Adjusting Syntactic Structures to Varied Levels of Audience

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Abstract
Existing research indicates that syntactic complexity of sentences increases with grade/age in both free writing and controlled rewriting, and that subjects, when presented passages written at either less or more complex levels, rewrite it to roughly their natural complexity level. Since previous research did not ask subjects to write at higher or lower levels, in the present research subjects wrote (1) as they normally write, (2) for a beginning reader, and (3) as a superior writer could write. Results from subjects at grade 6, college freshmen, and college upperclassmen indicate that grade 6 subjects do not distinguish audience levels, while college subjects distinguish only lower and own levels. Some indications were found that upperclass college subjects make some adjustments to the “superior” audience.

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