Unfolding choices in digital writing: The language of academic revisions

Bowen, Neil Evan Jon Anthony

doi:10.17239/jowr-2019.10.03.03

Cited by 7 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…First, the study contributed to research into digitally constructed texts that are produced over several sessions in a natural (nonexperimental) setting (Leijten et al, 2014). Second, by coding revisions in terms of language functions and structures, the study has attempted to fill a void in process research in general, while also taking the first step toward developing a methodology/framework by which to examine revision activity through the lens of SFL (see also, Bowen, 2019). In this respect, it brings together two major analytical approaches: keystroke logging and text linguistics, and adds another level of analysis to a continually evolving field of research (Lindgren & Sullivan, 2019).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In combination with Inputlog's playback facility, these files allowed us to (re)construct a detailed picture of what the writer did-and when-by filling in linguistic realizations that were absent in the final essays. This resulted in a categorization of revisions in terms of time (sequence), place (movement within text), and language function, rank, and systemic choice (see Bowen, 2019). Temporally, revisions were numbered chronologically.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ultimately, while some scholars note that SFL has the potential to examine written text as a process of unfolding meaning (Coffin & Donohue, 2012), studies are still decidedly retrospective in their focus (Clarke, 2016;Klein & Unsworth, 2014). This study, then, seeks to further an ongoing move toward increased dynamic descriptions (e.g., Bowen, 2019;O'Donnell, 2013) by attempting to outline a new schematic for analyzing revisions in terms of sequence (temporal placement) and location (spatial placement) with relation to functional language choices. Although earlier work in this vein can be seen in Spelman Miller's (2002) use of "framing devices" as measures of revision placement, this work drew on notions of Theme that are more suited to simpler generic structures such as narratives.…”

Section: The Role Of Linguistic Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, there is little research into how language (or meaning) unfolds in written text (cf. Bowen, 2019). Studies on revision activity, for example, most often rely on heuristic taxonomies, such as that suggested by Lindgren and Sullivan (2006), and focus on revision activity in cognitive terms (Baaijen & Galbraith, 2018; Baaijen et al, 2012).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring Revisions in Academic Text: Closing the Gap Between Process and Product Approaches in Digital Writing

Bowen

Waes

2020

Written Communication

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To date, research into dynamic descriptions of text has focused mainly on the spoken mode; and while writing process research has examined language structures, it has largely ignored the functionality (meaning) inherent in them. Therefore, drawing on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and keystroke logging software, this article takes a further step toward an interdisciplinary dialogue by outlining a new schematic for coding and analyzing revisions. More specifically, we show how revision activity can be tracked within functional components, across functional components, and across clauses in terms of forward and backward movements. By exploring three digitally constructed texts, which were produced and observed unobtrusively in a natural setting, we have attempted to illustrate how one writer’s revising process can be operationalized in terms of (a) chronological movement (sequence) and (b) spatial movement (location). Findings showed how activity was relatively consistent across datasets with regard to session management, revision frequency, and distribution of revision types. Moreover, results also showed how most revision activity occurred at, or ahead of, the point of inscription, particularly with regard to revising the end of clauses. However, findings also indicated that revising the start of clauses was equally important when considering the size of functional components.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Role Of Linguistic Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring Revisions in Academic Text: Closing the Gap Between Process and Product Approaches in Digital Writing

Bowen

Waes

2020

Written Communication

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“…Only very recently revision taxonomies considering process information have been developed (e.g., Conijn et al, 2021). Bowen (2019) and Bowen and Van Waes (2020) report on an investigation to combine process and product data. They carefully examine both types of data as produced by two writers over various writing sessions in a natural setting.…”

Section: Linguistics In Writing Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extraction of transforming sequences and sentence histories from writing process data: a first step towards linguistic modeling of writing

2022

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Producing written texts is a non-linear process: in contrast to speech, writers are free to change already written text at any place at any point in time. Linguistic considerations are likely to play an important role, but so far, no linguistic models of the writing process exist. We present an approach for the analysis of writing processes with a focus on linguistic structures based on the novel concepts of transforming sequences, text history, and sentence history. The processing of raw keystroke logging data and the application of natural language processing tools allows for the extraction and filtering of product and process data to be stored in a hierarchical data structure. This structure is used to re-create and visualize the genesis and history for a text and its individual sentences. Focusing on sentences as primary building blocks of written language and full texts, we aim to complement established writing process analyses and, ultimately, to interpret writing timecourse data with respect to linguistic structures. To enable researchers to explore this view, we provide a fully functional implementation of our approach as an open-source software tool and visualizations of the results. We report on a small scale exploratory study in German where we used our tool. The results indicate both the feasibility of the approach and that writers actually revise on a linguistic level. The latter confirms the need for modeling written text production from the perspective of linguistic structures beyond the word level.

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Investigating Writing Processes with Keystroke Logging

Wengelin,

Johansson

2023

Digital Writing Technologies in Higher Education

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Already in the 1970s, researchers in linguistics and psychology became interested in understanding how written language production worked, why students’ texts ended up in a specific way, and whether writing instruction could be improved by an increased understanding of students’ actual activities during writing - what happens “behind the scenes”. They observed writing processes through video-recordings and think-aloud protocols, both of which required laborious manual analyses, but with the advent of affordable computers in the 1990s keystroke logging was developed. Keystroke logging records all keystrokes and mouse movements and provide them with a time stamp to allow playback and analyses. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the concept of keystroke logging, explain briefly how it works, and give an overview of currently available software. First, we provide a short historical background. We then move into the core idea and functionality of keystroke logging in general before turning to descriptions of specific pieces of software. We summarise similarities and differences, aiming to show that choice of software should be governed by the research question. Finally, we discuss research that uses keystroke logging as a research tool, and provide examples of research about keystroke logging as a pedagogical tool.

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Unfolding choices in digital writing: The language of academic revisions

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Exploring Revisions in Academic Text: Closing the Gap Between Process and Product Approaches in Digital Writing

Exploring Revisions in Academic Text: Closing the Gap Between Process and Product Approaches in Digital Writing

Extraction of transforming sequences and sentence histories from writing process data: a first step towards linguistic modeling of writing

Investigating Writing Processes with Keystroke Logging

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