Week 8- writing systems

Question 1

what are the three main types of writing system?

Answer 1

Logographic: Symbol for each word
Syllabic: Symbol for each syllable
Alphabetic: Symbol for each phoneme

Question 2

what are logograms?

Answer 2

Symbols read as words, no longer recognizable as the things represented.

Question 3

what are the benefits of a logographic writing system?

Answer 3

Cantonese consists of a lot of homophones (words that sound the same). • These can be distinguished by logographs
eg: rén (human being) and rénrén (everybody)

Question 4

what is an alphabetic system and which languages use it?

Answer 4

One-to-one correspondence between sound and grapheme.

Russian, Sanskrit, English

Question 5

what is a syllabic system and which languages use it?

Answer 5

Each sign represents a syllable

Cherokee, Persian

Question 6

what is transparent (shallow) orthography?

Answer 6

‘Strict’ one-to-one relationship between grapheme and phoneme e.g. Welsh, Finnish
Pronunciation is predictable- Bore da
Only one ‘alphabet’ follows this ‘strict’ one-to-one relationship as accurately as possible- The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
(if you see the sign, you know the sound)

Question 7

what is opaque (deep) orthography?

Answer 7

Grapheme-phoneme correspondence, BUT Some phonemes may be represented by a variety of graphemes, and vice versa Words can be spelt by analogy. Some words are unique in their spelling and demand ‘whole word’ processing

Question 8

Implications of spelling reform to change the English orthography to a more shallow one?

Answer 8

Education: A whole society would need to learn a new orthography
Financial: Costs involved in replacing books, street signs, manuals, …
Political: Different dialects of English have different pronunciation of words. Which dialect should be chosen?

Question 9

what are the main differences between different writing systems?

Answer 9

• Logographic system has memory demands
• Transparent languages have reliable GPC (grapheme phoneme correspondence) rules
• Opaque systems take a combined approach
• The main difference between logograms and other writing systems is that the graphemes aren’t (so) linked directly to their pronunciation.

Question 10

examples of types of non-target productions

Answer 10

Omissions/deletions -forwad (forward) Insertions/additions -languiage (language) Anticipations –leading list (reading list)
Perseverations -a phonological fool (a phonological rule)
Substitution –trunk (drunk)
Transpositions –langauge (language)
Letter groups –likley (likely); existance (existence) Phonological relation –in a (inner)

Question 11

are content or function words more susceptible to error?

Answer 11

Function words seem very susceptible to error Sometimes omitted
One substituted for another: to–on
Sometimes repeated: the the

Question 12

discuss motor processes within typing.

Answer 12

Average typing speed is 7-8 strokes per second Processing can be observed (to some extent) by the length and regularity of the intervals between finger strokes
Rhythm: unit of typing seems to be the word(not group or phrase or sentence) Intervals between strokes are greater at the beginnings and ends of words Intervals between strokes are longer for infrequent letter strings Syllable boundaries seem to be significant ( is faster in patheticthan porthole) Performance declines with nonsensical letter strings, but not with non-words that look like existing ones

Question 13

what are some methods of writing research?

Answer 13

• Product analysis- look at what you write ( unable to look inside someone but you can comment on what they produce)- however if you only have the final product it may be challenging to figure out how they got there.
• Keystroke may be beneficial.
• Thinking aloud protocols- simultaneous or retrospective. Trying to get into someones head- recording it to articulate their thinking.
• Video recording
• Eye tracking- see when they stop writing, when theyre stuck on what to write, mental processing thinking
• Neuro imaging- FRMI, looking into someones brain
• Combination of above

Question 14

what is Flower and Hayes’s 4 part theory of the cognitive processes?

Answer 14

1. the process of writing is actually an entire set of distinctive thinking processes that the writer organizes while writing
2. any of these processes can be embedded in another, organized hierarchly by the writer
3. the act of writing itself is a goal-directed activity, one of a network of goals that grows and emerges through writing, and
4. the goals are created by the writer and can be changed during the writing process.

Question 15

discuss the task environment section Flower and Hayes Model of writing

Answer 15

• Writing assignment concerns all things outside the writer, starting with the rhetorical problem and including the text itself.
• Includes the rhetorical situation, the audience and the writer’s goals
• External storage
• anything consulted outside the writer
• literature read to support writing
• also contains writing drafts

Question 16

discuss the long term memory section Flower and Hayes Model of writing

Answer 16

• “a storehouse of knowledge about the topic and audience, as well as knowledge of writing plans and problem representations. Sometimes a single cue in an assignment, such as “write a persuasive….”
• can let a writer tap a stored representation of a problem and bring a whole raft of writing plans into play.” (Flowers and Hayes, p. 371)

Question 17

discuss the planning process section Flower and Hayes Model of writing

Answer 17

-Where writers form an internal representation of the knowledge that will be used in writing
3 processes:
Generating: including retrieving relevant information from long term memory, which may be well developed and organized or fragmentary, unconnected, even contradictory thoughts.
Organising: gives meaningful structure to the ideas generated; allows the writer to identify categories, search for subordinate and superordinate ideas
Goal setting: What do I want to achieve with this? the act of defining one’s own rhetorical problem and setting goals is an important part of “being creative” and can account for some important differences between good and poor writers.

Question 18

discuss the translating section Flower and Hayes Model of writing

Answer 18

• concept of putting ideas into visible language
• requires the writer to juggle all demands of English language (lexis, syntax, orthography, stylistics etc)
• this may be overwhelming for the inexperienced writer because it burdens the working memory with demands on grammar and spelling, which leads to frustration for the writer (e.g. writing in a foreign language)
• Once translated, the written draft enters the ‘external storage’

Question 19

discuss the reviewing section Flower and Hayes Model of writing

Answer 19

Can be subconscious or conscious
2 sub-processes: Evaluating and Revising
- Both share the special distinction of being able to interrupt any other process and occur at any time in the act of writing

Question 20

discuss the monitoring process section Flower and Hayes Model of writing

Answer 20

• monitors their current process and progress.
• functions as a writing strategist which determines when the writer moves from one process to the next.
• For example, it determines how long a writer will continue generating ideas before attempting to write prose.
• Or, it determines when it becomes necessary to go back over what has been written and review it.

Question 21

Does execution intercept writing production processes?

Answer 21

The more automatic the execution stage, the more capacity available for working memory for other processes (e.g. monitoring)

Question 22

Differences between skilled and unskilled writers?

Answer 22

Typing / handwriting skills
Planning skills
Knowledge of rhetoric’s (linking devices, use of paragraphs, logical structures, demand on the reader)

Question 23

what are some differences between speech and writing>

Answer 23

Written texts

• ‘complete’ sentences
• Sentence complexes (subordinate clauses)
• Precise vocabulary
• Standardised grammar

Spoken texts

• Incomplete ‘sentences’
• Loosely structured
• False starts/hesitations
• Fillers (um…)
• Non-standard grammar

Question 24

what are some levels of revision?

Answer 24

Planning: adding to or changing content
Register: more/less formal; more/less technical; addresses the requirements of tenor
Stylistic: changes to style e.g. more ‘polished’ Organisational: changes to order or links between ideas
Execution: correcting errors, e.g. spelling