On the Effect of Teaching Critical Academic Writing on Complexity and Accuracy of Classroom Written Discourse

This study aimed to examine the effect of teaching critical academic writing on the accuracy and complexity of the writings by a group of Iranian EFL students. In so doing, a group of 30 male and female Iranian language learners were pre-tested in terms of the accuracy and complexity of their writing performance by using two wiring tasks. Then, they were taught critical academic writing for a period of one semester. The same writing tasks were again given to the participants and the accuracy and complexity of participants’ written discourse were analyzed. The results of paired samples t-test showed that teaching critical academic writing significantly improved the accuracy and complexity of writing by the participants. Finally, the results were discussed in lieu of previously published studies and the conclusions, implications and limitations of the study were presented.

Keywords:

complexity , accuracy , academic writing , critical academic writing