Exploring How Rhetorical Organization Contributes to the Readability of Essays

The facilitative benefits of genre-specific reading have often been cited as a truism in the field of writing education. In line with this, writing center self-access libraries typically provide a selection of composition texts, including rhetorics (anthologies of model paragraphs and essays). Reada...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	John R. Baker
Format:	article
Language:	EN
Published:	National Research University Higher School of Economics 2021
Subjects:	lexile readability rhetorical organization text selection rhetorics model essays second language writing writing center administration Education L Philology. Linguistics P1-1091
Online Access:	https://doi.org/10.17323/jle.2021.11240 https://doaj.org/article/0a7ba695b4e949049ffd1b17c8eddb23
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:0a7ba695b4e949049ffd1b17c8eddb23
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:0a7ba695b4e949049ffd1b17c8eddb232021-11-10T18:16:38ZExploring How Rhetorical Organization Contributes to the Readability of Essayshttps://doi.org/10.17323/jle.2021.112402411-7390https://doaj.org/article/0a7ba695b4e949049ffd1b17c8eddb232021-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://jle.hse.ru/article/view/11240/12932https://doaj.org/toc/2411-7390The facilitative benefits of genre-specific reading have often been cited as a truism in the field of writing education. In line with this, writing center self-access libraries typically provide a selection of composition texts, including rhetorics (anthologies of model paragraphs and essays). Readability formulae (e.g., the Lexile Readability Formula) are often used to determine whether these texts will be a good fit for potential readers, and although the Lexile Formula reliably and validly assesses two features (i.e., semantic and syntactic), it does not consider other contributing features during the text selection process (e.g., rhetorical organization). To address this, this sequential, mixed-methods study explored the effects of rhetorical organization on undergraduate English language learners’ perceptions of difficulty when reading exemplars (i.e., essays) excerpted from rhetorics. The results indicated that rhetorical organization influences readability both as (a) a primary (i.e., an isolated feature) and (b) a conjoined feature (i.e., comprising two or more associated entities where the second impacts the first). The article also provides a suggestion for writing education professionals and the publishing industry: Readability formulae should be administered in a hybrid fashion, where additional features such as rhetorical organization are subjectively considered when assessing the difficulty of exemplarsJohn R. BakerNational Research University Higher School of Economicsarticlelexilereadabilityrhetorical organizationtext selectionrhetoricsmodel essayssecond language writingwriting center administrationEducationLPhilology. LinguisticsP1-1091ENJournal of Language and Education, Vol 7, Iss 2, Pp 78-92 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	lexile readability rhetorical organization text selection rhetorics model essays second language writing writing center administration Education L Philology. Linguistics P1-1091
spellingShingle	lexile readability rhetorical organization text selection rhetorics model essays second language writing writing center administration Education L Philology. Linguistics P1-1091 John R. Baker Exploring How Rhetorical Organization Contributes to the Readability of Essays
description	The facilitative benefits of genre-specific reading have often been cited as a truism in the field of writing education. In line with this, writing center self-access libraries typically provide a selection of composition texts, including rhetorics (anthologies of model paragraphs and essays). Readability formulae (e.g., the Lexile Readability Formula) are often used to determine whether these texts will be a good fit for potential readers, and although the Lexile Formula reliably and validly assesses two features (i.e., semantic and syntactic), it does not consider other contributing features during the text selection process (e.g., rhetorical organization). To address this, this sequential, mixed-methods study explored the effects of rhetorical organization on undergraduate English language learners’ perceptions of difficulty when reading exemplars (i.e., essays) excerpted from rhetorics. The results indicated that rhetorical organization influences readability both as (a) a primary (i.e., an isolated feature) and (b) a conjoined feature (i.e., comprising two or more associated entities where the second impacts the first). The article also provides a suggestion for writing education professionals and the publishing industry: Readability formulae should be administered in a hybrid fashion, where additional features such as rhetorical organization are subjectively considered when assessing the difficulty of exemplars
format	article
author	John R. Baker
author_facet	John R. Baker
author_sort	John R. Baker
title	Exploring How Rhetorical Organization Contributes to the Readability of Essays
title_short	Exploring How Rhetorical Organization Contributes to the Readability of Essays
title_full	Exploring How Rhetorical Organization Contributes to the Readability of Essays
title_fullStr	Exploring How Rhetorical Organization Contributes to the Readability of Essays
title_full_unstemmed	Exploring How Rhetorical Organization Contributes to the Readability of Essays
title_sort	exploring how rhetorical organization contributes to the readability of essays
publisher	National Research University Higher School of Economics
publishDate	2021
url	https://doi.org/10.17323/jle.2021.11240 https://doaj.org/article/0a7ba695b4e949049ffd1b17c8eddb23
work_keys_str_mv	AT johnrbaker exploringhowrhetoricalorganizationcontributestothereadabilityofessays
_version_	1718439840764133376

Exploring How Rhetorical Organization Contributes to the Readability of Essays

Similar Items