Date of Award
8-2007
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Legacy Department
Professional Communication
Committee Chair/Advisor
Haynes, Cynthia
Committee Member
Howard , Tharon
Committee Member
Holmevik , Jan
Abstract
South Carolina's public education system administrators and teachers need to know more about how the language used in written performance evaluations impacts the effectiveness of evaluation feedback in order to help improve the state's system for Assisting, Developing, and Evaluating Professional Teaching (ADEPT). One key to understanding this knowledge is identifying the characteristics of the language used in evaluation feedback. This study examines the rhetorical situation of written performance evaluations from a theoretical standpoint and used a survey to assess several characteristics of the language used in evaluation feedback (word usage, content inclusion, and the structural order of sentences). Results, while tentative, indicate that effective written performance evaluation feedback avoids negative framing, demonstrates rater awareness of the performance situation, and avoids feedback in question form. The implications of the rhetorical theory behind evaluation and the study's findings are discussed for the fields of professional communication, industrial/organizational psychology, and education. Future directions for research and practice are proposed.
Recommended Citation
Hedges, Michael, "Standardized Power: A Rhetoric of Performance Evaluation in Education" (2007). All Theses. 166.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/166