Written Communication Jan 2013 Open Access

Mastering Academic Language: Organization and Stance in the Persuasive Writing of High School Students

Paola Uccelli Graduate School USA ; Christina L. Dobbs Graduate School USA ; Jessica Scott Graduate School USA

Abstract

Beyond mechanics and spelling conventions, academic writing requires progressive mastery of advanced language forms and functions. Pedagogically useful tools to assess such language features in adolescents’ writing, however, are not yet available. This study examines language predictors of writing quality in 51 persuasive essays produced by high school students attending a linguistically and ethnically diverse inner-city school in the Northeastern United States. Essays were scored for writing quality by a group of teachers, transcribed and analyzed to generate automated lexical and grammatical measures, and coded for discourse-level elements by researchers who were blind to essays’ writing quality scores. Regression analyses revealed that beyond the contribution of length and lexico-grammatical intricacy, the frequency of organizational markers and one particular type of epistemic stance marker (i.e., epistemic hedges) significantly predicted persuasive essays’ writing quality. Findings shed light on discourse elements relevant for the design of pedagogically informative assessment tools.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2013-01-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088312469013
CompPile
Open Access
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Cited by in this index (18)

  1. Cuberos et al. (2026)
    Text quality and vocabulary in native and non-native Spanish analytical writing…
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  2. Potter et al. (2025)
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  4. Yasuda (2024)
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  1. Uccelli (2023)
    The Language Demands of Analytical Reading and Writing at School
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  2. Black (2022)
    Variation in Linguistic Stance: A Person-Centered Analysis of Student Writing
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  3. Fang et al. (2022)
    Genre and Register Features of Sixth-Grade Students’ Factual Writing
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  4. Tsemach et al. (2021)
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  5. Maamuujav (2021)
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  6. Jo (2021)
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  7. Yu et al. (2021)
    Improving student feedback literacy in academic writing: An evidence-based framework
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  8. Bowen et al. (2020)
    Exploring Revisions in Academic Text: Closing the Gap Between Process and Produ…
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  9. Yoon et al. (2020)
    Quantifying Disciplinary Voices: An Automated Approach to Interactional Metadis…
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  10. Aull (2019)
    Linguistic Markers of Stance and Genre in Upper-Level Student Writing
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  11. Abdollahzadeh et al. (2017)
    Argumentative Writing Behavior of Graduate EFL Learners
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    Textual voice elements and voice strength in EFL argumentative writing
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    Change of Attitude? A Diachronic Study of Stance
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