Writing traits: Examining the consistency of behavioral patterns in writers’ composing processes
Keywords:
writing processes, pausing behavior, revising behavior, eye tracking, cluster analysisAbstract
Individual differences in writing processes have been well documented, yet the stability of a writer’s behaviors across writing tasks is less studied. Behavioral stability serves as a foundational assumption in writing research, crucial for describing individual differences and essential for effective writing instruction that seeks to modify behavioral patterns across different writing tasks. Based on data from keystroke logs and eye movement, we determined the writing process stability of 30 writers across three argumentative writing tasks. This yielded 17 behavioral measures from which we identified four factors: pausing, revising, reading own text (lookback), and linearity. Hierarchical cluster analysis across scores from these factors then grouped the 90 writing processes into three clusters based on behavioral similarity. Sixteen participants remained in the same cluster (adopted similar writing processes) across all tasks; the remainder switched clusters once, and tended to be those writers whose behavior was already closer to the centroid of the cluster to which they switched. Overall, stability was much higher than predicted by chance. Results are consistent with behavioral stability across writing tasks, supporting the notion that writers have habitual cognitive processes that they carry with them between tasks.
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