Metacognitive tools for writing

Extended writing is important for students to communicate their ideas, and it is often necessary for assessed coursework or exams at school level, too. Whether such tasks consist of essays, scientific reports or creative writing, many students underperform. The focus of this chapter is to explore the metacognitive processes at work when students write, and to establish strategies for tackling underperformance. Writing is a highly complex skill, especially for more extended written tasks. It is cognitively demanding, because students need to gather together many thoughts and ideas before forming these into a persuasive and accurate piece of text. It is also metacognitively demanding, because they must assess and evaluate their knowledge, considering its relevance to the task at hand, and select strategies to help them communicate their ideas successfully (Flavell, 1976; Wischgoll, 2016). None of this is straightforward, and more could be done to develop the requisite skills among school students (Koster et al, 2015).