READING TO WRITE - SELF-REGULATED LEARNING-STRATEGIES WHEN WRITING ESSAYS FROM SOURCES

Student use of two self-regulated learning strategies during a reading -to-write task was investigated. Seventy-one college undergraduates re ad two source texts and then wrote a comparison/contrast essay based o n these texts. Use of one self-regulated learning strategy, organizing /transforming, was assessed by scoring subjects' pre-writing notes on their level of organization. Use of the second strategy, task-informat ion seeking, was measured by timing how long students accessed guideli nes for writing comparison/contrast essays and two model comparison/co ntrast essays, which were available to subjects but were not required reading. Two other contributing variables, reading ability and self-ef ficacy for writing, were also assessed. Results showed that essay writ ing quality, as measured by primary trait scoring, was significantly c orrelated with each of the four variables. However, a multiple regress ion revealed that only two variables, reading ability and task-informa tion seeking, contributed uniquely to writing quality.