Syntactic complexity as a predictor of adolescent writing quality: Which measures? Which genre?

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott F. Beers ◽  
William E. Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Adolescent Writing

scholarly journals Exploring syntactic complexity and its relationship with writing quality in EFL argumentative essays

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-81
Author(s):  
Farzaneh Shadloo ◽  
Hesamoddin Shahriari Ahmadi ◽  
Behzad Ghonsooly
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Development Scheme ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract To predict syntactic complexity in second/foreign language writing, some studies have advocated the use of T-unit and clausal subordination measures while others have argued for the use of phrase-based measures. This study seeks to identify syntactic features that can be regarded as discriminators among different levels of writing quality. For this purpose, a corpus of argumentative essays by EFL learners was compiled and then the essays were rated and placed into three groups of high-rated, mid-rated, and low-rated essays. The corpus was then coded and analysed for both phrasal and clausal features. The phrasal features were manually coded based on the development scheme hypothesized by Biber, Gray and Poonpon (2011) for academic writing, and the clausal features were analysed using the online L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer developed by Lu (2010). A separate ANOVA test was used to compare the three groups of essays for each of the phrasal and clausal features. The findings of the current study demonstrated that subordination and dependent clauses were not good indicators of different writing qualities in our corpus. Also, the pattern of noun phrase complexity predicted by Biber et al. (2011) was not observed across argumentative essays from three different levels of writing quality.

Beyond proficiency

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-289
Author(s):  
Stuart G. Towns ◽  
Richard Watson Todd
Keyword(s):  
Writing Development ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Development Studies ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Pulitzer Prize ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Lexical Cohesion ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Interpretive Methods

Abstract Many studies have investigated the correlations between linguistic features and human judgements of writing quality. These studies usually investigate either proficient student writing or exceptional literary writing. The current study attempts to bridge these two perspectives by comparing proficient writing to award-winning exceptional writing using movie reviews written by bloggers and Pulitzer Prize winners. A range of linguistic features representing syntactic complexity, lexical complexity, and lexical cohesion were analyzed using both automated and interpretive methods. It is found that some, but not all, of the trends seen in writing development studies continue on to exceptional writing, with lexical sophistication and lexical cohesion through conceptual associations making the largest contributions to the differences between proficient and exceptional writers.

scholarly journals Effects of task structure on young learners’ writing quality

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-78
Author(s):  
Yin Ling Cheung ◽  
Hari Jang
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Task Structure ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Young Learners ◽  
Capacity Model ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
The Impact

In the past decade, research has yielded mixed results regarding the relationship between task complexity and writing quality. Some studies have suggested that an increase in task complexity results in the improvement of syntactic complexity, accuracy and fluency. Other studies have demonstrated partial improvement in fluency, accuracy, syntactic complexity, or lexical complexity. This study examines the impact of task structure on writing quality among English-as-a-second-language (ESL) young learners. The analysis is based on 236 ESL fourth-grade pupils’ narrative compositions. Using the Limited Attention Capacity Model and the Cognitive Hypothesis, the analysis revealed that Primary Four pupils wrote significantly longer and syntactically more complex texts in structured tasks, and they scored higher in lexical variety in unstructured tasks. The accuracy of writing did not vary significantly based on task structure. The study provides new empirical evidence for the argument that task structure affects ESL young learners’ writing performance in terms of syntactic complexity, fluency, and lexical variety. The findings contribute new knowledge to the field of second language writing. In particular, how task structures influence writing quality and how such knowledge can inform writing pedagogy and the evaluation of students’ written work.

Effects of increasing the degree of reasoning and the number of elements on L2 argumentative writing

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 633-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Rahimi
Keyword(s):  
Task Complexity ◽  
One Dimension ◽  
Task Characteristics ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Argumentative Writing ◽  
Writing Quality ◽  
Text Quality ◽  
Content Organization ◽  
Central Tenet ◽  
Lexical Complexity

The impacts of task characteristics on second language (L2) writing require further exploration. This study examined the effects of increasing task complexity on L2 argumentative writing. Upper-intermediate L2 learners performed two writing tasks with varying degrees of complexity in relation to the number of elements and the degree of reasoning. The learners’ writing was measured in terms of syntactic complexity, accuracy, lexical complexity, organization, content, and overall text quality. Increasing task complexity effected a significant desirable change in one dimension of syntactic complexity (notably the amount of subordination) and one dimension of lexical complexity (notably academic vocabulary use), had a significant adverse effect on accuracy, and led to the enhancement of content, organization, and writing quality. These findings lend support to the Trade-off Hypothesis, the Cognition Hypothesis, and the central tenet of Kellogg’s writing model. Methodological and pedagogical implications of the study are also discussed.

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