Abstract

While writing researchers and theorists have claimed that composing fosters learning, we need a more rigorous conceptualization of the effects of various writing tasks on learning. This study attempted to refine and extend present knowledge of the interrelationship of writing and learning by examining the effects of various writing tasks (notetaking, answering study questions, and essay writing) on learning using recall of specific text elements and recall of the theme or gist of expository writing. The results indicate that the relationship of writing and learning is indeed complex, and that factors such as students' topic-knowledge prior to writing, the content structure of the passage, and the nature of the task all assert some influence on what students learn from expository text.