Electronic outlining as a writing strategy: Effects on students' writing products, mental effort and writing process

This study addresses to what extent and how electronic outlining enhances students' writing performance. To this end, the focus of this study is not only on students' final writing products but also on the organisation of the writing process (i.e., planning, translating, and reviewing) and perceived mental effort during writing. In addition, effects of repeated electronic outlining were examined. A combined within and between subjects design was implemented in which 93 10th-grade students wrote two argumentative texts with or without using electronic outlining. Analyses showed that using electronic outlining for planning and writing significantly improved the presentation of the argumentative structure. However, effects were less clear for correctly and completely establishing a text structure and no effects were found on the elaboration of students' argumentation. Process data showed that electronic outlining increased total process time, but no effect was found on students' overall planning and revision activities. Finally, self-reports showed no effect of electronic outlining on students' perceived mental effort. Nevertheless, repeated use of the same writing strategy enhanced writing fluency

Writing argumentative texts: The effects of electronic outlining on students’ writing product and process

De Smet, M. J. R., Brand-Gruwel, S., Leijten, M., & Kirschner, P. A. (2012, July). Writing argumentative texts: The effects of electronic outlining on students’ writing product and process. Paper presented at the meeting of EARLI SIG Writing, Porto, Portugal.This study focuses on using electronic outline-tools as a specific support for a planning strategy. Previous research shows positive effects of outline-tools on students’ writing performance (de Smet e.a., 2011). However, less is known about the effects on the writing process. Focus in this study is not only on final writing products but also on the orchestration of the writing process. This leads to the following research question: What is the effect of using an electronic outline-tool on students’ (a) writing performance, (b) organisation of the writing process and (c) perceived mental effort?Preliminary analyses show that electronic outlining positively influenced writing performance. Using an outline-tool significantly improved the presentation of the argumentative structure. Process data suggest that outlining increased total writing time, but no outline effect was found on students’ planning and reviewing

Effects of electronic outlining on students’ argumentative writing performance

De Smet, M. J. R., Broekkamp, H., Brand-Gruwel, S., & Kirschner, P. A. (2011, August). Effects of electronic outlining on students’ argumentative writing performance. Presentation at EARLI, Exeter, UK.Writing is an important competence in a knowledge-driven society. Education therefore devotes much attention to its development. Students’ writing skills may be further increased when they make use of widely available word processors and profit from the tools incorporated in them that support writing. Seemingly important but underused are, for instance, tools for electronic outlining. These tools help students to develop a structured list of ideas, which they can use as a writing plan. The central aim of this study is to determine the effect of electronic outlining on the quality of students’ writing products and on students’ experienced cognitive load during the writing task. In addition it examined how students appropriate and appreciate the outline-tool and whether they need an explicit instruction in order to engage in planning. The writing products and self-report data from 34 ninth-grade students of a Dutch secondary school were analyzed. Students wrote two similar argumentative texts with or without an electronic outline-tool. Results indicate that without instruction, students devote almost no time to planning their texts. This is regrettable since results show that electronic outlining improves the quality of students’ argumentative texts. Furthermore, the cognitive load that students reported was lower for tasks that required the use of outline tools. Answers to a retrospective questionnaire showed that the short instruction on the outline-tool was sufficient for students to understand the working of the outline-tool and that most students experienced the outline-tool as beneficial to their writing

Effects of electronic outlining on the organization of text ideas

De Smet, M. J. R., Brand-Gruwel, S., Broekkamp, H., & Kirschner, P. A. (2011, August). Effects of electronic outlining on the organization of text ideas. Presentation at the annual meeting of the Junior Researchers of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, Exeter, UK.Writing is an important but complex skill in which student have to manage the cognitive processes of planning, translating and reviewing. To increase writing performance, students might therefore from the growing menu of tools that support writing. Outlining is one of the most frequently recommended strategies for novice writers to help composing a text. This study examined the effect of repeated electronic outlining on students’ text quality and perceived mental effort once text ideas are generated. Data were collected among 58 ninth-grade students who wrote two argumentative texts on an earlier discussed social issue. Students were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions in which they either wrote both texts using an outline tool or used the tool only during the second writing task. Findings revealed that first time outlining had no significant effects on text quality and perceived mental effort. However, repeated outlining increased students presentation of the argumentative text structure. Additionally, perceived mental effort decreased when students practiced using the outline tool. No significant results were found on students’ elaboration of the text structure which might be explained by task complexity. Outlining may only support more complex tasks whereas in this experiment, tasks requirements were decreased by previously discussing topics and arguments

Write between the lines: Electronic outlining and the organization of text ideas

Writing is an important, complex skill which could be enhanced through the effective use of writing tools that are incorporated in word processors. The main objective of this study was to examine the effect of (repeated) electronic outlining on the quality of students’ writing products and perceived mental effort. The study also investigated how students appropriate and appreciate the outline tool. Data were collected from 58 ninth-grade students who wrote two argumentative texts about a topic they had previously discussed during several class sessions, meaning that ideas were generated and clustered beforehand. Students’ writing products were scored for Total Text Structure, Structure Presentation, and Hierarchical Elaboration of Arguments. Results reveal that first-time tool-use had no significant effect on students’ writing products and perceived mental effort. However, repeated use positively affected Structure Presentation and led to decreased perceived mental effort, but no significant effect was found on Total Text Structure and Hierarchical Elaboration of Arguments. Answers to a retrospective questionnaire showed that students quickly appropriated the tool with tool appreciation increasing with repeated use. This study suggests that in order to profit from electronic outlining, it is important to practice using the outline tool and to use it for complex tasks, requiring idea generation and organization

Write between the lines: Electronic outlining and the organization of text ideas

De Smet, M. J. R., Brand-Gruwel, S., Broekkamp, H., & Kirschner, P. A. (2012). Write between the lines: Electronic outlining and the organization of text ideas. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(6), 2107-2116. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.1006.1015Writing is an important, complex skill which could be enhanced through the effective use of writing tools that are incorporated in word processors. The main objective of this study was to examine the effect of (repeated) electronic outlining on the quality of students’ writing products and perceived mental effort. The study also investigated how students appropriate and appreciate the outline tool. Data were collected from 58 ninth-grade students who wrote two argumentative texts about a topic they had previously discussed during several class sessions, meaning that ideas were generated and clustered beforehand. Students’ writing products were scored for Total Text Structure, Structure Presentation, and Hierarchical Elaboration of Arguments. Results reveal that first-time tool-use had no significant effect on students’ writing products and perceived mental effort. However, repeated use positively affected Structure Presentation and led to decreased perceived mental effort, but no significant effect was found on Total Text Structure and Hierarchical Elaboration of Arguments. Answers to a retrospective questionnaire showed that students quickly appropriated the tool with tool appreciation increasing with repeated use. This study suggests that in order to profit from electronic outlining, it is important to practice using the outline tool and to use it for complex tasks, requiring idea generation and organization

The Implementation of Planning and Its Effect on Efl Students\u27 Writing Performance

The Implementation of Planning and Its Effect on EFL Students\u27 Writing Performance. This quasi-experimental study is aimed at investigating the effect of planning on EFL students\u27 writing performance. To answer the research question, a quasi experimental, posttest only nonequivalent group-design was used. The subjects of the study were fifty sophomores majoring in the Teaching English as a Foreign Language in STKIP PGRI Pasuruan in the academic year 2014-2015. From the accessible population of all students taking essay writing class, two intact classes were chosen, in which each consisted of 24 and 23 students. These two intact classes were taught by the same instructor for 8 weeks from April 2015 to June 2015. The result of the experiment shows that there is no difference between the students who were taught by prewriting strategies and those who were taught by rough drafting strategies (p = .144)

Improving argumentative writing: Effects of a blended learning approach and gamification

This study investigated the effectiveness of a blended learning approach - involving the Thesis-Analysis-Synthesis Key (TASK) procedural strategy, online Edmodo discussion, online message labels and writing models - on student argumentative writing in a Hong Kong secondary school. It also examined whether the application of digital game mechanics increased student online contribution and writing performance. Three classes of Secondary 4 students (16 to 17 year-old) participated in the seven-week study. The first experimental group (n=22) utilized the blended learning + gamification approach. The second experimental group (n=30) utilized only the blended learning approach. In the control group (n=20), a teacher-led direct instruction approach on the components of argumentation was employed. Data sources included students’ pre- and post-test written essays, students’ online Edmodo postings, and students’ interviews. We found a significant improvement in students’ writing using the blended learning approach. On-topic online contributions were significantly higher when gamification was adopted. Students’ and teacher’s opinions on the blended learning approach were also examined.published_or_final_versio

Improving argumentative writing: Effects of a blended learning approach and gamification

This study investigated the effectiveness of a blended learning approach—involving the thesis, analysis, and synthesis key (TASK) procedural strategy; online Edmodo discussions; online message labels; and writing models—on student argumentative writing in a Hong Kong secondary school. It also examined whether the application of digital game mechanics increased student online contribution and writing performance. Three classes of Secondary 4 students (16- to 17-year-olds) participated in the 7-week study. The first experimental group (n = 22) utilized the blended learning + gamification approach. The second experimental group (n = 30) utilized only the blended learning approach. In the control group (n = 20), a teacher-led direct-instruction approach on the components of argumentation was employed. Data sources included students’ pre- and post-test written essays, students’ online Edmodo postings, and student and teacher interviews. We found a significant improvement in students’ writing using the blended learning approach. On-topic online contributions were significantly higher when gamification was adopted. Student and teacher opinions on the blended learning approach were also examined