In an Experiment by Harber, White College Students Read and Evaluate

question 18

Multiple Choice

In an experiment by Harber, white college students read and evaluate poorly written essays supposedly written by other students enrolled in a writing workshop. Half of the students believed the writer was black while the other half believed the writer was white. They found the evaluators:

• A) said positive things about the subjective content (but not the objective mechanics) of the black writer's essays.
• B) said negative things about the subjective content (and the objective mechanics) of the black writer's essays.
• C) said positive things about the subjective content (but not the objective mechanics) of the white writer's essays.
• D) said negative things about the subjective content (and the objective mechanics) of the white writer's essays.

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Definitions:

Deep Structure

In linguistics, the underlying syntactic structure or meaning of a sentence, as opposed to the surface structure which is how it is expressed.

Surface Structures

The outward appearance or organization of something, especially in linguistics where it refers to the specific syntax or wording of a sentence.

Transformational Grammar

A theory of grammar that focuses on how sentences can be transformed into other sentences through the application of rules.

Deep Structure

In linguistics, the underlying syntactic structure or meaning of a sentence, as opposed to its surface structure or actual spoken form.