Connecting Ideas in Persuasive Writing: The Impact of Middle Schoolers' Connective Use on Writing Quality

• In Event: Confronting Complexity: Vocabulary Learning in Diverse Contexts

Abstract

Researchers have called for greater attention to middle school writing, yet little research has been conducted. Addressing this gap, we examined the association between connectives and writing quality in an on-demand argumentative writing task in a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse cross-sectional sample of U.S. public school students (N=512), grades 5-8. The diversity of logical/organizational connectives in students’ essays did predict overall writing quality, when controlling for gender, socioeconomic status, grade, receptive language skills, and text length. An interaction demonstrated different associations between the diversity of logical/organizational connectives and writing quality at different levels of text length. This work aims to inform the design of pedagogies and curricula to support student writers as they transition from elementary to middle school.

Authors

• Linda Andreev, Harvard University

• Paola Uccelli, Harvard University