PREPARING BUSINESS WRITING STUDENTS TO USE DICTATION SYSTEMS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
Abstract
This dissertation examines the composing process of dictation, especially planning, that enables a dictator to address a dual audience, deliver concurrent messages, and alter speech to produce writing. Translating theory in the composing process of dictation into classroom applications, the dissertation describes a unit, "Strategies for Effective Dictation," for teaching college business writing students to dictate. The effectiveness of this teaching unit is evaluated in a true experiment conducted with eighty-four business writing students at Purdue University. Students were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Students in the experimental group studied "Strategies for Effective Dictation" and learned the composing process for dictating as well as the more technical process for using equipment and addressing the transcriber; students in the control group learned only the technical process of dictation, simulating the training in dictation that on-the-job writers typically receive. Results of the experiment show that students in the experimental group dictated memos that were judged by independent raters to be significantly better than memos dictated by students in the control group. Memos were scored holistically and analytically. The experimental study has implications on three levels: teaching college students and on-the-job writers how to dictate for word processing systems; investigating other changes in communication processes brought about by new technology; and conducting further research in composing.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Language arts
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