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The Narrative Waltz: The Role of Flexibility in Writing Proficiency

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Title: The Narrative Waltz: The Role of Flexibility in Writing Proficiency
Language: English
Authors: Allen, Laura K., Snow, Erica L., McNamara, Danielle S.
Source: Grantee Submission. 2016.
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 16
Publication Date: 2016
Sponsoring Agency: National Center for Education Research (NCER) (ED/IES)
Contract Number: R305A120707
Intended Audience: Researchers; Teachers
Document Type: Reports - Research
Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: High Schools
Secondary Education
Descriptors: Role, Writing (Composition), Natural Language Processing, Hypothesis Testing, Correlation, Readability, Writing Skills, Essays, Cues, High School Students, Writing Evaluation, Writing Assignments, Individual Differences, Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Pretests Posttests, Reading Tests, Prior Learning, Statistical Analysis, Readability Formulas, Regression (Statistics)
Assessment and Survey Identifiers: Gates MacGinitie Reading Tests
DOI: 10.1037/edu0000109
Abstract: A commonly held belief among educators, researchers, and students is that high-quality texts are easier to read than low-quality texts, as they contain more engaging narrative and story-like elements. Interestingly, these assumptions have typically failed to be supported by the literature on writing. Previous research suggests that higher quality writing is typically associated with "decreased" levels of text narrativity and readability. In this study, the authors present the hypothesis that writing proficiency is associated with an individual's "flexible" use of linguistic properties, rather than simply the consistent use of a particular set of linguistic properties. To test this hypothesis, the authors leveraged both natural language processing and dynamic methodologies to capture variability in students' use of narrative style across multiple essay prompts. Forty-five high school students wrote 16 essays across 8 laboratory sessions. Natural language processing techniques were first used to calculate the narrativity of each essay. Random walk and Euclidian distance measures were then used to visualize and classify students' flexibility in narrativity across essays. The results support the hypotheses that students who were flexible in their use of narrativity also wrote essays that were rated as having higher quality, whereas inflexible writers tended to write lower quality essays. Additionally, more flexible writers performed higher than the more inflexible writers on general assessments of literacy and prior knowledge. These results are important for researchers and educators, as they indicate that the link between textual properties and writing quality may fluctuate according to the context of a given writing assignment. [This is the online first version of an article published in "Journal of Educational Psychology" (ISSN 0022-0663]. For the final published version of this article, see?EJ1115484.]
Abstractor: As Provided
IES Funded: Yes
Entry Date: 2023
Accession Number: ED636386
Database: ERIC
FullText Text:
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  Data: The Narrative Waltz: The Role of Flexibility in Writing Proficiency
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  Data: A commonly held belief among educators, researchers, and students is that high-quality texts are easier to read than low-quality texts, as they contain more engaging narrative and story-like elements. Interestingly, these assumptions have typically failed to be supported by the literature on writing. Previous research suggests that higher quality writing is typically associated with "decreased" levels of text narrativity and readability. In this study, the authors present the hypothesis that writing proficiency is associated with an individual's "flexible" use of linguistic properties, rather than simply the consistent use of a particular set of linguistic properties. To test this hypothesis, the authors leveraged both natural language processing and dynamic methodologies to capture variability in students' use of narrative style across multiple essay prompts. Forty-five high school students wrote 16 essays across 8 laboratory sessions. Natural language processing techniques were first used to calculate the narrativity of each essay. Random walk and Euclidian distance measures were then used to visualize and classify students' flexibility in narrativity across essays. The results support the hypotheses that students who were flexible in their use of narrativity also wrote essays that were rated as having higher quality, whereas inflexible writers tended to write lower quality essays. Additionally, more flexible writers performed higher than the more inflexible writers on general assessments of literacy and prior knowledge. These results are important for researchers and educators, as they indicate that the link between textual properties and writing quality may fluctuate according to the context of a given writing assignment. [This is the online first version of an article published in "Journal of Educational Psychology" (ISSN 0022-0663]. For the final published version of this article, see?EJ1115484.]
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        Value: 10.1037/edu0000109
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      – Text: English
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        PageCount: 16
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      – SubjectFull: Role
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Writing (Composition)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Natural Language Processing
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      – SubjectFull: Hypothesis Testing
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      – SubjectFull: Writing Evaluation
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      – SubjectFull: Writing Assignments
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      – SubjectFull: Individual Differences
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      – SubjectFull: Intelligent Tutoring Systems
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      – SubjectFull: Pretests Posttests
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              Type: published
              Y: 2016
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