SKILLED OR LESS SKILLED WRITER? WHICH ONE ARE YOU?
Past
research have indicated that writers skilled and less skilled writers
differ in their writing behaviour and strategies. What ARE the differences? A
case study of 2 college writing students was conducted . The writers showed
distinctive features of skilled and less skilled characteristics.
Differences
in Writing Behavior
Writing behavior can be observed in
three stages and they are planning, translating and reviewing. Generally, the
behaviour of writers during the writing process can be summarized in Figure 1
below. When they write they will go
through 3 distinct stages and the stages are planning, translating and
reviewing. However, different types of writers go through the 3 stages in
different manner.
Table
2 shows the writing behaviour of less
skilled (LS) and skilled (S) writers. For clearer data analysis, planning, translating and reviewing stages
will be discussed separately based on the behaviour of less
skilled and skilled writers respectively.
PLANNING STAGE
During
this stage, both writers behaved in accordance to past research. The less
skilled writer started writing almost immediately upon getting the title,
setting almost no time aside for planning.
According to Sasaki (2000) and Flower and Hayes (1984), less skilled writers takes a
very short time to start writing. Their notes also looked less elaborate
compared to the better writers. The less skilled writer claims that she chose
the easiest topic and said she did not like doing graphic organizers in her plan.
She also claimed that the mind map could confuse her in the planning.
The
skilled writer, on the other hand, showed elaborate planning, organized ideas.
He also had a clear picture of the rhetorical problem (Flower and Hayes, 1984)
such as knowing what and how to write the essay.
TRANSLATING STAGE
The
difference in behaviour of both less skilled and skilled writers becomes even
more obvious in this while writing stage. The less skilled writer apparently
used the re-telling method of writing and this is in accordance with the theory
by Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) which implied that less skilled writers
merely used the knowledge-telling method to write ideas-that is using
information that their memory could capture. This was interesting to observe as
the writer was seen rehearsing or trying out ideas from memory as she mumbled
during writing. In addition to that, the less skilled writer was also seen to
elicit as many content as possible even while writing. Bereiter and Scardamalia
(1987) also agreed that the less skilled writer is primarily concerned with
generating content when writing.
The
skilled writer, however, behaved in many ways like a skilled writer but in some
ways like a less skilled writer. Both less skilled and skilled writers
constantly checks on grammatical (surface) errors while writing. The research by Villamil and Guerrero (1997)
has also shown that when less skilled writers edited essays, they looked at
surface structure. Both less and less skilled writers in this study were very
concerned with grammar. However, the skilled writer went on further to even reconsider
the content and its organization and this is a characteristic of a skilled
writer according to Flower and Hayes (1984) where skilled writers consider more
aspects of the rhetorical problems and in greater depths.
REVIEWING STAGE
When
it comes to the reviewing or post writing stage, the behavior of less skilled
and skilled writer was not evidently different. For instance, both writers
refused to revise, edit or proofread their work upon finishing. It seemed as if
both writers were incapable of making revisions which would involve
reorganization of the content (Bereiter and Scardamalia, (1987). However, upon
close analysis, when asked why both refused revision, different writers
provided different responses. The less skilled writer answered that she refused
to check because she was afraid to encounter mistakes she could not correct.
This is in accordance to the characteristic of a less skilled writer b Bereiter
and Scardamalia (1987). The skilled writer, on the other hand responded that he
is confident with the job he had done and although did not revise his work but
his refusal is not due to his ability to make corrections. He claimed there
were none!
Differences
in Writing Strategies
According
to Congju Mu (2007), when writers write, they go through several strategies.
Figure 3 shows in general, the strategies employed.
The
discussion of this section would make very close reference to Table 4 below shows the summary of data collected form
Interview Transcipt and Narrative Inquiry to enable the data to be categorized
under the Taxanomy of ESL Writing Strategies by Congju Mu (2007).
For
Communicative strategies, only the less skilled writer used Avoidance and
Reduction Strategy. This is seen when the writer chose the title that she felt
was “easy.”
For
Rhetorical strategy, the less skilled writer used L1 to translate ideas into
written form. She also took time to think of a model to follow when she said
her decision to choose the essay was that she had done something like the given
title before. The skilled writer, on the other hand, had organization in mind
even before beginning writing.
For
Metacognitive Strategies, both writers Monitored, checked and identified
problems in the essay. However, the skilled writer was able to Plan by finding
focus, and also Evaluate by reconsidering written texts and the goal of the
assignment.
In
addition to that, for Cognitive Strategies, the less skilled writer was able to
Elaborate by expanding the contents of writing, Retrieve by getting information
as well as Rehearse by trying out ideas or language.
The
skilled writer , on the other hand, could Revise and make changes in the plan
of the text. He could also Clarify by attempting to dispose confusion in
writing. He was also able to Retrieve, Rehearse and also Summarize compared to
the less skilled writer. Finally, both the less skilled and skilled writers did
not use Social/ Affective Strategies at all.
SUMMARY
Behaviour
of writers
The
difference between skilled and less skilled is very obvious in this study. Less
skilled writer did not know how to spend more time at the Planning (Pre
Writing) stage. Past research has indicated that good writers had more
elaborated planning as they considered more aspects of the rhetorical problems
and in greater depth. How could that take place if the pre writing stage was
very short. In a typical writing classroom this aspect of Pre Writing was not
given as much attention as the writing stage-or rather teachers felt that the
planning was “taken care” of naturally before planning to teach this planning
stage. Weak writers did not spend much time when they write. This is a stage
that needs serious attention, needs proper planning even by the teacher as to
exactly what to at this stage. So, problems were serious in the planning stage
but teachers kept probing the writing stage.
In
addition to that, both writers had little or no sense of audience awareness.
The less skilled writer’s reason for not wanting to revise her work was that
she was afraid to see errors she could not fix. The good writer was confident
of his writing and not thinking if it was suitable for the audience reading.
The revision stage has long been proven a great help in improving writing. It
not only helps in making changes but also enable writers to see the importance
of audience in that finished piece of essay. If only students realize that the
audience/reader of their essays may not see the essay as it was initially intended
by the writer, they would be more careful of what and how they write.
Strategies
of Writers
The
analysis of the Strategies has helped to emphasize the fact that many students
wrote with no audience in mind at all. Neither the skilled nor less skilled
writer used Social Strategies meaning they did not see writing as
communication, as social interaction between the writer and reader.
Pedagogical
Implication
Writing
is no longer to be considered an individual activity. Students need to be
taught the social value of their writing. They need to be made to realize that
writing is written to be understood. More classroom activities should be
included in the writing class to encourage writing to be heard, writing to be
read. Perhaps if students are more concerned with the audience, then making
students assignments would no longer be as painful as it already is now!
In
addition to that, Grabe and Kaplan (1996) agreed that the Taxanomy of writing
abilities needs to be re-examined. Teachers need to look into the writing
skills needed before making students write such as: knowledge bases, and also
the process of writing. All these provide a means for organizing and ordering
factors which both influence and contribute to writing variation and writing to
be read and understood.
Research
Cited from
Noor
Hanim Rahmat (2011) Approaches in the Teaching of Writing. Shah Alam, Malaysia:
UiTM Press
