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Metacognitive Writing

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Reflection helps you to develop your intentions (purpose), figure out your relation to your audience, uncover possible problems with your individual writing processes, set goals for revision, make decisions about language and style, and the list goes on. In a nutshell, it helps you develop more insight into and control over composing and revising processes” (Giles, 2010, p. 193).

“Feedback from outside sources (such as peers or faculty members) will carry less weight if the students themselves have not had the opportunity to self-assess” (Havis, 2022, p. 8).

“In fact, writing will span your lifetime in various ways and through a variety of modes, mediums, and genres; allowing yourself to learn more about it helps you to become a better, more effective writer and teaches you how to transfer knowledge and practices forward to help repurpose and reframe different writing situations and contexts” (Taczak, 2022, p. 310).

Key Threshold Idea

How writers think about writing and of themselves as writers has a profound impact on their writing.

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Metacognition and Writing

Metacognitive thinking allows writers to assess what they’ve written and what others have written (see Cheng & Steffensen, 1996; Giltrow, 2003). They are better-able to make connections between various ideas and implement these ideas to their own unique argument.

Learning to think like a writer takes time and practice, but it can transform the way writers understand their writing processes and knowledge about writing (see participants in Phillips et al., 2019).

Metacognition is often prompted by reflection. When writers reflect upon and assess their prior experiences, their writing styles and processes, and their interactions with other pieces of writing, they become more deliberate and adept writers (see Giles, 2010; Anson et al., 2020).

Strong writers are able to think metacognitively better than weaker writers. The more writers hone this ability, the more independent they become in their learning and writing processes (see Anson, 1999).

Writers who have honed their metacognitive skills are more capable of transferring their knowledge of writing to new contexts (Taczak, 2022).

Being able to self-assess one’s writing and writing strategy benefits how a writer processes and implements feedback and revises their work (Havis, 2022).

References

Anson, C.M. (1999). Talking about writing: A classroom-based study of students’ reflections on their drafts. In J.B. Smith & K.B. Yancey (Eds.), Student self-assessment and development in writing (pp. 59-74). Hampton.

Anson, C.M., Greene, B., & Halm, M. (2020). Analyzing students’ construction of writing

through reflections on their drafts. Journal of Writing Analytics, 4, 140-158.

Cheng, X., & Steffensen, M.S. (1996). Metadiscourse:

A technique for improving student

writing. Research in the Teaching of English, 30, 149-181.

Giles, S.L. (2010). Reflective writing and the revision process: What were you thinking?

Writing Spaces, 1, pp. 191-204.

Giltrow, J. (2003). Legends of the center: System, self, and linguistic consciousness. In C.

Bazerman & D.R. Russell (Eds.), Writing selves/writing societies (pp. 363-392). WAC Clearinghouse.

Havis, L. (2022). Improving first-and second-year student writing using a metacognitive and

integrated assessment approach. Journal of Response to Writing, 8(1), 4-42.

Phillips, C., Hassel, H., Heinert, J., Giordano, J.B., Kalish, K. (2019). Thinking like a writer:

Threshold concepts and first-year writers in open-admissions classrooms. In L. Adler- Kassner & E. Wardle (Eds.), (Re)Considering what we know: Learning thresholds in writing, composition, rhetoric, and literacy (pp. 56-75). Utah State UP.

Taczak, K. (2022). The importance of transfer in your first year writing course. Writing Spaces,

4, pp. 301-315.

Quotes from the Field