ha(ea multi%le*%ersonality disorder Onthe one hand, our mello', student*centered, %rocess*based sel(es tend to condemnmar)ing formal errors at all Doing it re%resents the -ad OldDays Ms Fidditch and Mr Flutesnoot 'ith shar%ened red%encils, s%illing innocent blood across the %age /seless detail 'or) #nhumane, %erfectionist standards, ma)ing ourstudents feel stu%id, 'rong, tri(ial, misunderstood Jose%h Williams has %ointed out ho' arbitrary and contet*bound our&udgments of formal error are !nd certainly our noting of errors on student %a%ers gi(es no one any great &oy0 as PeterElbo' says, English is most

Robert J Connors is an associate %rofessor of English at the /ni(ersity of 1e' 2am%shire $he author of many articles on rhetorical history andtheory, he 'as the 'inner of the 3456 Richard -raddoc) !'ard !ndrea ! "unsford is %rofessor of English and 7ice*Chair for Rhet oric and Com%ositionat $he 8hio .tate /ni(ersity .he has %ublished numerous articles and 'as co*'inner, 'ith "isa Ede, of the 3459 Richard -raddoc) !'ard -ob and!ndrea are coauthors of the forthcoming St. Martin's Handbook.

College Com%osition and Communication, 7ol :4, 1o ;, December 3455 :49


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396 College Composition and Communication 39 (December 1988)

often associated either'ith grammar or 'ith high literature+s error, or

miss%elled common 'ord distracts us .o our more traditional %edagogical sel(es feel a touch

guilty 'hen 'e ignore student error %atterns altogether, e(en in the sacrosanct drafting .tage

of com%osing 1ot e(en the most liberal of %rocess*oriented teachers com%letely ignores the%roblem of mechanical and formal errors !s Mina .haughnessy %ut it, errors are


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frequency of formal Errors in Current College Writing 397

it 'as carried on informally $eachers had -eginning around 343B, ho'e(er, teachers and

educational researchers began trying to taonomiAe errors and chart their frequency $he great

heyday of error*frequency seems to ha(e occurred bet'een 3439 and 34:9 During those t'o

decades, no fe'er than thirty studies of error frequency 'ere conducted6 /nfortunately, mostof these studies 'ere fla'ed in some 'ay too small a data sam%le, too regional a data sam%le,

different definitions of errors, faulty methodologies ?2ara% ;;B@ Most early error research is

hard to understand today because the researchers used terms 'idely understood at the time but

no' incom%rehensible or at best strange .ome of the studies 'ere (ery seriously conducted,

ho'e(er, and deser(e further discussion later in this %a%er

!fter the middle 34:Bs, error*frequency research 'aned as the %rogressi(e*education

mo(ement gained strength and the s 'or) 'ith basic 'riters in the

34Bs 'ere ne' and shoc)ing to many teachers of 'riting We sensed that the time had come

for a study that 'ould attem%t to ans'er t'o questions ?3@ 'hat are the most common

%atterns of student 'riting errors being made in the 345Bs in the /nited .tates, and ?6@ 'hich

of these %atterns are mar)ed most consistently by !merican teachers

Confirmatio !:$he Kettles Get Crac)ing

$he first tas) 'e faced 'as gathering data We needed teacher*mar)ed %a%ers from !merican

college freshmen and so%homores in a re%resentati(e range of different )inds of schools and a

re%resentati(e range of geogra%hic areas We did not 'ant to try to gather the isolated sam%le

of timed eamination*style 'riting that is often studied, although such a sam%le 'ould

%robably ha(e been easier to obtain than the actual mar)ed %a%ers 'e sought We 'anted


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ica We 'anted %a%ers that had been %ersonally mar)ed or graded, filled 'ith e(eryuncontrolled and uncontrollable sign of both student and teacher %ersonalities

Gathering these %a%ers %resented a number of obstacles #n terms of idealmethodology, the data*gathering 'ould be untouched by self*selection amongteachers, and 'e could randomly choose our sources !fter 'orrying about this

%roblem, 'e finally could concei(e of no 'ay to gather u%'ards of 6B,BBB %a%ers?the number of %a%ers 2odges had loo)ed at@ 'ithout a%%ealing to teachers 'hohad mar)ed them We could thin) of no 'ay to go directly to students, and, thoughsome de%artments stoc)%ile student themes, 'e did not 'ish to 'eight our studyto'ard any one school or de%artment We had to as) com%osition teachers for hel%

!nd hel% us they did #n res%onse to a direct mail a%%eal to more than 3,9BBteachers 'ho had used or e%ressed interest in handboo)s, 'e had recei(ed by.e%tember 3459 more than 63,9BB %a%ers from :BB teachers all across !merica:

$o say that the (ariety in the %a%ers 'e 'ere sent 'as stri)ing is a seriousunderstatement $hey ranged in length from a %artial %age to o(er 6B %ages !bout:BH 'ere ty%ed, the rest hand'ritten .ome 'ere annotated marginally until theyloo)ed li)e the -oo) of Kells, 'hile others merely s%orted a fe' scra'led 'ordsand a grade .ome 'ere %athologically neat, and others loo) dashed off on the &og

bet'een classes .ome 'ere formally %erfect, 'hile others a%%roimated Mina.haughnessy>s more etreme eam%les of basic 'riting !ltogether, the 63,9BBI%a%ers, each one carefully stam%ed by %a%er number and batch number, filleda%%roimately :B feet of hastily*installed shel(ing #t 'as an im%osing mass

We had originally been enthusiastic ?and nai(e@ enough to belie(e that 'ith hel%'e might someho' loo) o(er and analyAe 6B,BBB %a%ers Wrong Eamining ana(erage %a%er e(en for mechanical la%ses, 'e soon realiAed, too) at the (ery leastten busy minutes0 to eamine all of them 'ould require o(er :,BBB Ma*and*Pa*hours We sim%ly could not do it -ut 'e could analyAe a carefully stratified sam%leof :,BBB randomly chosen %a%ers .uch an analysis 'ould gi(e us data that 'ere(ery reliable Relie(ed that 'e 'ould not ha(e to try to loo) at 6B,BBB %a%ers, 'e'ent to 'or) on the stratification;!fter stratifying our batches of %a%ers by region,siAe of school, and ty%e of school, 'e used the table of random numbers and the

numbers that had been stam%ed on each %a%er as it came in to %ull :,BBB %a%ersfrom our tonnage of %a%ers $hus 'e had our randomiAed, stratified sam%le, readyfor analysis

Confutatio:Ma and Pa Suck Eggs

-ut+analyAed using 'hat From (ery early on in the research, 'e realiAed thattrying to introduce strict


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"re#uenc$ of "ormal Errors in Current Collee %ritin :44

(alues*dri(en as formal error mar)ing 'ould be a foolhardy mista)e We acce%tedJoe Williams> contention that it is or any otherhandboo)

We 'ere made e(en more distrustful of any absolutist claims by our furthereamination of %re(ious error*frequency research "oo)ing into the history of this)ind of research sho'ed us clearly ho' teachers> ideas about error definition andclassification ha(e al'ays been absolute %roducts of their times and cultures Whatseem to us the most common and %ermanent of terms and definitions are li)ely to bene'er and far more transient than 'e )no' Errors li)e


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400 College Composition and Communication39 (December 1988)

error mar)ed by teachers 'as included in our listing, of course, but 'e found manythat had not been mar)ed at all, and some that 'ere not e(en easily definable Whatfollo's is the list of errors and the numbers of errors 'e disco(ered in that firstcareful scrutiny of :BB %a%ers

Error or Error Pattern in :BB Pa%ers.%elling

1o comma after introductory element Comma s%lice Wrong 'ord"ac) of %ossessi(e a%ostro%he 7ague %ronoun reference 1o comma incom%ound sentence Pronoun agreement .entence fragment

1o comma in non*restricti(e %hrase .ub&ect*(erb agreement/nnecessary comma 'ith restricti(e %hrase /nnecessary 'ords=style re'riteWrong tenseDangling or mis%laced modifier Run*on sentenceWrong or missing %re%osition "ac) of comma in series #ts=it>s error $enseshiftPronoun shift=%oint of (ie' shift Wrong=missing inflected endingsComma 'ith quotation mar)s error Missing 'ords Ca%italiAation


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"re#uenc$ of "ormal Errors in Current Collee %ritin ;B3

"ac) of transitionMissing=incorrect quotation mar)s#ncorrect comma use 'ith %arentheses/se of comma instead of


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8n a Friday afternoon, in January 345 'e 'or)ed 'ith the fifty raters, going o(er thedefinitions and eam%les 'e had come u% 'ith for the

3 /nnecessary comma 'ith restricti(e 4: 6;H 6:4 :;Helement

3 Run*on or fused sentence 53 6;H :B5 ;9H

3 Dangling or mis%laced modifier 9 6BH 3 64H

6 #ts=it>s error 646 3BH 355 ;H


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404 College Composition and Communication 39 (December1988)

mar)ed only once for e(ery four times they a%%ear $he

number of errors found com%ared to the number of errorsmar)ed suggests a fascinating %ossibility for future researchdetailed obser(ation of teacher mar)ing, accom%anied by tal)*aloud %rotocols .uch research seems to us a natural follo'*u%to the findings %resented here4

f$hird, the reasons teachers mar) any gi(en error seem toresult from a com*%ieiformula that ta)es into account at leastt'o factors ho' serious or annoying the error is %ercei(ed to

be at a gi(en time for both teacher and student, and ho'difficult it is to mar) or e%lain*!s $able 3 sho's, the errorsmar)ed by the original teachers on our %a%ers %roduce a

different ?although not com%letely dissimilar@ ran)ing oferrors than the formal count 'e as)ed our raters to do .omeof the lesser*mar)ed errors 'e studied are clearly felt to bemore stylistic than substanti(e Certain of fhe comma errorsseem sim%ly not to bother teachers (ery much 8thers, li)e'rong 'ords or missing inflections, are much more frequentlymar)ed, and might be said to ha(e a high %erce%tions of the seriousness of a gi(en error%attern seem, ho'e(er, to be only %art of the reason formar)ing an error $he sheer difficulty of e%lanation %resented

by some error %atterns is another factor Jotting s error and the

%ossessi(e a%ostro%he, the t'o highest*mar)ed %atterns, arealso t'o of the easiest errors to mar) $his is, of course, notlaAiness0 many com%osition teachers are so chronicallyo(er'or)ed that 'e should not 'onder that the errors mostmar)ed are those most quic)ly indicated

Fourth, error %atterns in .tudent 'riting are shifting in

certain 'ays, at least %artially as a result of changing mediatrends 'ithin the culture Conclusions must be es%eciallytentati(e here, because the time*bound nature of studies oferror ma)es com%arisons difficult and definitions of errorscounted in earlier research are hard to correlate 8ur researchturned u% se(eral earlier lists of serious errors in freshmancom%osition, ho'e(er, 'hose order is rather different fromthe order 'e disco(ered

Roy #(an Johnson, 'riting in 343, re%orted on 345 %a%ers'ritten by freshmen, and his list of the to% ten error

%atterns in his study is as follo's ?'here(er %ossible, 'e ha(etranslated his terms into ours@


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Frequency of Formal Errors in Current College Writing 405

3 .%elling6 Ca%italiAation

: Punctuation ?mostly comma errors@; Careless omission or re%etition9 !%ostro%he errors Pronoun agreement 7erb tense errors and agreement5 /ngrammatical sentence structure ?fragments and run*ons@4 Mista)es in the use of ad&ecti(es and ad(erbs3B Mista)es in the use of %re%ositions and con&unctions

#n 34:B, Paul Witty and Roberta Green analyAed 3B %a%ers

'ritten in a timed situation by freshmen 2ere is their to% ten list,

translated into our terms 'here %ossible

3 Faulty connecti(es ).7ague %ronoun reference: /se of findings, but it does not seem

unreasonable to assume that he re%orts them in order of frequency


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#n terms of ho' %atterns of error ha(e changed, our findings are, of course, etremely tentati(e

!ssuming that 2odges>Harbracelist constitutes some (ersion of the error %atterns he found in 34:4,

ho'e(er, 'e note some distinct changes #n general, our list sho's a %roliferation of error %atterns thatseem to suggest declining familiarity 'ith the (isual loo) of a 'ritten %age Most stri)ingly, s%elling

errors ha(e gone from second on the list to first by a factor of three .%elling is the most ob(ious

eam%le of this lac) of (isual memory of %rinted %ages seen, but the gro'th of other error %atterns

su%%orts it as 'ell3B

.ome of the error %atterns that seem to suggest this (isual*memory %roblem 'ere not found or listed

in earlier studies but ha(e come to light in ours $he many 'rong 'ord errors, the missing inflected

endings, the 'rong %re%ositions, e(en the its=it>s errors+all suggest that students today may be less

familiar 'ith the (isible as%ects of 'ritten forms $hese findings confirm the contrasti(e analysis

bet'een 6,BBB %a%ers from the 349Bs and 6,BBB %a%ers from the 34Bs that 'as carried out by Gary

.#oan in 344 .loan determined that many elements of formal 'riting con(ention bro)e do'n se(erelybet'een the fifties and se(enties, including s%elling, homo%hones, sentence structure elements, inflected

endings, and others ?39*94@ .loan notes that the effects of an oral+and 'e 'ould stress, anelectronic

*culture on literacy s)ills are sub(ersi(e .tudents 'ho do not read the


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?9@ Plains .tates?@ .outh'est ?including 2a'aii@?@ 1orth'est ?including !las)a@

2ere are the ra' numbers of ho' the %a%ers 'ere distributed as they came into us

Region 36:;9 $otal $otal number of %a%ers :,96

:,;5 :,B44 ;,4; 3,664 6,646 543 34,39 $otal number of 3

93 9; 99 35 ; 3; :BB

teachers $otal number of ; :9 ;B :4 3; 6; 6B

;*year schools $otal number of 3; 3 3; 3 ; 6: 4;

6*year schools $otal number of ;; ;4 ;5 ;5 35 ;;3: 6;

state schools $otal number of 3 6 B : 3:%ri(ate schools

1umber of schools 66B3333 5 'ith total enroll ment under3,BBB

Enrollment 3*:,BBB 4 3: 33 : 9; 96Enrollment :*9,BBB 3: 9 9 3; 6 6 ;5Enrollment 9*3B,BBB 34 4 3 3B ; 3Enrollment 3B*6B,BBB 3; 4 3: 3: 3 39 6 Enrollment ; 3: 3: 9 36 3 9;

o(er 6B,BBB; We 'anted to find out 'hether the sam%le of %a%ers 'e had recei(ed

mirrored the demogra%hic realities of !merican higher education #f it did not,

'e 'ould ha(e to ad&ust it to re%resent the student and teacher %o%ulationsthat 'ere really out thereWhen 'e loo)ed at 0he 1iest of Education Statistics,'e found that some

of our numbers a%%roimated educational statistics closely enough not to needad&ustment $he brea)do'n bet'een ;*year colleges and 6*year colleges, forinstance, is 3H=64H in the statistical tables and 4H=:3H in our sam%le $hestate schools=%ri(ate schools ratio is statistically 4H=63H, 'hile our sam%leratio 'as 55H=36H, but the o(er*re%resentation of state schools did not seemserious enough to 'orry about for our %ur%oses #n terms of enrollment, 'efound middle*siAed schools slightly o(er*re%resented and (ery small and (erylarge schools slightly under*re%resented, but in no case 'as the de(iationmore than H either 'ay

We found the most serious discre%ancies in the regional stratification, 'ithsome regions o(er*and others under*re%resented

Region 36:;9 H of students

nationally 6: 36 6: 39 ; 34 ; H of students in

sam%le 34 35 39 69 36 9

8n the basis of the regional discre%ancy 'e found, 'e decided to stratify thesam%le %a%ers regionally but not in any other 'ay

For hel% 'ith the methodological %roblems 'e faced, and for ad(ice onestablishing a ran*

1umber of schools 'ith totalenrollment under 3,BBB

Enrollment 3*:,BBB Enrollment:*9,BBB Enrollment 9*3B,BBBEnrollment 3B*6B,BBB Enrollmento(er 6B,BBB

H of students H in

nationally sam%le; 6

333:636969

336;6635


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Frequency of Formal Errors in Current College Writing 409

dom stratified sam%le of :,BBB %a%ers, many than)s to Charles Coo%er Whenthe going gets tough, the cough go as) Charles for ad(ice

9 $hese t'o eam%les of old*time error %atterns are cited in Pressey and

in Johnson $he term

Wi$$iams, %ose&h. 'The (henomeno$ogy of Error.' CollegeComposition and Communication3) *+ay "9#": ")-6#.

Witty, Paul !, and Roberta "a -rant Green


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Connors and Lunsford Essay