prompt n.

Tue Mar 16 09:52:22 UTC 2010

My children (middle school and high school) commonly bring home assignments
that are explained by prompts or rubrics.

On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 4:12 PM, Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: prompt n.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My university requires a writing exam for graduation.  The topics for
> those are referred to as prompts.
>
> Herb
>
> On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 2:32 PM, Garson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: prompt n.
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Education researchers used sentences as prompts in experiments in the
> > 1960s. I do not know if the term was used earlier by behaviorists.
> >
> > circa 1967, American educational research journal, Volume 4, American
> > Educational Research Association.
> >
> > Over the ten training trials the prompt sentence for a given word pair
> > appeared twice in each of the five ordinal positions within the
> > paragraph. ...
> > Each frame in the "program" consisted of a prompt sentence containing
> > an English word as the subject ...
> >
> >
> http://books.google.com/books?id=7cIrAAAAMAAJ&q=trials+prompt#search_anchor
> >
> > Here is a 2005 book about "writing to the prompt" that provides some
> > evidence that your students use of the term is widespread.
> >
> > Title   Writing to the prompt: when students don't have a choice
> > Author  Janet Angelillo
> > Publisher       Heinemann, 2005
> >
> > http://books.google.com/books?id=zv5JAAAAYAAJ&
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 1:54 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
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> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: prompt n.
> >>
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> >>
> >> It's tempting to say that the testing use of "prompt" has been
> >> influenced by technology (from Command Prompt), in which case this OED
> >> entry would be related. I am not convinced, however, that this is how
> >> it came into being--it does sound like it had more Behaviorist
> >> origins.
> >>
> >>> c. Computing. A word, symbol, or message automatically displayed on a
> screen to indicate that input  is required from the user.
> >>
> >>> 1977 Computer-Aided Design 9 151 Displaying and responding to prompts
> from the computer. 1985 Which Computer? Apr. 51/2Prompts and help messages
> reduce the possibility of making an error in the first place. 1992
> Broadcasting 27 Jan. 35/2 An on-screen prompt encourages viewers to enter
> the names of household members viewing a given program. 2000 Daily Tel. 16
> Mar. (Connected section) 14/2 Exit Windows to DOS mode..and change to drive
> letter A by typing A: at the C:> (or C:\\WINDOWS>) prompt.
> >>
> >> For example, consider the lines
> >>
> >>> Identify the key words in a test prompt.
> >>
> >> and
> >>
> >>> Identify the key words from a test prompt.
> >>
> >> and
> >>
> >>> Focus on the key words in the prompt!
> >>
> >> in the chapter Writing to a Prompt, in Winning Strategies for Test
> Taking.
> >> http://books.google.com/books?id=92Lq_j-HUqcC
> >>
> >> The book even identifies the type of questions that should be used in
> >> training students--the "released writing to a prompt questions".
> >>
> >> This is quite pervasive. I just grabbed the first book that popped up
> >> on the list.
> >>
> >> VS-)
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 1:30 PM, Gordon, Matthew J.
> >> <GordonMJ at missouri.edu> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> "prompt" is also common in rhetoric/composition contexts.
> >>>
> >>> -Matt Gordon
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On 3/15/10 12:24 PM, "victor steinbok" <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> In psychometrics, the body of a multiple-choice question is usually
> referred
> >>> to as "the prompt", but ed publishers call it "stem" or "root" with the
> >>> answer choices all referred to as "distractors" (even though one of
> them is
> >>> supposed to be correct). ;-) The editors I've worked with sometimes
> would
> >>> differentiate between the "question stem" and "prompt", the latter
> being a
> >>> general comment that applied to multiple questions, including
> instructions.
> >>> This seems reverse of what test specialists use, but these two groups
> rarely
> >>> talk to each other. But it can get very confusing if you work with
> both...
> >>>
> >>> VS-)
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 12:35 PM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> >
> >>> > Typically, when I assign a paper to a class, I will write out and
> >>> > distribute several sentences of instructions and advice.  All of a
> sudden
> >>> > (it seems to me), my students are referring to such a document as
> "the
> >>> > prompt." (I would call it simply "the assignment"--or maybe, if I
> wanted to
> >>> > sound informal, "the specs").
> >>> >
> >>> > When asked about the term, some of my students associate it with
> their AP
> >>> > classes in high school. Is it a (behaviorist?) term that emanates
> from
> >>> > colleges of education? The use doesn't match any of the entries for
> _prompt_
> >>> > n.2 in the OED.
> >>> >
> >>> > --Charlie
> >>
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