Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	McClenny, Carolyn Sipe
Author's Email Address	cmcclenny@thomasu.edu
URN	etd-11082010-161729
Title	A Disposition to Write: Relationships with Writing Performance
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Department	Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Carolyn L. Piazza Committee Chair Alysia D. Roehrig-Bice Committee Member Barbara C. Palmer Committee Member Shelbie Witte Committee Member Bruce A. Thyer University Representative
Keywords	Writing Affect Writing Performance Writing Attitude
Date of Defense	2010-10-29
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract Disposition has been defined as a scheme of behavior, or script, that a student employs given a particular set of circumstances. This study investigated the dispositions of student writers in the context of developmental and core curriculum English composition classes. Participants responded to two survey instruments, one designed to delineate writing disposition in particular, and the other to delineate disposition for the critical thinking inherent in college level writing. Participants also responded to essay prompts. The survey results were correlated with computer-generated scores for the essays, in order to better understand the dispositions successful student writers employ. Results suggested critical thinking disposition was moderately related to writing performance for a timed, persuasive essay writing task. Writing disposition was mildly related to writing performance on the same timed persuasive essay writing task. In particular, Cognitive Maturity and Writing Confidence contributed to the variability seen in the scores for the persuasive essay. These results will better inform teachers as to the dispositions that support strong college writing. They are limited by the sampling of the participants and the available methods of assessing both dispositions and writing performance. However, this study provides groundwork for future investigations of the impact of student writers’ dispositions on writing performance.
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