Abstract
Mathematics standards in the United States describe communication as an essential part of mathematics. One outlet for communication is writing. To understand the mathematics writing of students, we conducted a synthesis to evaluate empirical research about mathematics writing. We identified 29 studies that included a mathematics-writing assessment, intervention, or survey for students in 1st through 12th grade. All studies were published between 1991 and 2015. The majority of assessments required students to write explanations to mathematical problems, and fewer than half scored student responses according to a rubric. Approximately half of the interventions involved the use of mathematics journals as an outlet for mathematics writing. Few intervention studies provided explicit direction on how to write in mathematics, and a small number of investigations provided statistical evidence of intervention efficacy. From the surveys, the majority of students expressed enjoyment when writing in mathematics settings but teachers reported using mathematics writing rarely. Across studies, findings indicate mathematics writing is used for a variety of purposes, but the quality of the studies is variable and more empirical research is needed.
- Journal
- Journal of Writing Research
- Published
- 2017-02-01
- DOI
- 10.17239/jowr-2017.08.03.04
- CompPile
- Open Access
- OA PDF Diamond
- Topics
-
- Export
- BibTeX RIS
Citation context
Cited by in this index (0)
No articles in this index cite this work.
References (0)
No references on file for this article.
Related articles
-
Assessing Writing Oct 2026Student-AI collaboration in peer feedback: Effects on perceived feedback quality, emotional responses, and feedback literacy development ↗Hua Wang; Kai Guo
-
Assessing Writing Oct 2026Effects of varying time constraints on quality, linguistic features, and fluency behaviors in L2 writing ↗Jongbong Lee; Charlene Polio
-
Journal of Writing Research Jun 2026Teaching grammar and writing: A randomised controlled trial and implementation process evaluation of Englicious ↗Dominic Wyse; Bas Aarts; Jake Anders; Alice De Gennaro; Julie Dockrell; Yana Manyukhina; Sue Sing; Carole Torgerson
-
Written Communication May 2026Beyond Co-Regulation: Interplay as a Methodological Framework for Examining Self-Regulation in Generative AI-Assisted Writing ↗Ryan Roderick; Susan Tanner
-
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Mar 2026Bridging the Gap: A Comparative Study of Students’ and LSPs’ Perceptions of Translation Internships ↗Shuang Liu