THE EFFECT OF DIGITAL WRITING APPLICATIONS ON 9TH-GRADE STUDENTS’ WRITING ATTITUDES

Abstract

This study examined the effect of digital writing activities on 9th-grade students’ attitudes toward writing and described the characteristics of student products created in digital environments. Thestudy used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. In the quantitative phase, a quasiexperimental pretest-posttest control-group design was used; in the qualitative phase, studentproducts were examined using document and content analyses. The participants were 59 ninthgradestudents studying at a science high school in Türkiye, with 30 students in the experimental group and 29 students in the control group. The experimental group completed a five-week digital writing program that included e-story, e-poem, e-fairy tale, e-essay, and e-mail writing activities. The “Paper-to-Digital Writing Attitude Scale” was used to measure students’ attitudes toward writing in paper-based and digital environments; therefore, the quantitative results were interpreted in relation to writing attitude rather than as a direct measurement of creativity or self-confidence. Quantitative data were analyzed using the Shapiro-Wilk normality test, independent samples t-test, and paired samples t-test. The qualitative data, consisting of 28 student products, were analyzed using genre-specific writing categories and digital literacy indicators. The findings showed that the experimental and control groups were comparable at the pretest stage (p = .429). The experimental group showed a significant increase after the intervention (p = .013), whereas the control group showed no significant change (p = .988). The qualitative findings indicated that students generally produced texts with strong thematic coherence, emotional expression, and message clarity, while technical accuracy, narrative technique, and critical monitoring of digital tool use needed further development. The results suggest that systematically planned digital writing activities can support students’ writing attitudes and enrich their written products when combined with explicit guidance on genre conventions, language accuracy, and critical digital literacy.