A Content Analysis of Postgraduate Theses Examining the Effectiveness of Writing Interventions in Türkiye

Abstract

This study aimed to examine postgraduate theses in Türkiye in which the effectiveness of writing interventions was investigated in a multidimensional way. In this context, 157 theses designed with action research or experimental/quasi-experimental methods were subjected to content analysis. Descriptive characteristics of the theses such as type, year, educational/grade level and research method were analyzed using the manifest approach, whereas the sections suitable for interpretation and synthesis such as recommendations were analyzed using the latent approach. Both approaches were used to analyze writing interventions, writing outcomes, keywords, and the implementation processes in the theses. The data were analyzed with MAXQDA 2022 software. According to the study results, lower secondary school was the level of education in which the most applications were made, and the pre-test/post-test control group design was the most preferred in theses. Creative writing, web-based technology, text type/structure-based instruction and the process writing approach were the writing interventions, the effects of which were most frequently researched. The elements of writing with the most reported findings were internal structure/content, external structure/form, and the stages of writing. The study included results that would enable teachers, researchers, and educational administrators to make theoretical and pedagogical inferences about writing instruction.