Helping Students SOAR to Success in Synthesis Writing

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: Advances in Reading and Writing Research

Abstract

Synthesis writing is a common college requirement. It is a reading-to-write task that involves selecting, organizing, and connecting information from more than one source to construct a new text. College students struggle with synthesis writing because they fail to organize and connect ideas. The present study investigated the synthesis writing benefits of a strategy system called SOAR that helps students select, organize, associate, and regulate information. Writers either composed essays from multiple sources with or without SOAR writing aids. SOAR improved synthesis writing. SOAR-aided writers composed essays containing more text ideas, better comparative organization, and more intertextual relationships than those writing without SOAR aid. SOAR facilitated synthesis writing by aiding all three writing processes: selecting, organizing, and connecting.

Authors

• Linlin Luo, University of Regensburg

• Kenneth A. Kiewra, University of Nebraska