Social Cognition and Writing: Interpersonal Cognitive Complexity and Abstractness and the Quality of Students’ Persuasive Writing

Gene L. Piché, Duane Roen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between two measures of individual differences in social cognition and the quality of eleventh grade students’ persuasive writing. Subjects completed Crockett's Role Category Questionnaire, and wrote a persuasive letter in response to the problem, “Smoking and the School Nurse.” Letters were submitted to judges for impressionistic and attributional ratings. A content-analytic measure was applied to these 40 papers to yield a measure of the number and quality of persuasive strategies employed. Finally, the same papers were submitted to a second panel, who rated them for overall persuasiveness and appropriateness of tone. Results indicated a significant relationship between interpersonal cognitive complexity and abstractness and quality of writing, persuasiveness, appropriateness of tone, and level of persuasive strategy employed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)68-89
Number of pages22
JournalWritten Communication
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1987
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Communication
  • Literature and Literary Theory

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