An Analysis of Errors and Strategies in the Expository Writing of Learning Disabled Students

Abstract

This study examined the expository writing errors of learning disabled students and two groups of regular class students. The results suggested that learning disabled students did exhibit quantitatively and qualitatively different writing performances than normally achieving students, and to a lesser extent, than regular class students who were matched to learning disabled writers on IQ and reading achievement. Learning disabled writers had significant difficulty sustaining their expository writing efforts, and their errors suggested a reliance on the knowledge-telling strategy as a basis for expository discourse production.