Local Coherence in Persuasive Writing: An Exploration of Chilean Students’ Metalinguistic Knowledge, Writing Process, and Writing Products

Abstract

This study focused on 12th-grade Chilean students’ ability to produce locally coherent persuasive texts and on the cognitive basis that underlies this ability. All the participants wrote persuasive texts and answered a test of recognition of incoherent sequences. A subsample wrote another persuasive text while thinking aloud and had a semistructured interview about the text composed. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze local coherence (LC) in students’ writing and the relation between products and students’ ability to recognize, explain, and self-regulate LC. The majority of students composed texts that were mostly coherent although ideas were presented in long unstructured sequences that did not use the more sophisticated LC resources to construct their reasons and opinions in writing. Findings suggest an association between being able to recognize incoherent sequences, using more sophisticated LC resources in writing, and being able to explain and self regulate LC during writing.