This study examined the effects of sentence-combining instruction on the writing effectiveness of a cross-grouping of sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students at Von Steuben Middle School, during the 1983-1984 school year. Sentence combining has been employed at every grade level as a strategy to enhance writing. However, recent research has condemned the technique for its failure to address the rhetorical demands placed on writing.
Instruction in language arts for the experimental and control students differed only in the length of units offered, the number of exercises provided, and in the fact that the experimental group received instruction in sentence combining; the control group received no sentence-combining instruction.
Over the twelve-week period, the investigator was determined to discover to what degree, if any, would students' written syntax be affected by words per T-unit, words per clause, and clauses per T-unit after students' exposure to sentence-combining instruction. Middle school students' writing was compared to the writing of professional essayists.
Analysis of covariance and t-test analysis were employed to test the data gathered on the experimental and control groups in measuring syntactic fluency. The alpha level was set at.05.
The study yielded some negative results. Sentence-combining instruction has no significant effect on the syntactic fluency of middle school students when that fluency is measured by words per T-unit and clauses per T-unit. Sentence combining instruction has a significant effect on the syntactic fluency of middle school students when that fluency is measured by words per clause.
When middle school students' writing is compared to the writing of professionals, the students' writing mildly reflects maturity.
