"Multi-Dimensional Examination of Adolescent Writing: Considering the Writer, Genre and Task Demands"

​Associate Professor Penelope Collins (first author), postdoctoral scholar Tamara P. Tate (Ph.D. ‘18), third-year doctoral student Joong won Lee, project scientist Jenell A. Krishnan (Ph.D. ‘19), and Professor Mark Warchauer published an article in Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal analyzing the writing of seventh- and eighth-grade students.
 
The title of the article is “Multi-Dimensional Examination of Adolescent Writing: Considering the Writer, Genre and Task Demands.”
 
Collins’s scholarly interests include reading and writing development, bilingualism and biliteracy, digital literacy, academic language, and engagement in literacy. Her research ​examines the development of literacy skills among linguistically diverse students from kindergarten through high school, for typically-achieving students and those with reading disabilities. Her work includes the use of in-class and out-of-school interventions, as well as digital tools to support students in reading and writing. Collins is director of the Collins Literacy Lab.

Penelope Collins

​Abstract
 
We examined the contributions of English proficiency, genre, and the use of textual sources to adolescent writing. The sample included 1,819 native English speakers and language-minority students from 127 seventh- and eighth-grade classes in an urban school district. Students were randomly assigned one of three source-based essay prompts (narrative, explanatory or argumentative) as part of the annual state assessment, and all students wrote a common, on-demand argumentative essay that did not require the use of textual sources. Overall, language minority students who were fluent English proficient wrote higher quality nonsourcebased essays that contained more difficult vocabulary, were better structured, and used examples and details more effectively than native English speakers. They also outperformed native English speakers in source-based writing. Students with limited English proficiency showed weaker performance on both source-based and nonsource-based writing tasks. Differences in English proficiency held across genres. Students who wrote argumentative essays obtained higher ratings than those who wrote narrative or explanatory essays. Source-based and nonsource-based writing were moderately correlated. Regression analyses revealed that in addition to English proficiency and genre, reading comprehension's contribution to source-based writing was almost double that of nonsource-based writing. Implications of the findings for theory and practice are discussed.