Multiple and Single-Source Text Integrated Writing: A Comparative Study of Task Characteristics and Composition Processes

Abstract

Integrated tasks (IntTs) are prominent in teaching and assessing English for academic purposes. The composition process of multiple-source text IntTs is discourse synthesis. However, there is a marked lack of discussion on it in relation to single-source text IntTs as the current understanding is that it is only elicited by multiple-source text tasks. As this has been challenged by recent research, this study undertook to substantiate the claim that discourse synthesis needs to be reconceptualized. In Phase 1 of the investigation, a guided summary writing task was analyzed, piloted with 28 participants, and the scripts were independently double-coded for content reproduction and macrorule use to document the input-related processes it engaged. In Phase 2, a comparative analysis of the task characteristics and processes engaged by synthesis and guided summary writing tasks was conducted. The results indicate that (i) the two tasks are very similar and engage appreciably matching processes, and (ii) discourse synthesis can also be engaged by a single-source text integrated writing task. An innovative difference found is that it is not the number of source texts but the special-purpose task schema that elicits discourse synthesis. This and the taxonomy of integrated task types proposed in this study are of practical relevance for researchers, teachers, and assessors.