Summary
A 35-item questionnaire concerning writing habits, experiences of writing and productivity was sent to 228 full-time, U.K. domiciled, social science research students. One hundred and one complete responses were received. Cluster analysis was used to identify three distinct groups of students in terms of the strategies they used when writing: “Planners”, who planned extensively and then made few revisions, “Revisers”, who developed content and structure through extensive revision, and “Mixed Strategy” writers, who both planned before starting to write and revised extensively as part of their writing processes. The Planners reponed higher productivity than both the Revisers and Mixed Strategy Writers. Planners and Revisers did not differ significantly in how difficult they found writing to be; Planners found writing less difficult than did the Mixed Strategy Writers. We conclude that working from a plan can be an effective writing strategy for some, but that planning is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for writing success.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bereiter, C. (1980). ‘Development in writing’, in Gregg, L. and Steinberg, E. (eds.), Cognitive processes in writing. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Bereiter, C., and Scardamalia, M. (1987). The psychology of written communication. London: Erlbaum.
Chandler, D. (1992). ‘The phenomenology of writing by hand’, Intelligent Tutoring Media 3, 65–74
De Beaugrance, R. (1984). Text production. Norwood: Ablex.
Elbow, P. (1973). Writing without teachers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Elbow, P. (1981). Writing with power, techniques for mastering the writing process. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Everitt, B (1980). Cluster analysis (2nd edition). London: SSRC/Heinemann.
Faigley, L, and Witte, S. (1981). ‘Analyzing revision’, College Composition and Communication 32, 400–414.
Flower, L.S., and Hayes, J.R. (1981a). ‘A cognitive process theory of writing’, College Composition and Communication 32, 365–387.
Flower, L.S., and Hayes, I.R. (1981b). ‘Plans that guide the composing process’, in Frederiksen, C., and Dominic, I. (eds.), Writing: The nature, development, and teaching of written communication. Volume 2. Writing: Process, Development and Communication. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Glynn, S.M., Britton, B.K., Muth, K.D., and Dogan, N. (1982). ‘Writing and revising persuasive documents: Cognitive demands’, Journal of Educational Psychology 74, 557–567.
Hartley, I., and Knapper, C.K. (1984). ‘Academics and their writing’, Studies in Higher Education 9, 151–167.
Hartley, I., and Branthwaite, A. (1989). ‘The psychologist as wordsmith, A questionnaire study of the writing strategies of productive British Psychologists’, Higher Education 18, 423–458.
Hudson, L. (1968). Frames of mind; ability, perception and self perception in the arts and sciences. London: Methuen.
Kellogg, R.T. (1986). ‘Writing method and productivity of science and engineering faculty’, Research in Higher Education 25, 147–163.
Kellogg, R.T. (1987). ‘Writing performance, effects of cognitive strategies’, Written Communication 4, 269–298.
Kellogg, R.T. (1990). ‘Effectiveness of pre-writing strategies as a function of task demands’, American Journal of Psychology 103, 327–342.
Lowenthal, D., and Wason, P.C. (1977). ‘Academics and their writing’, Times Literary Supplement, June 24th, p. 782.
Matsuhashi, A. (1987). ‘Revising the plan and altering the text’, in Matsuhashi, A. (ed.), Writing in Real Time. Norwood: Ablex.
Nold, E.W. (1981). ‘Revising’, in C.H. Frederiksen and I.F. Dominic (eds.), Writing, process, development and communication. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Perl, S. (1979). ‘The composing process of unskilled college writers’, Research in the Teaching of English 13, 314–336.
Phillips, E. M., and Pugh, D.S. (1987). How to get a Phd: Managing the peaks and troughs of research. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Rudd, E. (1984). ‘Research in Postgraduate Education’, Higher Education Research and Development 3, 109–120.
Rudd, E. (1985). A new look at postgraduate failure. Guildford: Society for Research into Higher Education.
Sommers, N. (1980). ‘Revision strategies of student writers and experienced adult writers’, College Composition and Communication 31, 378–388.
Torrance, M., Thomas, G.V., and Robinson, E.J. (1991). ‘Strategies for answering examination essay questions: Is it helpful to write a plan?’, British Journal of Educational Psychology 61, 46–54.
Torrance, M., Thomas, G.V., and Robinson, E.J. (1992). ‘The writing experiences of social science research students’, Studies in Higher Education 17, 155–167.
Torrance, M., Thomas, G. V., and Robinson, E.J. (1993). ‘Training in research writing: An evaluation of three courses for postgraduate students’, British Journal of Educational Psychology 63, 179–184.
Wason, P.C. (1970). ‘On writing scientific papers’, Physics Bulletin 2, 407–408.
Wason, P.C. (1985). ‘How to write an essay’, New Psychologist, May 1985, 16–19.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Torrance, M., Thomas, G. & Robinson, E. The writing strategies of graduate research students in the social sciences. High Educ 27, 379–392 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03179901
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03179901