Reflexive writers

Ryan, M. (2014). Reflexive writers: Re-thinking writing development and assessment in schools. Assessing Writing, 22, 60-74.

Background

The author argued that students needed to be made highly aware of the implications of their writing choices made in both formal and informal settings on their writing product, their audience and their success as writers. Other researchers argued that linguistically and culturally diverse students needed to be taught how and why they made particular decisions when they produced text.

Aims

The study examined primary school students’ writing practices and writing decisions when they produced text.

Sample

The participants were 82 students, aged 10 to 13 years, from two linguistically and culturally diverse Australian primary schools. From each school, 12 students were chosen to be interviewed and to provide writing samples.

Method

The data sources were students’ interviews and writing samples. The author analysed the students’ interviews using critical discourse analysis to determine how the students evaluated themselves as writers and their writing motivations, how they made writing decisions, and what they thought about their writing practices. She analysed their writing samples to identify how they positioned themselves as writers through language.

Findings

The author found that the students approached writing in four different reflexive modalities: (a) communicative, (b) autonomous, (c) meta, and (d) fractured. Communicative reflexives followed formulaic structures and they were unlikely to make effective writing choices in more uncertain contexts outside school. Autonomous reflexives had fixed writing goals and did not deviate from them. Meta reflexives tended to take into account the comments made by others before making writing decisions to please them. Fractured reflexives were not able to make choices using other people’s responses to their writing and had trouble talking about their writing.

Implications

The author suggested that teachers could make students more aware of their writing decisions and how these decisions affected their writing. Teachers could use prompts to help students reflect on their writing samples and other people’s responses to them. As a result, students could ask themselves why they made certain writing decisions and make their decision-making visible. This would help teachers understand and interpret their students’ writing choices before they design instruction to tailor to their students’ writing needs.

Original article retrieved from ScienceDirect.

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