Profiles of undergraduate student writers: Differences in writing strategy and impacts on text quality

Abstract

This study aimed to identify undergraduate students' writing profiles based on quality of planning output, revision changes between the first and final drafts, and quantity of Internet searches while writing digitally. To investigate the performance of each profile, the differences in text quality according to students' profile membership were also examined. 260 Korean undergraduate students participated in the study and wrote an opinion essay. Latent profile analysis and one-way MANOVA were adopted as analytic tools. Four profiles emerged: Revision-based, Plan-based, Search-based, and Correction-based Writers. Correction-based Writers who showed many surface-level changes represented the majority. Revision-based Writers who showed many sentential and textual changes outperformed the other three profiles; the other profiles did not show significant differences in text quality between each other. The research findings corroborated evidence for the existing issue of planning vs. revising strategies and presented educational implications based on analyzing the current state of undergraduate students' writing.