ABSTRACT
Self-monitoring is one of the mechanisms of self-regulation and is crucial to developing writing proficiency for native and foreign language students. However, many students need help with monitoring their writing process. We aim to understand better how monitoring the writing process can be deeply integrated into academic writing practices using writing revision analytics and visualizations and to investigate if transparency improves people’s writing awareness. We developed Itero, a writing revision analytics application that allows users to observe their writing behavior. Itero uses a Google Docs API to summarize character-level revision history through visualizations, analytics, and replay functions. Using semi-structured interviews and surveys, we first investigated nine participants’ experiences with Itero during an individual writing task. In the second study, 26 participants undertook a collaborative writing task. For the third study, we recruited 15 Mturk participants to test Itero using a new platform that does not require users to have Google accounts. Findings show that Itero may increase writers’ self-awareness and understanding of their collaboration structure, and the new platform would be beneficial to scale experiments online or assignments in large classrooms. We discuss design implications from these studies and how writers and instructors can use Itero and its implications for bilingual and second language education.
