Paola Uccelli|Christina L. Dobbs|Jessica Scott
Mastering Academic Language
beyond mechanics spelling conventions academic writing requires progressive mastery advanced language forms functions pedagogically useful tools assess language features adolescents writing however yet available study examines language predictors writing quality 51 persuasive essays produced high school students attending linguistically ethnically diverse innercity school northeastern united states essays scored writing quality group teachers transcribed analyzed generate automated lexical grammatical measures coded discourselevel elements researchers blind essays writing quality scores regression analyses revealed beyond contribution length lexicogrammatical intricacy frequency organizational markers one particular type epistemic stance marker ie epistemic hedges significantly predicted persuasive essays writing quality findings shed light discourse elements relevant design pedagogically informative assessment tools