Inventive Response: How Teachers' Responses to Students' Writing Prompt Invention

This illustrative case study investigates teachers' formative written responses to students' writing, and how those responses could be inventive for students' future composing practices. It engages with the concept of "invention" from a rhetoric/composition standpoint in order to ask: To what extent do different formative written responses on student writing function inventively? What are students' perceptions of instructors' written responses on their papers? How can these written responses prompt students to respond inventively in future writing and revisions? There is a general lack of writing assessment or response literature engaging explicitly with invention, even though much of it touches on relevant invention-related concepts, like "topoi" or "heuristic" (Connors, Lunsford 209; Melzer). This research critically considers that literature and makes a case for inventive response, because students' generativity in their writing could be compatible with the growth-oriented characteristics of formative feedback. The study uses existing scholarship alongside the research questions to inductively analyze three document-based, semi-structured interviews with student writers at Florida State University. Through answering narrative inquiry-based and descriptive questions, the interviewees indicated generativity in response by perceiving teachers' feedback as conversational, interpretive, and contextually-influenced. Further, the interviews compellingly implied that positive and question-based teacher comments led students to invent new writing ideas, new writing strategies, and new writing confidence. Based on these findings, the study concludes by pointing to connections for future research, and by providing practical suggestions for teachers to implement more inventive response.

Grantor dc:publisher

Florida State University

Year dc:date

2024

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kirchner, Claire Elizabeth (author)
• Neal, Michael R. (professor directing thesis)
• Domínguez Barajas, Elías, 1968- (committee member)
• Graban, Tarez Samra (committee member)
• Catena, Emily Plummer (committee member)
• Florida State University (degree granting institution)
• College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college)
• Department of English (degree granting department)

• Rhetoric
• Education
• Educational evaluation

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

fsu:927947
iid: Kirchner_fsu_0071N_18708

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:diginole.lib.fsu.edu:fsu_927947