Abstract

Many linguistic studies of writing assume a single linear relationship between linguistic features in the text and human judgments of writing quality. However, writing quality may be better understood as a complex latent construct that can be constructed in a number of different ways through different linguistic profiles of high-quality writing styles as shown in Crossley et al. (2014). This study builds on the exploratory study reported by Crossley et al. by analyzing a representational corpus of 4,170 highly rated persuasive essays written by secondary-school students. The study uses natural language processing tools to derive quantitative representations for the linguistic features found in the texts. These linguistic features inform a k-means cluster analysis which indicates that a four-cluster profile best fits the data. By examining the indices most and least distinctive of each cluster, the study identifies a structured writing style, a conversational writing style, a reportive writing style, and an academic writing style. The findings support the notion that writers can employ a variety of writing profiles to successfully write an argumentative essay.