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Part of
Corpora and Rhetorically Informed Text Analysis: The diverse applications of DocuScope
Edited by David West Brown and Danielle Zawodny Wetzel
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 109] 2023
► pp. 191–212

DocuScope Write & Audit as an early feedback machine in genre-based writing

Topical progression and information focus
in proposal writing

| Simon Fraser University

The recent addition of Write & Audit, to the DocuScope family offers the promise of helping students revise their own texts by providing early feedback before submitting a draft. This potential is examined in the context of proposal writing, a quintessential example of genre writing. Actual standards brought to bear on students’ drafts were developed from a long-standing proposal writing course and applied to a small, stratified sample of proposals in the Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers (MICUSP). Early feedback focused on the element of proposal themes using Write & Audit’s analysis of topical progression and information focus, and a template for early feedback was developed. The strengths and limitations of Write & Audit as an early feedback machine are examined with the conclusion that it may indeed have the potential to provide early feedback to writers working in specific genres, helping them to see what they have done and what they might still want to do before turning in a draft.

Keywords: genre analysis, proposal writing, topical progression, information focus
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The proposal writing genre
    • 1.2Brief overview of DocuScope Write & Audit
  • 2.Methods
    • 2.1Articulating standards
    • 2.2Choosing proposals
    • 2.3Annotating proposals
    • 2.4Focusing on a standard for Write & Audit analyses
  • 3.Providing early feedback: The example of themes
  • 4.Tracking theme in the coherence panel
    • 4.1Detecting a theme
    • 4.2Providing early feedback to identify a theme
    • 4.3Providing early feedback to evaluate a theme
    • 4.4Provide early feedback on invoking a theme
    • 4.5Revising to invoke a theme
  • 5.Tracking information focus in the clarity panel
    • 5.1Given-new expectations for information focus
    • 5.2Early feedback on information focus
  • 6.DocuScope Write & Audit as an early feedback machine
    • 6.1A model of early feedback using Write & Audit
    • 6.2Limits of Write & Audit as an early feedback machine
    • 6.3Potential for Write & Audit as an early feedback machine
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 June 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.109.09gei
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