Scalable Writing Pedagogy for Strengthening Cohesion with Interactive Visualization

The current pedagogy on cohesion in writing relies primarily on traditional static charts to depict topical connections across sentences. However, since charts are manually generated, they are not practical for inspecting a text during the revision process. We have developed a visualization tool cal...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ishizaki, Suguru, Kaufer, David
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Coherence
cohesion
Conferences
Heuristic algorithms
Natural language processing
topical structure
Visualization
Writing
Writing instruction
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Summary:The current pedagogy on cohesion in writing relies primarily on traditional static charts to depict topical connections across sentences. However, since charts are manually generated, they are not practical for inspecting a text during the revision process. We have developed a visualization tool called OnTopic, designed to guide students' attention to their composing choices that support coherent writing. OnTopic uses natural language processing algorithms to dynamically visualize the topical structure of the student's draft and thereby help students' confront and learn to account for their composing decisions. This paper reports on a pilot study that evaluated OnTopic in a series of writing workshops. The results suggest that most students were able to successfully assess their writing from the perspective of topical structure, and develop a plan for specific revisions.
ISSN:2158-1002
DOI:10.1109/ProComm48883.2020.00029