Assessing Students’ Writing Performance in Narrative Genre at Higher Level of Education

Abstract

This study attempted to investigate students’ writing competence in the narrative genre by engaging them in group writing activities using the process writing approach utilizing short fictions as source texts. Participants in this study were N= 63 aged 21 and 23 enrolled in semester four at Government Post Graduate College Swat. This is a quasi-experimental study; participants of the study were assigned to control group and experimental group non-randomly.   To account for observable variables, an informative questionnaire was administered for the selection of participants before administering the pre-test; learners found similar on all observable characteristics were pre-tested. For data collection, this study employed survey questionnaire (PSM), pre-test, post-test, group writing activities and group discussion, and also conducted semi-structured interview on the key informants for in-depth investigation.   For measuring the scores made on the pretest and post-test, adapted analytical scoring rubrics were employed, also utilized as an instruction guide. To compare the means score of the two groups, independent t-test was used. Thematic analysis was applied for data collected through group discussion and semi-structured interview. The findings of the present study revealed that group discussion broadened students’ imaginative thinking and helped them interpret the texts from different dimensions and the group writing activities using process and genre approach using short fictions as source texts helped them improve their overall writing skills.  Besides, this study found that formative feedback on each other draft improved their final draft also their critical and creative thinking.  Results from interviews indicated that students felt confident to write on various topics. The findings of this study suggest that suitable teaching strategies and techniques be adopted in order to change students’ perception from product writing to process and genre approach. This study also suggests that critical reading of the content-rich texts be applied so that students struggle with detail, wrestle with facts and attempt to transform dimly understood concepts into their writing.