WRITING TASKS AND GENDER - INFLUENCES ON WRITING QUALITY OF BLACK-AND-WHITE STUDENTS

The influences of writing tasks and gender on the quality of student w riting of Black and White adolescents were examined. The sample compri sed eighth-grade students (N = 170,899) who participated in statewide assessments of writing in Georgia (1989, 1990, and 1991). Thirty-one w riting tasks were administered during these 3 years. The tasks were cl assified in terms of mode of discourse (narrative, descriptive, and ex pository) and experiential demand (direct experience, imagined experie nce, and outside knowledge). A multivariate analysis of variance was c onducted with two dependent variables used to assess writing quality ( topic development and conventions) and four independent variables (Mod e of Discourse x Experiential Demand x Gender x Race). Both writing-ta sk characteristics had statistically significant influences on writing quality, as did student characteristics. Girls wrote compositions of higher quality than did boys. White students wrote compositions of hig her quality than did Black students. Several statistically significant interactions were also identified.