Evolution of textual planning and revision strategies and their relationship with the written product

Abstract

Writing is essential in the school environment, being necessary to know the process of acquiring the planning and textual revision skills that allow its mastery. This article comparatively analyzes the writing skills and strategies related to the planning process and textual revision presented by students of 4th, 5th and 6th grade of Primary Education, as well as the quality of their written products, in order to identify the pattern development of the acquisition of higher cognitive skills involved in written competence and its possible relationship with the written product. The study is based on a design with a quantitative approach and comparative character carried out with a sample of 289 students (9-12 years old), enrolled in the same educational center in the province of León, Spain. The students had to elaborate several written texts, evaluated based on different measures of structure, coherence and quality of the textual product. The results highlight that textual planning is minimal, although 6th grade students are the ones that generate the most ideas in their drafts. In relation to the revision, the youngest students are the ones who detect more mechanical errors. There are no differences in the detection of substantive errors or in the type of mechanical error correction strategies deployed, but there are differences in those activated to correct substantive errors. As a conclusion, there is evidence of a minimal but progressive maturation of the students' planning and textual revision skills as they increase the course, as well as an improvement in their written products.