ERIC Number: EJ1218196
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0731-1745
EISSN: N/A
Are There Gender Differences in "How" Students Write Their Essays? An Analysis of Writing Processes
Zhang, Mo; Bennett, Randy E.; Deane, Paul; van Rijn, Peter W.
Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, v38 n2 p14-26 Sum 2019
This study compared gender groups on the processes used in writing essays in an online assessment. Middle-school students from four grades responded to essays in two persuasive subgenres, argumentation and policy recommendation. Writing processes were inferred from four indicators extracted from students' keystroke logs. In comparison to males, on average females not only obtained higher essay scores but differed from males in their writing processes. Females entered text more fluently, engaged in more macro and local editing, and showed less need to pause at locations associated with planning (e.g., between bursts of text, at sentence boundaries). That these differences were detected after controlling for essay scores suggests that they cannot be attributed solely to disparities in group writing skill.
Descriptors: Gender Differences, Essays, Computer Assisted Testing, Persuasive Discourse, Editing, Scores, Middle School Students, Recordkeeping, Keyboarding (Data Entry), Writing Skills, Writing Processes, Writing Evaluation, Connected Discourse
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A