Our research explores the meaningful writing experiences of 325 undergraduate students who self-identify as multilingual. Through qualitative coding of open-ended survey data, we found that respondents considered their writing meaningful when it allowed them to make personal and relevant connections and learn new skills and strategies. Our…

Discourse-based interviews allow researchers to gather data about a writer's understanding of what informs a task. This method was essential for a research team seeking to understand the impact of programmatic learning objectives on student writing development. Three decisions in the approach to this research project sought to center the student…

Although school is only one of many places where youths write, the writing privileged in school is often upheld as standard, whereas adolescents' out-of-school writing often uses forms, styles, and topics not taught or allowed in school. Little is known about how K-12 educators can use research on out-of-school writing to inform in-school writing…

A translingual approach to writing as a new paradigm has been proposed to challenge English monolingualism, question traditional ideas on language difference, advocate for writer agency in shaping their own language, and legitimize additional languages/varieties as resources rather than deficits in the target language teaching, learning, and…

This article reports findings from a three-year qualitative study that explored the nature of translingual writing practices of the emergent multilingual youth who are ethnic Korean migrant children from Central Asia and Russia to South Korea. While settling into a new society, these emergent multilingual children tend to navigate and negotiate…

Writing is an essential skill for success in many academic and professional settings. Despite receiving individualized feedback on their writing, many students struggle with writing in postsecondary education. This dissertation addresses this gap by focusing on the writing process--the moment-by-moment actions taken during writing--rather than the…

This qualitative study examined the nature of preschoolers' composing and processes in a Head Start classroom, prioritizing children's intrinsic motivation to engage in a project-like composing activity. Eighteen three- to five-year-old students participated. Data were collected across 33 classroom visits over a 3-month period. Primary data were…

Drawing from data generated in a third-grade classroom in the months following the 2016 US presidential election, this article zooms in on self-produced videos a child made of her writing process. Organized around 3 "takes" of the child's writing, the author provides readers a glimpse into (1) the child's composing in the videos, (2) a…

The correct use of collocations and prepositions plays an essential role in writing. Previous research has demonstrated that students, who master these lexical elements, have a better language awareness, improve their reading and listening comprehension, and are more creative when making a composition. However, little specific work has been done…

Usage-based theories hold that mental representation of language is shaped by a lifetime of usage. Both input to which first language (L1) and second language (L2) users are exposed and their own language production affect their construction learning and entrenchment. The present study investigates L2 users' knowledge of two…

Due to the advances of artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing, new AI-powered writing tools have emerged. They can be used by students among other things for text translation, to improve spelling or to generate new texts. In academic writing, AI-powered writing tools are posing challenges but also opportunities for teaching…

Academic writing, which allows scientific research to be shared with other researchers, has an important place in graduate education because individuals at this stage of education gain experience in their fields with their academic writing experiences and are referred to as field experts when their education has been completed. At this point,…

Metadiscourse guides how readers interact with a text and process the information they find. Because texts differ in purpose and audience, so do patterns of metadiscourse use. This research examines the patterns of metadiscourse use in topic-based writing, developed following a structured authoring method. The resulting writing is modular,…

This exploratory study focuses on the use of ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tool, by undergraduate engineering students in lab report writing in the major. Literature addressing the impact of ChatGPT and AI on student writing suggests that such technologies can both support and limit students' composing and learning processes.…

According to a growing body of research, fostering a metacognitive awareness of the writing process is integral to the development of strong writers. Writing scholars (e.g., Driscoll & Wells, 2012; Yancey, Robertson, & Taczac, 2014; Gorzelsky, Driscoll, Pazcek, Jones, & Hayes, 2017) suggest that developing this awareness can improve…