The Development of Text Evaluation and Revision Skills

Children in elementary school settings generally do not revise frequently or skillfully, but relatively little is known about the source of their difficulty with revision. 3 studies were conducted to investigate children's developing ability to evaluate and revise problematic texts. In the first 2 studies, fourth-grade (10 years) and sixth-grade (12 years) students were asked to evaluate 3 types of problematic texts and suggest changes to make the texts easier to understand. In the third study, children were asked whether 4 types of revisions improved the comprehensibility of problematic stories. The results showed, first, that older children detected more of the text problems; second, that when younger children spontaneously detected a text problem they were as likely as older children to revise the text adequately; third, that younger children were less able than older children to revise text problems that they had originally overlooked; and, fourth, that younger children overestimated the informativeness of several types of revisions. The results suggest that developmental differences in constructive processing contribute to children's ability to detect and revise text problems.