Scaffolding appraisal and reader awareness to enhance participatory writing in the Swedish middle-school classroom

In this paper, we explore how participation and participatory writing can be enhanced through Appraisal theory and reader awareness. Democratic participation by the means of writing is a crucial and powerful tool. Through an intensive writing intervention, we explore the effects of scaffolding on tw...

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Main Authors: Eva Lindgren, Carina Hermansson, Per Boström, Peter Ström, Erika Sturk
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2025-05-01
Series:Education Inquiry
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Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20004508.2025.2508553
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author Eva Lindgren
Carina Hermansson
Per Boström
Peter Ström
Erika Sturk
author_facet Eva Lindgren
Carina Hermansson
Per Boström
Peter Ström
Erika Sturk
author_sort Eva Lindgren
collection DOAJ
description In this paper, we explore how participation and participatory writing can be enhanced through Appraisal theory and reader awareness. Democratic participation by the means of writing is a crucial and powerful tool. Through an intensive writing intervention, we explore the effects of scaffolding on two key aspects of participatory writing, expressing interpersonal meaning (one’s own thoughts) and awareness of readers (by argumentation and interaction in rhetorical structures) and how this can enhance participatory writing. We focus on middle-school pupils and thusly address a critical developmental stage where foundational writing skills can be significantly enhanced. Results show that the intervention based on scaffolding techniques had an impact on some aspects of the pupils’ writing. For example, some pupils responded more to counter arguments, thereby including more discussion in their texts. Also, even though the intervention did not include the rhetorical structure of a letter, pupils did include more leave-taking after the intervention. Further, the intervention had an impact on pupils’ attitude and graduation; they used more of both after the writing intervention than before.
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spelling doaj-art-31a3a06fb1324ef29fecf5fe967eee572025-08-20T03:54:11ZengTaylor & Francis GroupEducation Inquiry2000-45082025-05-0112310.1080/20004508.2025.2508553Scaffolding appraisal and reader awareness to enhance participatory writing in the Swedish middle-school classroomEva Lindgren0Carina Hermansson1Per Boström2Peter Ström3Erika Sturk4Department of Language Studies, Umeå University, Umeå, SwedenDepartment of Pedagogical Work, Borås Högskola, Borås, SwedenDepartment of Language Studies, Umeå University, Umeå, SwedenDepartment of Language Studies, Umeå University, Umeå, SwedenDepartment of Language Studies, Umeå University, Umeå, SwedenIn this paper, we explore how participation and participatory writing can be enhanced through Appraisal theory and reader awareness. Democratic participation by the means of writing is a crucial and powerful tool. Through an intensive writing intervention, we explore the effects of scaffolding on two key aspects of participatory writing, expressing interpersonal meaning (one’s own thoughts) and awareness of readers (by argumentation and interaction in rhetorical structures) and how this can enhance participatory writing. We focus on middle-school pupils and thusly address a critical developmental stage where foundational writing skills can be significantly enhanced. Results show that the intervention based on scaffolding techniques had an impact on some aspects of the pupils’ writing. For example, some pupils responded more to counter arguments, thereby including more discussion in their texts. Also, even though the intervention did not include the rhetorical structure of a letter, pupils did include more leave-taking after the intervention. Further, the intervention had an impact on pupils’ attitude and graduation; they used more of both after the writing intervention than before.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20004508.2025.2508553Participatory writingappraisal theoryreader awarenessmiddle-school interventionscaffolding
spellingShingle Eva Lindgren
Carina Hermansson
Per Boström
Peter Ström
Erika Sturk
Scaffolding appraisal and reader awareness to enhance participatory writing in the Swedish middle-school classroom
Education Inquiry
Participatory writing
appraisal theory
reader awareness
middle-school intervention
scaffolding
title Scaffolding appraisal and reader awareness to enhance participatory writing in the Swedish middle-school classroom
title_full Scaffolding appraisal and reader awareness to enhance participatory writing in the Swedish middle-school classroom
title_fullStr Scaffolding appraisal and reader awareness to enhance participatory writing in the Swedish middle-school classroom
title_full_unstemmed Scaffolding appraisal and reader awareness to enhance participatory writing in the Swedish middle-school classroom
title_short Scaffolding appraisal and reader awareness to enhance participatory writing in the Swedish middle-school classroom
title_sort scaffolding appraisal and reader awareness to enhance participatory writing in the swedish middle school classroom
topic Participatory writing
appraisal theory
reader awareness
middle-school intervention
scaffolding
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20004508.2025.2508553
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