Date of Graduation
Spring 2011
Degree
Master of Arts in Writing
Department
English
Committee Chair
Margaret Weaver
Abstract
Despite all the talk about procrastination in the classroom, there remains a large gap in the literature. There is no composition research to indicate in what ways (if any) procrastinating during the writing process impacts the final product. I conducted a study consisting of both quantitative and qualitative investigation. I visited three first-year composition classrooms and distributed questionnaires about the students' writing processes on the papers they were turning in that day, in particular looking for the number of days they had spent planning and drafting. Then I analyzed those papers for frequency of surface errors, errors using evidence, and length. I found very little difference between papers that were procrastinated and those that were not. Contrary to popular belief, procrastination has little to no discernable effect on the written product.
Keywords
procrastination, composition, error analysis, student writing, self-perception
Subject Categories
Creative Writing
Copyright
© Amy Diane Whitson
Recommended Citation
Whitson, Amy Diane, "The Effects of Procrastination on Student Papers" (2011). MSU Graduate Theses. 2630.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/2630
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