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Research
Data on the Hunter Writing System: Sentence Sense
A
Chart That Displays the
Results of a Controlled Experimental
Study1 Conducted by Barbara J. Stubbs
for her M.A. Thesis at Rowan College of New Jersey and
Carried out at Clearview Regional J.H.S., Mullica Hill, N.J.
[For a more detailed report, consult
the article: Anthony D. Hunter, "A
New Grammar That Has
Clearly Improved Writing,"
English Journal 85, No. 7 (Nov. 1996), 102107.]
| Results
of the Study1 |
Categories |
Experimental
Group2 Change |
Control
Group Change7 |
| Punctuation and Capitalization3 |
+110%
|
-5% |
| Overall Writing Competence |
+59%4 |
+30%
|
| Complexity |
+42%5 |
+65%8 |
| Organization |
+40%
|
-35% |
| Number of Words |
+41%6 |
+44% |
1All
students were low-ability 7th graders (with boys outnumbering girls
roughly 4 to 1). Both groups also
received instruction in the process approach to writing. In
addition, the experimental group was
taught 10 chapters of the Sentence Sense text over 6 months while
the control group was taught traditional grammar over the same length of
time.
2The
group of 9 students who made these scores includes a boy who joined the
class halfway through the instruction
but excludes an attention-deficit boy who laid down his pen halfway
through the posttest and would not write another word.
3The
Test of Written Language2 (TOWL-2)'s name for these four categories (in
order) are: Contextual Style, Overall Spontaneous
Writing Quotient, Syntactic Maturity, and Thematic Maturity.
4This
score has statistical significance at the .02 level of confidence.
5The
teacher completed only ten chapters. (Subordination begins at Chapter 11.)
6The
students used the last few minutes of the test to do revising and editing.
7For
more information about the atypical kind of instruction given to most of
these students, go the research
article. 8See
a discussion
of authoritative research that made a surprising discovery about the
quality of the complex writing of students who were taught grammar only
informally.
[Read
an article that gives a full report on this study.]
[See
a discussion of important research related to the teaching of the teaching
of grammar.]
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