Estructura hipertextual y habilidad lectora: Análisis de la producción digital de textos argumentativos en estudiantes de 4º Año Medio

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the digital textual production of argumentative essays in the context of a ‘reading to write' task type. Our main goal is to relate the structure of the hypertext used by individuals to stimulate writing and the level of reading ability with the process indices of textual production and the quality of essays made. For this purpose, we asked sixty-eight 12th graders from a high school in Concepcion to write a dialectical argumentative essay after reading a two-style report with different hypertextual structure —hierarchical and network. The writing production process was captured through a keystroke logging. The number and duration of pauses and hypertext's views and number of revisions were registered and analyzed. Meanwhile, the writing production was evaluated by an expert who used an assessment instrument divided into three textual levels (microstructural, macrostructural and superstructural cognitive-discursive). The results showed that hypertext structure is not significantly related neither in writing process measurements nor final essays quality. Nevertheless, reading skill level significantly correlates with essays' quality, although correlation is low. It is recommended for future research in keystroke logging more focused analysis on few measurements and register occurrence patterns, location and fluency.