Writing Techniques of Top-Performing High School Students Using Online Information Sources

Abstract

This study investigates the regional and local writing techniques students employ while accessing online sources for their essays. The following two methods for global writing were discovered through the analysis of screenshots, think-aloud exercises, and interviews: 1) The students created papers for mediating planning; they divided their time between conducting online research and developing planning papers for mediating; they then had to write and modify a text. 2) The pupils alternated between conducting research, writing, and editing their papers utilizing just the sources that were made available to them. They either did not write any intermediate pieces or only a very few. Each global strategy was divided into several additional supporting strategies (e.g., search using a combination of content and rhetorical keywords; take hard copy notes; draft a text out of the sequence in which it appears in the final text; use automatic spelling and grammar checkers to guide review). A few of these methods are utilized in writing based on printed materials in a way that is fairly comparable to how other techniques are used. On the other hand, having access to the Internet encouraged the creation of novel techniques for both writing and research. We contend that authors created task settings and used techniques that minimized Internet limitations, electronic writing mediums, and their internal cognition. This is achieved by utilizing the potential offered by the Internet, electronic writing platforms, and their internal intellect. The more conventional ways of writing cognitive research as well as the more contemporary forms of writing cognitive research from sources are both expanded by this study.