Welcome! Journal of Writing Research (JoWR) is an international peer reviewed journal publishing scientific research exploring the cognitive and social processes underlying written production, how writing is learned, and how it can be effectively taught, across all ages and educational contexts. Journal of Writing Research is diamond open access with no fees for either authors or readers. We publish 3 issues per year, with papers also available for early view. Scopus CiteScore ranks: Top 10% in Education. Top 5% in Language and Linguistics. If you register, you will automatically receive a notification when a new issue of the Journal of Writing Research is published.
Empirical studies of writing and generative AI: Introduction to the special issue
This special issue of the Journal of Writing Research brings together seven empirical studies of the relationship between writing and generative AI, examining what can be systematically observed and measured about the functioning of generative AI in educational and professional writing contexts. Collectively, the studies demonstrate the necessity and value of methodological pluralism for investigating a complex, rapidly evolving phenomenon. In their contributions, the researchers use experimental comparisons, mixed-methods intervention designs, corpus-based analyses, computational linguistic techniques, and qualitative interpretive approaches. Taken together, these methods enable lines of inquiry that no single approach could sustain: comparisons of AI and human performance in professional writing tasks; analyses of how writers at different ages and levels of expertise engage AI tools; examinations of how assessment systems register and respond to AI-generated prose; and investigations of how human readers interpret texts with ambiguous authorship. By foregrounding both the affordances and limitations of different methodological traditions, the articles present a multifaceted approach to the study of writing and generative AI.
Copyright (c) 2026 Chris Anson, Kirsti Cole https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
The Role of cohesive devices in L2 writing development: Insights from an intensive EAP program
Recent research in L2 writing has increasingly focused on the use and development of cohesive devices at local, global, and textual levels in academic texts. However, little is known about how cohesion unfolds in the writing of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) learners enrolled in intensive instructional programs. Moreover, prior studies often rely on static, decontextualized measures that fail to capture the dynamic and task-sensitive nature of cohesion. Grounded in Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST; Larsen-Freeman, 1997), this study tracked 58 multilingual graduate students enrolled in a five-week intensive EAP course at a major university in the US. Using a multi-wave time-series design, weekly writing samples were analyzed through computational text analysis to examine longitudinal patterns in cohesive device use. Findings revealed significant non-linear growth in text cohesion, modest but statistically significant gains in global cohesion, and inconsistent development in local cohesion. Substantial inter- and intra-individual variability was observed across all cohesion types. Additionally, patterns of cohesive device use were significantly influenced by task type and instructional focus. These results highlight the dynamic, individualized, and context-dependent nature of cohesion in L2 academic writing and underscore the value of longitudinal, fine-grained analyses for understanding developmental trajectories.
Copyright (c) 2026 Mahmoud Abdi Tabari, Attila Wind https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Planning to perform: Association of pre-task strategies with linguistic complexity and cohesion in argumentative essays
While much research has examined the effects of pre-task planning on L2 writing performance, little attention has been paid to what writers actually do during planning and how their strategies relate to the linguistic features in their writing. To address these gaps, this study explores the relationship between pre-task planning strategies and language use in L2 argumentative writing. We manually coded 511 timed essays for pre-task strategy use, type, language, and depth of elaboration. The essays were then analyzed for linguistic and cohesion features. Using principal component analysis, we found five constructs tapping into syntactic complexity, lexical complexity, and semantic cohesion. Linear models were used to examine whether pre-task planning and its characteristics predicted variation in these constructs. The results indicated that essays written with one or more pre-task strategies demonstrated significantly higher lexical sophistication. Further, greater elaboration and the use of exploratory or mixed strategies were positively associated with lexical diversity and sophistication. In contrast, no strong relationships were found between planning strategies and syntactic complexity or cohesion. These findings highlight the lexical benefits of pre-task planning and offer implications for research and pedagogy in L2 writing
Copyright (c) 2026 Hyung-Jo Yoon, Stephanie Hyeri Kim, Anna Dina L. Joaquin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
“Now it’s my turn”. Comparing individual and collaborative writing practices in primary education
This study aimed to analyse the effectiveness of different types of explicit writing instruction (EWI) activities involving individual and collaborative narrative writing in a sample of 93 sixth grade students (ages 11-12). Specifically, the processes and outcomes of three EWI conditions were compared: explicit instruction with individual writing (EWI+IW), with spontaneous collaborative writing (EWI+SCW), and with reciprocal collaborative writing (EWI+RCW). In the SCW condition, the dyads wrote and revised the texts without any guidelines to structure the collaboration. In the RCW condition, the students were asked to alternate the role of writing and revising each text segment with their partner. The quality of 336 texts written individually by the students before and after the training were assessed. In addition, 20 writing events (with a total of 2303 verbal turns) were transcribed and analysed. RCW produced a greater improvement in writing performance than students who engaged in IW practices. Discourse analysis showed that RCW facilitated more symmetrical and balanced collaboration than SCW. The results help to explain discrepancies in the literature. Finally, educational implications are discussed in order to understand how synchronous writing can be effective in upper primary education.
Copyright (c) 2026 Manuel Montanero, Manuel Lucero, María Jesús Fernández-Sánchez, Cristina Amante, Jesús Montanero-Fernández, Daniel Lázaro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Can ChatGPT do the same? ChatGPT and professional editors compared
Since the launch of ChatGPT, the use of and debate around generative AI has grown rapidly. Professionals whose work depends on writing have expressed concern about the potential impact of such tools on their roles. But are these concerns justified? Can ChatGPT truly take on the responsibilities of a professional writer? This study investigates that question by comparing the performance of ChatGPT with that of professional editors tasked with optimizing business communication. We conducted two studies, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. In the first, three experienced editors were asked to rewrite four business letters. Their editing processes were recorded using the Microsoft Snipping Tool, and immediately afterward, we conducted retrospective interviews using stimulated recall. These interviews were transcribed and analyzed. Insights from the observations and interviews informed the design of the prompt instructions used in the second study. In the second study, we asked ChatGPT to revise the same four letters using three different prompt types. The Simple prompt instructed the model to “make this text reader-focused.” The B1 prompt referred explicitly to the CEFR B1 language level, requiring ChatGPT to tailor the text for intermediate readers. Finally, the Process prompt simulated the editing steps observed in the professional editors’ workflows. To evaluate outcomes, we conducted both a qualitative comparison of the revised texts and a quantitative readability analysis using LiNT, a validated tool developed for Dutch texts. Our results show that the human editors substantially improved the readability of the original letters, reducing the use of unfamiliar words, shortening complex sentences, and increasing personal engagement through pronoun use. Among the AI outputs, ChatGPT B1 achieved results most comparable to the editors, both in readability and accuracy. In contrast, ChatGPT Simple fell short in terms of clarity and introduced errors through faulty inferences. Surprisingly, ChatGPT Process also underperformed compared to ChatGPT B1 and the human editors. Only the editors' and ChatGPT B1versions were free from errors. In the discussion, we reflect on how generative AI is reshaping the concept of writing within organizations, the skills required to produce effective written communication and the impact on writing pedagogy. Rather than replacing human editors, we argue that generative AI can play a valuable role as a collaborative tool in the organizational writing process.
Copyright (c) 2026 Daniël Janssen, Henri Raven, Lisanne Van Weelden, Yohannes Den Hertog https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Phase to phase: Developing an automated procedure to identify and visualize phases in writing sessions using keystroke data
Understanding the temporal organization of writing is key to studying writing processes. Existing methods to segment writing into phases often rely on arbitrary rules, extensive manual annotation, or focus on numerous transitions. This study aimed to develop an automated segmentation method to detect distinctive transition in the dominant writing process, particularly the transition from first draft to revision. For this, keystroke data (source-based L1 writing (N = 80) and text simplification in L2 (N = 88)) were manually annotated. The BEAST algorithm was applied for Bayesian change point detection, based on five characteristics derived from the annotation criteria: (1) percentage of the final text written so far, (2) distance between typed and remaining characters, (3) relative cursor position, (4) source use, and (5) pause timings. The first three features proved most effective in identifying change points. A rule-based approach was further applied to select one final change point, which resulted in mediocre accuracy ranging from 31% exact agreement to 49% agreement within 60 seconds. To conclude, the BEAST algorithm is useful in detecting a variety of change points in writing processes, yet connecting them to meaningful phases is still quite complex.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rianne Conijn, Alessandra Rossetti, Nina Vandermeulen, Luuk Van Waes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Augmenting AI scoring of essays with GPT-generated responses
In this study, we examine the feasibility of augmenting student-written essays with those generated by large language models (LLMs) for scoring essays. We found that with correct instructions, generative AI systems such as GPT-4 and GPT-4o can generate essays similar to those written by students in terms of surface-level linguistic features, although material differences may still exist. Systematic analyses revealed that scoring models trained with synthetic data perform comparably to models trained using student essays, but the performance varies across prompts and the sizes of the model training sample. The augmented models could alleviate large discrepancies between human and AI scores on the subgroup level that may be introduced by a lack of training samples for a particular subgroup or due to inherent biases in LLMs. We also explored an established method – DecompX – on token importance to identify and explain AI predictions. Future research directions and limitations of this study are also discussed.
Copyright (c) 2026 Mo Zhang, Akshay Badola, Matthew Johnson, Chen Li https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Generative AI use in college writing classes: An analysis of student chat logs and writing projects
This study contributes to the emerging research on generative AI and writing pedagogy by exploring how college writing students make use of GAI when offered instruction in a range of responsible uses and latitude to integrate it into their writing process as they see fit. We analyzed chat log data and papers from participants recruited from six sections in which students were guided in experimenting with ChatGPT Plus and permitted to use it to produce up to 50% of submitted work. Through a combination of AI and human thematic content analysis of student chat logs, we found that in 18.6% of prompts, students asked ChatGPT to write for them. The rest of the prompts involved work leading up to or in support of the writing process. Human thematic content analysis of papers showed that students used ChatGPT to generate 8.2% of the writing they submitted. The most common rhetorical purpose of the AI-generated text they included was discussion/analysis/synthesis. English as a foreign language students (EFLs) in the sample prompted ChatGPT to clarify understanding less often than non-EFLs and integrated less AI-generated text into their papers, with a particularly notable difference in their use of AI-generated summaries. This unexpected finding merits further research, but it suggests that EFLs may use GAI for somewhat different purposes than non-EFL peers.
Copyright (c) 2026 Sarah Madsen Hardy, Pary Fassihi, Shuang Geng, Christopher McVey, Matt Parfitt https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Reflective orientations and genre navigation in dissertation writing: Insights from seven years of doctoral writing retreats
Doctoral dissertation writing is a demanding process requiring writers to navigate complex rhetorical, disciplinary, and institutional expectations. This study examines how doctoral writers perceive and handle these challenges. More than 1000 reflections were collected from 278 participants across seven years of dissertation writing retreats. Through their reflections, writers articulate how they negotiate the dissertation's distinctive parameters, particularly in adapting writing practices to new rhetorical contexts, managing complex research tasks, and developing sustained project timelines. Participants’ reflections also illustrate three distinct approaches to managing writing tasks: strategic problem-solving, affirmative progress recognition, and responsive integration of both approaches. Writers demonstrating a responsive approach, combining practical solutions with positive self-acknowledgment, showed enhanced goal completion compared to those employing strategic approaches alone. This research extends current theoretical frameworks of genre use by considering the relationship between metacognitive problem-solving and positive affect during dissertation drafting. Data suggest that successful genre navigation of dissertations often depends on writers' ability to develop compensatory mechanisms when faced with the tacit or occluded nature of the dissertation expectations. These findings contribute to writing theory by exploring how writers manage complex genres and offer principles for structuring doctoral writing support.
Copyright (c) 2025 Dr. Kathryn Baillargeon https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Writing traits: Examining the consistency of behavioral patterns in writers’ composing processes
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.
Copyright (c) 2026 Emily Dux Speltz, Jens Roeser, Wren Bouwman, Evgeny Chukharev, Mark Torrance https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
“It’s giving AI”: Reading ambiguously-authored texts and the role of felt sense
To understand how human readers navigate a literate landscape that newly includes AI-generated prose, we asked participants (n=76) to read and make decisions about who and/or what is responsible for writing anonymized, “ambiguously-authored” texts. Findings suggest that readers’ assumptions about who and/or what wrote a text are rooted in “felt sense.” Prompting participants to make their “felt sense” explicit allowed us to catalog the evidential warrants participants relied on when making authorship decisions. Enabled by a modified grounded theory approach to analysis, we constructed two main themes. First, readers are “triggered” by certain textual cues that, when combined with prior experiences and knowledge, evidentially warrant assumptions about who and/or what wrote a text. Second, after recognizing the consequences of making one’s felt sense explicit, some readers experience what we call an “axiological crisis.” Axiological crises emerge when participants meta-cognitively hear or see themselves attributing certain characteristics and values to an AI text-generator or human author. We conclude by reimagining the axiological crisis as an opportunity for improving metacognitive awareness about how felt sense affects our reading practices.
Copyright (c) 2026 Elizabeth Velasquez, Christa Teston https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Enhancing elementary students' writing habits with generative AI: A study of handwritten diary and AI companions
This empirical exploration investigates how integrating a handwritten diary with a generative AI writing companion can strengthen elementary school students' writing habits and interests in a naturalistic classroom setting. The AI companion serves as a personalized assistant, offering real-time ideas, suggestions, and feedback. By encouraging students to handwrite daily experiences and emotions, then digitize their entries, the approach fosters both reflection and skill development. Over 18 weeks, 32 students from grades three to five (average age 10.5 years old) recorded their diary in Chinese and interacted with the AI companion. This exploratory study employed a pre-post, single-group design, analyzing diary entries, interaction logs, and questionnaire data to assess changes in writing participation and interest. The findings indicate three major outcomes: a notable increase in writing participation, reflected by a rise in the number of ideas and entry length; an enhanced level of writing interest, demonstrating the effectiveness of merging traditional handwriting with AI tools; and improved writing behavior through more frequent and diverse writing activities. When students encountered challenges—such as topic selection or content organization—the AI companion supplied up to three suggestions, preventing information overload and preserving independent thinking. Overall, this interactive, AI-supported environment transformed writing from a solitary task into a dynamic, collaborative process, boosting motivation and quality. The study thus illustrates how strategically blending handwritten diary with innovative AI systems can enrich writing education and sustain students' long-term engagement, while acknowledging its exploratory nature and the need for further research to establish causal links.
Copyright (c) 2026 Chang-Yen Liao https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Using AI to understand students’ self-assessments of their writing
This study focuses on a generative AI approach to facilitate qualitative analysis in Writing Studies research. We gathered 13,336 one-sentence to one-paragraph responses written by 3,334 incoming students in a directed self-placement program administered at a large R1 U.S. university. In these responses, students describe their high school writing experience and college writing expectations. In stage one of the project, we pilot the use of Retrieval-Augmented Generation to expedite the selection of relevant responses for a topic—in this case, students’ positive self-assessments as writers. The selected responses were then compared to a random sample and rated by three faculty with writing expertise. In stage two, these faculty generated codes and themes from a subset of the responses, incorporating ChatGPT-4 through the stages of thematic analysis. Results show that the use of AI expedites and enhances qualitative analysis, but human participation in the process is still essential. We suggest a machine-in-the-loop framework with which Writing Studies researchers can more readily integrate generative AI to study large corpora of student writing.
Copyright (c) 2026 Madeleine Sorapure, Seth Erickson, Sarah Hirsch, Kenny Smith https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
In-class or out-of-class? Unveiling factors influencing EFL learners' dynamic interaction in MALL-based collaborative writing
Mobile assisted language learning (MALL) has facilitated language learning across time and space. Previous studies have found that students show different learning behaviors and interactions in different writing contexts, but few studies have explored how these contexts influenced learners’ interactions in MALL-based collaborative writing. This case study investigated how context-related factors mediated interaction patterns between two groups (n=6) of Chinese secondary EFL learners as they engaged in MALL-based collaborative writing in both in-class and out-of-class contexts. Data were collected from multiple sources, including questionnaires, online writing and discussion records, reflection papers, and semi-structured interviews. Adopting Storch’s (2002) model of “equality” and “mutuality,” this study found that both groups demonstrated a facilitator/collaborative pattern during Task One. However, in Task Two, Group One changed to a collaborative pattern, while Group Two shifted to a cooperative/withdrawn pattern. Drawing upon the expanded activity model, the analysis revealed six factors that shaped students’ interaction dynamics across contexts: goals, roles, emotional engagement, collaborative writing strategies, team management, and technological affordances. These findings deepen our understanding of how writing contexts influence group collaboration and offer both theoretical and empirical insights into how MALL-based collaborative writing can be designed and facilitated in second language (L2) education.
Copyright (c) 2026 Lisha Wang, Lirui Li https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Prompting for scaffolding: A thematic analysis of K-12 students’ use of educational chatbots for writing support
With the emergence of generative artificial intelligence, dialogue systems like chatbots are redefining traditional concepts of authorship and impacting critical aspects of writing. In educational contexts, previous research has pointed out new opportunities associated with using chatbots for writing instruction and support. This study involved 108 students across 10 classes in Norwegian K-12 education, examining how they employed educational chatbots as a support tool in L1 writing assignments. Through an inductive, data-driven thematic analysis of 895 student prompts, five recurring patterns emerged: information requests, structural guidance, example requests, content creation, feedback on text, and follow-up clarification. Aggregated results show that information requests were the most common pattern, particularly among younger students, whereas content creation and feedback on text were more prevalent among secondary and upper secondary students. Illustrative examples from the conversations revealed that generative AI extensively produced content on student’s behalf, even when students primarily sought scaffolding. The study proposes that effective scaffolding of writing through educational chatbots requires not only refining students' prompting strategies but also enhancing system designs that better support pedagogical use of generative AI.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jon Olav Sørhaug https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
The relevance of executive functions for writing competence in skilled writers
The relevance of the three core executive functions for text quality and individual text features had already been shown in a number of studies with novice writers. However, experimental data on the influence of executive functions in adult, skilled writers are rare. This cross-sectional study thus investigated how inhibition, updating, and shifting are related to text quality and relevant individual text features in skilled writers. Sixty-three adult, skilled writers wrote an explanatory text. The text product was used to analyze text quality (as perceived by the recipient) and individual text features (information content, cohesion, lexical diversity, appropriate words, syntactic complexity). Executive functions were assessed with standardized tests. Analyses highlighted the importance of conveying cohesive information when writing explanatory texts. Regarding the role of executive functions, inhibition significantly influenced information content and cohesion; updating influenced the use of appropriate words; and shifting influenced perceived text quality. These findings emphasize that executive functions play an important role in writing not only for novice writers but across the lifespan, whereby their influence changes with development and expertise.
Copyright (c) 2025 Julie Wolf, Rebecca Maria Kreutz, Ann-Kathrin Hennes, Alfred Schabmann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Introduction to the Special Issue | Operating units in written language performance: Linguistic and behavioral perspectives
This special issue of Journal of Writing Research addresses the fundamental question of performance units in writing: how can we characterize these units and which theoretical paradigms allow us to describe them? Despite their core role in the writing activity, there is no consensus on the nature of written performance units. In order to progress on this issue, the different articles presented in this special issue shed light on performance units, their description, definition and role in text construction. Different methodological and theoretical approaches, based on behavioral data, with pauses as a central indicator, illustrate how linguistic structures produced in these units constrain written production.
Copyright (c) 2025 Georgeta Cislaru, Claire Doquet, Thierry Olive https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Training programmes on writing with AI – but for whom? Identifying students’ writer profiles through two-step cluster analysis.
Generative AI has the potential to transform writing in schools and universities. This makes it necessary to develop training programmes for writing with AI, especially for students in teacher training. So far, however, little is known about the students' initial preconditions on which the trainings can be based upon. Evidence so far has come mainly from observational studies and questionnaire studies examining the frequency and type of AI use. However, the students themselves were not considered, nor the extent to which they can be categorised into groups. In other words, the focus has been on the writing rather than on the writers. To address this gap, the present article analyses data from a survey of N=505 students. To identify writer profiles, i.e. groups of students with comparable characteristics, we apply two-step cluster analysis. The students are clustered based on their use of AI for writing, as well as their level of awareness of AI applications, AI literacy, digital media literacy and writing-related self-concept. The results reveal four clusters, the two largest of which are characterised by the fact that students tend not to use AI, sometimes because they apparently have no awareness of AI, sometimes despite having such awareness. Merely one cluster, which describes 20% of the students, is characterised by regular use of AI for writing. The results therefore provide a useful insight for planning training in the context of university teaching.
Copyright (c) 2025 Gerrit Helm, Florian Hesse https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Student perspectives on the use of AI-based language tools in academic writing
Artificial intelligence-based Language Tools (AILTs) are being increasingly used in essay writing in higher education. Its application promotes global and multicultural perspectives in education and plays a critical role in advancing scholarly communication and research dissemination. However, these benefits cannot be measured without also considering student perspectives. This study analyzes the positive and negative aspects identified by students regarding the use of AILTs in their written texts at university. A total of 314 undergraduate and graduate education students were surveyed, and results were analyzed using the Reinert method. The results show that positive aspects are linked to the three pillars of text construction (planning, textualization, and revision). The negative aspects highlight concerns about academic integrity and student competencies. These findings can help guide teachers on how they can promote the responsible and beneficial use of AILTs.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mari Mar Boillos, Nahia Idoiaga https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
The KLiCKe corpus: Keystroke logging in compositions for knowledge evaluation
Despite the growing interest in the dynamics of the writing process in writing research, publicly available large-scale corpora of keystroke logs have been rare. We introduce KLiCKe, a freely available collection of keystroke logs for around 5,000 argumentative texts written by adults in the United States. The KLiCKe corpus also includes human-rated holistic scores for the essays as well as writers' demographic details, their typing skills, and vocabulary knowledge. We describe our methods for constructing the corpus and present descriptives for different components of the corpus. To illustrate the use of the KLiCKe corpus, we report a study using a subset of the corpus to investigate whether keystroke features are associated with holistic writing quality for L1 and L2 writers. The study shows that higher writing scores are related to shorter pauses in general, shorter between-word pauses, lower proportion of deletions, higher proportion of insertions, and less process variance. The KLiCKe corpus provides a robust resource for researchers to study the dynamics of text production and revision that will help spur the development of process-oriented tools and methodologies in writing assessment and instruction.
Copyright (c) 2025 Yu Tian, Scott Crossley, Luuk Van Waes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Book review | The hitchhiker's guide to writing research: A Festschrift for Steve Graham
Copyright (c) 2024 Jonathan M. Marine https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Good text quality despite deficient transcription skills: An analysis of double dissociation
Current writing models suppose that the production of a good-quality text is a complex interaction of low-level transcription skills (handwriting fluency and spelling) and higher-level cognitive and text-specific formulation skills (such as building cohesion and using diverse and appropriate vocabulary). Low-level transcription skills, albeit important for text quality, can only explain a small part of its variance. Therefore, in this paper we investigate whether there exist children who show discrepant achievements in text quality and low-level transcription skills and how they can be characterized in terms of higher-level text-specific formulation skills. A total of 186 native German-speaking 5th to 7th grade students had to complete transcription skills tests and write a narrative text. Text quality and text-specific formulation skills were measured. The following results were obtained: (1) Students with double dissociations (deficient transcription skills/ age-appropriate text quality or the reverse) could be identified; (2) these groups differed significantly in text-specific formulation skills, namely lexical diversity, correct sentence building, and local cohesion. Generally, children with the same low-level transcription skills (whether age-appropriate or deficient) who wrote better texts, achieved higher scores in these variables. The findings emphasize the importance of text-specific formulation skills and their consideration in writing instruction.
Copyright (c) 2025 Rebecca Maria Kreutz, Julie Philippek, Ann-Kathrin Hennes, Alfred Schabmann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Book review | Conceptualizing, designing, implementing, and evaluating writing interventions
Conceptualizing, Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating Writing Interventions, edited by Fien De Smedt, Renske Bouwer, Teresa Limpo, and Steve Graham, emerges as a comprehensive guide for researchers navigating the many steps to developing a writing intervention. Writing interventions are changes to a writer’s traditional approach which are meant to improve a writer’s cognitive processes in order to become a more skilled writer. These interventions are often implemented in classrooms, from primary schools to post-secondary education. This volume offers a start-to-finish overview of the intervention research process. The structure mirrors its title, dividing its contents into four crucial stages of intervention research. These stages are grounded in previous volumes on writing intervention research in the Brill Studies in Writing Series, which provide insight into how writing interventions have changed over the years and demonstrate a pattern of research design. Additionally, the need for a shared framework is emphasized through both reports from the National Commission on Writing (2004) and influential writing models by Graham (2018a, 2018b) and Hayes (2012), which recognize the significance of motivational factors in writing.
Copyright (c) 2024 Wren Bouwman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Examining reading and writing processes in a graduate level multiple text task: A think-aloud study
Writing from multiple texts is among the most common yet challenging tasks for higher education students. However, limited research has examined the strategies used by these highly competent readers and writers. The present descriptive study examines reading strategy use, writing strategy use, and writing performance in a sample of higher education students enrolled in graduate-level education classes. Students completed a scholarly multiple texts reading-to-write (S-MTRW) task, asking them to read three short research articles and to write a research report while thinking aloud and sharing their screen. Results indicate that students commonly reported evaluating, elaborating, and paraphrasing content during reading. During writing, students commonly engaged in summarizing, composing, and rereading information from the texts provided. Furthermore, the majority of students produced emergent documents models, reflecting limited attempts at synthesis in their writing about the research articles they read. A medium positive correlation was found between the number of instances students reported paraphrasing content while reading and the number of instances of multiple-text integration in students’ writing.
Copyright (c) 2025 Gala Campos Oaxaca https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Distinguishing effective writing styles in the PERSUADE corpus
Many linguistic studies of writing assume a single linear relationship between linguistic features in the text and human judgments of writing quality. However, writing quality may be better understood as a complex latent construct that can be constructed in a number of different ways through different linguistic profiles of high-quality writing styles as shown in Crossley et al. (2014). This study builds on the exploratory study reported by Crossley et al. by analyzing a representational corpus of 4,170 highly rated persuasive essays written by secondary-school students. The study uses natural language processing tools to derive quantitative representations for the linguistic features found in the texts. These linguistic features inform a k-means cluster analysis which indicates that a four-cluster profile best fits the data. By examining the indices most and least distinctive of each cluster, the study identifies a structured writing style, a conversational writing style, a reportive writing style, and an academic writing style. The findings support the notion that writers can employ a variety of writing profiles to successfully write an argumentative essay.
Copyright (c) 2025 Wesley Morris, Scott Crossley, Langdon Holmes, Joon Choi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Effects of text structure instruction on expository text writing: An intervention for grade 7 English as foreign language learners
Expository text writing is an essential skill for EFL primary school students, particularly where English is the medium of instruction. This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of explicit text structure instruction on the expository text writing of grade 7 EFL learners. Two intact groups of learners were randomly selected from two schools and designated as the experimental (n=44) and control (n=39) groups. The experimental group received explicit text structure instruction in two phases, while the control group followed the regular curriculum. Analysis of the post-test data using ANCOVA indicated that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in text structure identification (η2= 0.34), as well as in writing simple descriptive (η² = 0.28) and cause-and-effect paragraphs (η² = 0.37). An in-depth analysis of the participants’ writings showed that the experimental group included more main ideas/supportive details, and more precise word choices in their simple descriptive (η2=0.57 and η2=0.07) and cause-and-effect paragraphs (η2=0.43 and η2=0.35), respectively, with effect sizes ranging from medium to large. Moreover, the participants in the experimental group demonstrated significant improvements in their topic sentence writing quality, particularly in simple descriptive paragraphs (η² = 0.06), with a medium effect size. Finally, the study concludes with practical implications for EFL writing instruction and recommendations for future research.
Copyright (c) 2025 Andualem Tesfa; Dawit Amogne, Yinager Teklesellassie, Dereje Negede https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Sentence-centric modeling of the writing process
Linguistic modeling of the writing process has gained in importance in recent years. Existing models, both from a linguistic perspective focusing on syntactic analyses as used in natural language processing and from writing research, are insufficient to actually linguistically explain what authors do when writing and revising. Writing is linear in time, but writers are free to move to any point in the text produced so far whenever they want, thus producing specific parts (e.g., sentences) in a non-linear fashion. However, the final product is a linear sequence of sentences. We therefore can interpret writing texts as a sentence-driven process. In this new framework, this article proposes a model of the production of sentences during writing. This sentence-centric model builds on existing considerations of transforming sequences, bursts and revisions, and takes into account aspects of linearity and non-linearity on the sentence level. We present a working implementation (available as open source software) and show which information can be gained by the resulting analyses in a small case study.
Copyright (c) 2025 Malgorzata Anna Ulasik, Cerstin Mahlow, Michael Piotrowski https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Motivation matters: The positive influence of parental involvement on children’s writing outcome
Theoretical models and empirical evidence suggest parental involvement in general education is beneficial for children’s educational outcomes and that motivational factors may contribute to explaining parental involvement in children’s education. Few studies, however, have examined the role of parental involvement in children’s writing outcomes and, to our knowledge, none has investigated the motivations of Parents/Carers to support their children’s writing development in the first place. In this study, we aimed to address this gap by measuring Parents'/Carers' autonomous and controlled motivations for supporting their children’s writing at home and their engagement in writing activities with their children, and then assessing the links between parental motivations and involvement, and children’s writing quality and attitudes toward writing. Participants included 159 Year 2 children and their Parents/Carers. Structural equation modelling showed indirect effects between Parents'/Carers' autonomous motivation and children’s writing quality via the mediators of parental involvement and children’s attitudes towards writing. Conversely, Parents'/Carers' controlled motivation had no significant association with children’s writing outcomes. Findings suggested that, when Parents/Carers are autonomously motivated and involved in writing activities with their children at home, their children show stronger positive attitudes towards writing. Educational implications include encouraging home-school initiatives that foster autonomous motivation in Parents/Carers and support Parents/Carers in engaging in a wide range of enjoyable writing activities with their children at home, creating a community where writing is valued across home and school contexts.
Copyright (c) 2025 Bronte Kelso-Marsh, Anabela Abreu Malpique, Helen Davis, Debora Similieana Valcan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
The Impact of ChatGPT as a Brainstorming Tool on Gifted Students' Persuasive Writing
This study investigated the impact of using ChatGPT 3.5 as a prewriting brainstorming tool on the overall quality of persuasive writing among five gifted seniors majoring in Arabic at the College of Education, Kuwait University. Giftedness, in this study, was not defined by innate advantages such as intelligence quotient (IQ) but was instead viewed from a multidimensional perspective, focusing on academic performance, writing skills, and personal traits that reflect intellectual engagement. Four participants were typically developing gifted students, while one participant was twice exceptional, both gifted and autistic. An integrated single-subject design with multiple probes across multiple baselines was used, with each participant serving as their own control. Repeated measures were used throughout the baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases to monitor intraindividual variability and examine the effectiveness of the intervention. The results indicated a significant increase in mean scores for persuasive essays from baseline to intervention for all participants, with continued improvement during maintenance for all but the twice-exceptional student, whose mean maintenance score remained unchanged from the intervention. While promoting ChatGPT 3.5 as a valuable brainstorming tool for persuasive writing, this study emphasizes its complementary role and recommends that writers engage in brainstorming using multiple resources before writing.
Copyright (c) 2025 Huda Almumen, Mohammed Jouhar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Teaching grammar and writing: A randomised controlled trial and implementation process evaluation of Englicious
Very few research studies of the teaching of grammar and writing had been carried out with children younger than eight-years-old prior to the research reported in this paper. The research evaluated a new approach to teaching grammar and writing called Englicious. A Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) and Implementation and Process Evaluation (IPE) research design, featuring 1,246 pupils aged six to seven-years-old in 70 primary school classes, was used to evaluate the effectiveness of Englicious for improving children’s writing. The approach was implemented in the context of the programs of study for grammar teaching in England’s national curriculum. The research found that there was no effect of the grammar teaching intervention on pupils’ narrative writing. The effect size for pupils’ sentence generation was sufficient to merit reflections about potential impacts of aspects of the intervention although this outcome also did not reach statistical significance. It is hypothesised that the manipulation of words, phrases and sentences, combined with practice at writing, may have contributed to any positive effect, although this would need to be confirmed in future research. It is concluded that until more research is done to investigate the effectiveness of different approaches to teaching grammar and writing with young children, existing evidence-based approaches are more likely to be effective to help young pupils’ narrative writing. England’s national curriculum specifications for teaching grammar and writing could usefully be reviewed to more closely reflect the evidence base from this field of writing research.
Copyright (c) 2025 Dominic Wyse, Bas Aarts, Jake Anders, Alice de Gennaro, Julie Dockrell, Yana Manyukhina, Sue Sing, Carole Torgerson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/