Gender And The Writing Process

Joanna M. Roberts

Sarah J. Mattila

Karen M. Ellis

Stephanie A. Anderson

English 521 Teaching Writing K-12, April 25, 2012

Concordia University

Gender and the Writing Process

“Christina: Most of them [boys] write about sports…Eric: I’d say that girls tend to write a little bit more about, like, their friends, and about, like, girlfriend/boyfriend stories (giggle)…Matt: If it’s something I don’t care about, then I am not going to write about it” (Peterson, 2002, pp. 358, 361).  The statements above are excerpts from observations of an eighth grade writing classroom in Ohio.  While it may be common dialogue heard in classrooms across the world, there are serious implications about students’ perceptions of gender roles in writing.  Gender influences many aspects of successful writing; by recognizing differences, an educator can fully understand and implement strategies that will be affective for all students.   A close examination of differences in the areas of writing achievement, motivation, topic choice and writing features will help educators identify differences in their own classrooms.

Writing Achievement

While gender influences many aspects of successful writing, it does not substantially influence achievement.  Attitude and self-belief toward writing have a great deal more influence on writing achievement than strictly gender has on achievement.  The difference in writing achievement between elementary age boys and girls is largely due to that fact that girls have a more positive attitude toward writing than boys.  A study “The Structural Relationships Between Writing Attitudes and Achievement in First and Third Grade Students,” concludes that there are no statistical differences in student writing achievement related to gender (Graham, Berninger, Fan 2007).

 Furthermore, a study of 775 high school students’ writing samples, school wide essays, and portfolios collected over a three-year period showed that gender does not significantly affect writing achievement.  The study found that a student’s overall academic achievement is more of a predictor of writing achievement than gender (Daniel, 1993).  In addition, the study concluded that attitude and self-belief were more significant indicators of achievement than gender.

The article “Gender and Education Myth Busters,” published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families references a study by Younger and Warrington that supports the conclusion that gender is not a factor in writing achievement.  Younger and Warrington stated “The reasons why there is unequal performance in English amongst pupils and between schools are complex.  Attempts to explain why high performing schools with little gender gap in their performance do so well have found no evidence that they tailor their reading or writing curriculum to boy’s interest or champion boy-friendly pedagogies.  Rather, they have high expectations of both boys and girls in English; provide a high quality and inclusive English curriculum and are very successful both in teaching the basic skills involved in learning to read and write, and in providing extensive opportunities for children to use and extend the skills they have developed in rewarding ways” (as cited in Department of Children, Schools and Families 2009, p. 9 ).  So while there is research that shows boys lack writing success or achievement compared to girls, the lack of success or achievement is not directly related to gender.

Motivation

Though research shows that there isn’t a vast difference between genders in writing achievement, motivation in writing plays a huge factor in the learning process and success of both genders.  Scheuer and collaborators (2011) researched and found topics that motivated girls

and boys were very different.  Boys tend to be more motivated when they are challenged and when they have the opportunity to assess their own abilities.  They lean toward a more independent style of learning.  They are more eager to write when they feel confident and at ease with their writing skills and have the opportunity to demonstrate what they can do.

According to the Ontario Ministry of Education (2004) some ways to motivate boys in their writing would be to have a clearly stated objective or purpose, by making sure that writing is highly structured, scaffolded, and explicit.  Boys should have the use of writing frames or templates to help them become more successful.  They are very visual and allowing them to use different forms of art to help them express themselves in writing is beneficial.  Working collaboratively is a good option, even though they prefer to work independently, because boys do best when they can talk through their ideas before writing them down.  They need to have some say in what they write about and it should be centered around their interests.

Girls are more social and people oriented.  They prefer writing on topics that they know and about things and people that surround them.  They have a preference for feelings and more personal type experiences.  Girls find that they enjoy writing better when they have someone demonstrate the writing process and are provided information on it.  They need to work with teachers and parents who can help them by checking for understanding.  Girls like to write under the guide of a mentor.  They are most confident in their writing when they write about what they know and are able to bring the voices of people that they know into their writing. 

Both genders find motivation through recognition for their writing and when their writing is published. They also enjoy writing for their peers and when it connects them to their communities as well as social issues that concern them. "Increasing creative control and choice may have an increased student interest in writing." (Bobbitt, 2007, p.3)  

Topic Choice

A pattern exists in the topic choices of males and females.  According to an article, “Surveying Gender Differences in Canadian School Literacy”, females are more likely to write about romance, whereas males tend to write about heroic actions.  While specific distinct topics were pointed out, the article also made note that the subjects of the study tended to write about topics they perceived were appropriate for their gender.  It was also found that females were more likely to cross into topics that were specific to male gender roles, whereas males rarely crossed over into topics that were characteristic of female gender roles (Gambell & Hunter, 2000).

In a study conducted in January of 1998, researchers found, through observations of two eighth grade classrooms in northwest Ohio, that there were distinct patterns in the topic choices of both males and females.  The differences in writing were determined to be related to gender because other factors were varied.  One school was located in a urban area with a large African American population and a low socioeconomic status.  The other school was located in an area that had mostly European American ethnicity and mixed socioeconomic status.  One of the things the study determined was that there are distinct gender differences in topic choices.  Topics that were distinctly male were topics surrounding violence and sports.  Topics that were distinctly female dealt with romance and relationships.  In discussion about writing, one female student noted, “You can sort of tell when a guy writes a story and you can always tell when a girl writes a story.  Well, if it’s like, really mushy, you can tell it’s a girl” (Peterson, 2002, p. 355).

                                                        

Features of Writing

Male and female authored texts have been shown to have detectable differences.  One such difference is the use of pronouns in both fiction and nonfiction writings.  Halliday stated “the pronouns of women's writing, as all pronouns, present things in a relational way: "I know that you know what I am referring to, therefore I will present the information as if we both know it".  The specifiers found more frequently in men's writings send the message of: "here are some details about the things being mentioned" (as cited in Argamon, Koppel, Fine, Shimoni, 2003).   Females tend to use more pronouns to relate to the reader. Males use pronouns to simply articulate information.  “Female writers more often use personal pronouns that make explicit the gender of the "thing" being mentioned (third person singular personal pronouns), while males have a tendency to prefer more generic pronouns” (Argamon, Koppel, Fine, Shimoni, 2003). Another difference in male and female texts is the involvement or informational approach.  Male writers tend to use more specific nouns in their writing, in order to give specific information.  Female writers compose in ways to involve the reader in their writings.  Females write for the reader to understand and relate to content that is written. Males write to explain the information without eliciting involvement from the reader.  The strong correlation between male/female differences and nonfiction/fiction differences suggests that different writers involve themselves and the information they are presenting into the different social processes found in the culture (Argamon, Koppel, Fine, Shimoni, 2003).

Conclusion

            To provide the most successful environment for teaching writing, educators need to recognize the influence gender has on the writing process and product.  While research shows that gender itself is not a factor in writing achievement, the phrase “girls will be girls and boys

will be boys” rings true in many aspects of the writing process.  What motivates students to write; the topics they choose to write about, and the very words they will use in their writing are all influenced by gender.  Recognizing these differences can help educators implement strategies in their classrooms designed to encourage students, motivate them, and help them become more successful writers.

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