“Oh, ppbbt!”: Differences between the oral and written persuasive strategies of school‐aged children

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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to describe differences in intermediate‐grade children's oral and written persuasive skill. Twenty‐eight 4th‐graders, members of a self‐contained, heterogeneous class, each wrote two persuasive written products. Six of the students, 4 boys and 2 girls, were selected to participate in each of two dyadic, persuasive role‐playing sessions. Both the written samples and the transcripts of the audiotaped role plays were analyzed to identify (a) the children's oral persuasive strategies; (b) the written persuasive strategies; and (c) the relationship between the two (Which strategies were exclusively oral or written? Which overlapped?). Findings yielded conclusions regarding the children's dependency in oral persuasion on the cooperative nature of dialogue and on nonverbal vocalizations, and their dependence in written persuasion on those persuasive strategies that are found in speech but can be transferred to writing and, concomitantly, their relatively infrequent use of persuasive strategies specific to writing. Implications for future research and practice were discussed.