TY - JOUR
T1 - Say more and be more coherent
T2 - How text elaboration and cohesion can increase writing quality
AU - Crossley, Scott A.
AU - McNamara, Danielle S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by the Institute for Education Sciences (IES R305A080589 and IES R305G20018-02). Ideas expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IES. We thank various members of the SoLET lab at Arizona State University (Jianmin Dai and Laura Varner specifically) and members of the Institute for Intelligent Systems at The University of Memphis (Carl Cai and Art Graesser specifically). Most importantly we thank Mary Jane White for early work on this project. Without her, this article would have never been possible.
Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by the Institute for Education Sciences (IES R305A080589 and IES R305G20018-02). Ideas expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IES. We thank various members of the SoLET lab at Arizona State University (Jianmin Dai and Laura Varner specifically) and members of the Institute for Intelligent Systems at The University of Memphis (Carl Cai and Art Graesser specifically). Most importantly we thank Mary Jane White for early work on this project. Without her, this article would have never been possible
Publisher Copyright:
© Earli | This article is published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncom mercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - This study examines links between essay quality and text elaboration and text cohesion. For this study, 35 students wrote two essays (on two different prompts) and for each, wer e given 15 minutes to elaborate on their original text. An expert in discourse comprehension then modified the original and elaborated essays to increase cohesion, resulting in a 2 (prompt) x 2 (original content, elaborated content) x 2 (original cohesion, improved cohesion) design. Expert raters scored the essays for overall quality and text coherence. In terms of overall ess ay quality, increasing text content (i.e., elaboration) and improving cohesion both led to significa nt gains in expert judgments of writing quality, and a combination of both elaboration and improved cohesion led to increased scores over increased cohesion alone. Judgments of text coherence were increased by improved cohesion (but not elaboration); and a combination of both elabo ration and improved cohesion led to higher human ratings of coherence in comparison to the original and elaborated versions.
AB - This study examines links between essay quality and text elaboration and text cohesion. For this study, 35 students wrote two essays (on two different prompts) and for each, wer e given 15 minutes to elaborate on their original text. An expert in discourse comprehension then modified the original and elaborated essays to increase cohesion, resulting in a 2 (prompt) x 2 (original content, elaborated content) x 2 (original cohesion, improved cohesion) design. Expert raters scored the essays for overall quality and text coherence. In terms of overall ess ay quality, increasing text content (i.e., elaboration) and improving cohesion both led to significa nt gains in expert judgments of writing quality, and a combination of both elaboration and improved cohesion led to increased scores over increased cohesion alone. Judgments of text coherence were increased by improved cohesion (but not elaboration); and a combination of both elabo ration and improved cohesion led to higher human ratings of coherence in comparison to the original and elaborated versions.
KW - Coherence
KW - Cohesion
KW - Elaboration
KW - Essay quality
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U2 - 10.17239/JOWR-2016.07.3.02
DO - 10.17239/JOWR-2016.07.3.02
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85063022207
SN - 2030-1006
VL - 7
SP - 351
EP - 370
JO - Journal of Writing Research
JF - Journal of Writing Research
IS - 3
ER -