Levine, Tamar and Zehava Geldman-Caspar. 1996. "Informal Science Writing Produced by Boys and Girls: Writing Preference and Quality." British Educational Research Journal. 22 (4): 421-439.
I received this article from Paul Wyss as a possibility for my research topic. This study examines the effect of gender on science writing. The researchers conducted the study with seventh grade boys and girls in the United States. In the study, students were given five different options for a writing assignment and were asked to choose one. Each option had a theme associated with it and the five themes were "an expressive mode,...a descriptive answer,...a narrative,...a dialogue,...and...a free writing task." What the researchers found was that out of the five options, most students chose one of the first three:
1. Think of an experience that you had that is related to something you learned in science. Write about this experience.
2. Suppose you are a scientist. What would you like to invent? Describe the invention and explain why it would be useful.
3. Suppose you could take a trip through the human body. Describe your trip.
Out of those three, girls were more likely to choose any of the first three options while boys most often chose the descriptive answer option (Number 2).
The researchers also found that there were differences in how girls and boys answered the questions. For instance, for Number 1, girls were more likely to use examples of things they had learned in their class; however, boys included examples of outside experiences.
Overall, I thought that this study was excellent. The methodology was sound (large sample size, and a high interrater reliability), and it would be a fascinating study to expand. However, it does not relate to my research topic. An exciting path of research would be to see if there is any gender preference of science writing style for readers or if the preferences observed in this study only relate to the writer. It was an extremely interesting article!
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