When experts cannot make clear sense of a passage, they shift from constructing what the poem says to how the poet is saying it, treating obscurity as deliberate.¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · qualitativer3·q2
Currency · newest study 1998 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? At the most obscure lines, experts' higher-level comprehension strategies were most in evidence, whereas novices stated they did not understand, reread, or pressed on hoping for later resolution. → Peskin 1998
Evidence¶
Peskin 1998¶
Peskin, J. (1998). Constructing meaning when reading poetry: An expert-novice study. Cognition and Instruction, 16(3), 235-263. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690xci1603_1
q2 · i? · qualitative · r3
Protocol comparison at the obscure short lines (27-36) of the metaphysical poem in the think-aloud study. Expert Five verbalized: "I'm swerving away from what the poem means and onto how the poem is meaning it."
"As distinct from the novices, it seems that when the experts cannot make clear sense of a passage, they move from trying to construct a representation of what the poem is saying to how the poet is saying it."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Experts employed productive interpretive strategies in making poems coherent — using structure, binary oppositions, wordplay, rhythm and rhyme as cues, and scanning to contextualize — which novices used minimally. — related
- Experts spent much longer on each poem and produced longer protocols than novices, because for experts finding a meaningful pattern was only the starting point for higher-level analysis. — related
- Experts expressed greater appreciation of the poems and their specific images, while novices very frequently expressed interpretive frustration and dissatisfaction. — related
- Novices who have had poetry instruction have internalized Culler's general conventions for poetry as discourse: significance, thematic unity, and metaphorical coherence. — related
- In reading textually constrained period poetry, experts' organized domain knowledge (schemata) is the major factor differentiating them from novices, enabling allusion, contextualization and anticipation. — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
experts-shift-to-how-poem-means-when-obscure |
title |
When experts cannot make clear sense of a passage, they shift from constructing what the poem says to how the poet is saying it, treating obscurity as deliberate. |
description |
When experts cannot make clear sense of a passage, they shift from constructing what the poem says to how the poet is saying it, treating obscurity as deliberate. |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
1998 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-18 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — peskin-1998 |
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