Vlot schrijven - Een multidimensioneel perspectief op ‘writing fluency’

Abstract

This article presents a brief review of commonly used fluency measures in writing research. These ‘traditional’ measures are complemented with fluency indicators derived from keystroke logging. The data were collected from an experiment with 80 students writing two descriptive texts, one in their mother tongue and one in their second language. This study provided information on new measures to describe fluency, taking also more process related measures into account. Next, on the basis of a principal component analysis, a new multidimensional model is presented to better address the complexity of fluency in writing. The model consists of four dimensions: (a) production, (b) process variation, (c) revision, and (d) pause behavior. Finally, in an additional case study - focusing on the use of digital sources during writing - we explored a fifth component, viz. (e) source fragmentation. These five components create a multi-dimensional and differentiated perspective on writing fluency that can be further explored in follow-up studies.