Source-Based L1 Student Writing Development: Analyzing the Relationships Among Functional Dimensions of Source Use and the Quality of Source Use

Abstract

Source-based writing is a complex and frequently occurring task type in postsecondary education. While a large body of research now exists investigating source-based student writing, few studies have used corpus-based methods to investigate L1 student performance on source-based writing tasks and to connect this performance to the holistic quality of source use. The current study investigates the relationship among functional dimensions of source use, operationalized for each text ( N = 150) as factor scores from a previously conducted multidimensional analysis, and the quality of source use through a simultaneous multiple regression. Then, using the two functional dimensions that emerged as significant predictors of the holistic quality of source use, a qualitative analysis was conducted to investigate how the most strongly loading variables on those two functional dimensions may be contributing to the effectiveness of source use. Implications are discussed as they relate to the development of source-based L1 student writing.

The Role of Executive Function in an Integrated Writing Task

“…Pedagogically, the present study offers useful suggestions for the instruction of writing from sources in higher education. It has been acknowledged that the development of integrated writing or learning from multiple texts is always challenging for students (Doolan, 2023). Therefore, in addition to explicitly teaching core writing skills such as information synthesis, teachers may guide students to adopt EF strategies.…”

“…The ability to integrate multiple sources of information and, more importantly, compose a text based on that information has become increasingly crucial for students' academic success (Bråten & Strømsø, 2011;Doolan, 2023). This kind of literacy skill has been particularly underscored in the higher education context as students must deal with course assignments based on numerous external materials (Cumming et al, 2005(Cumming et al, , 2016.…”