Tracking essay writing strategies of university students writing academic assignments in English as an L2

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between planning and revising by advanced L2 writers preparing an extended written academic assignment in English. Five visiting students taking undergraduate linguistics and modern languages modules at a British University were asked to select a written assignment they had been set for one of their units and to save periodic drafts of their ‘essays in progress’ while writing the assignment. They were also asked to keep a note of their preparation and writing for that assignment.

The resulting files provide a series of snapshots of each student’s writing at various stages from earliest drafts to finished assignment. The assignments were between 1500 and 2500 words in length and were typically written over a period of several days, with some of that time taken up with research into the topic to be written about. The revisions and changes made in the assignment between saved drafts were categorised and the additions, deletions, substitutions and other changes made to both the linguistic content and the overall structure of the document were analysed.

This analysis was used, together with the students’ own comments, to develop a profile of revision and planning strategies for each writer. The analysis suggests that much of the early writing took place while the students were still formulating or finalising their plan for the overall direction and perspective of the essay.

This was reflected in the pattern of revisions the students made between drafts with changes to the gross content and conceptual direction of the text appearing to reflect a search for a form or shape which, once discovered, allows the writer to drive forward towards the goal of a ‘finished’ text. The students in this study appeared to finalize their plans in their own ways and at different points in their writing.