Opinion text: an integrated pathway of writing and the perceptions of students

Abstract

This article presents an exploratory study that focuses on the writing process through the creation of a didactic project which aims to understand how students deal with the specific learning of an opinion text. The aim is to i) present a pathway of writing involving practices for teaching and learning about opinion texts, ii) analyse the students’ perceptions about writing activities, and iii) present the students’ views on the learning carried out. Regarding the methodological aspects, the writing method presented herein was implemented in a regular 9th year class (31 students), focusing on the linguistic, textual and discursive characteristics of the opinion text. Following the didactic activity, we interviewed the students as we needed to understand their views on the didactic method as expressed in their comments. The results of the interview analysis gives us an indication that the views of students on the didactic activity are positive and that they became aware of their own difficulties and improvements as a result of the skills developed in argumentative writing.

Keywords

• didactics of writing
• perceptions/representations
• argumentative genres
• opinion text.