Classifying paragraph types using linguistic features: Is paragraph positioning important?

dc.creator	Scott A. Crossley, Kyle Dempsey & Danielle S. McNamara
dc.date	2011-12-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-08-12T11:17:07Z
dc.date.available	2015-08-12T11:17:07Z
dc.identifier	2030-1006
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/a116bd3005444dd48bf8f42492989ce6
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/26113
dc.description	This study examines the potential for computational tools and human raters to classify paragraphs based on positioning. In this study, a corpus of 182 paragraphs was collected from student, argumentative essays. The paragraphs selected were initial, middle, and final paragraphs and their positioning related to introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs. The paragraphs were analyzed by the computational tool Coh-Metrix on a variety of linguistic features with correlates to textual cohesion and lexical sophistication and then modeled using statistical techniques. The paragraphs were also classified by human raters based on paragraph positioning. The performance of the reported model was well above chance and reported an accuracy of classification that was similar to human judgments of paragraph type (66% accuracy for human versus 65% accuracy for our model). The model's accuracy increased when longer paragraphs that provided more linguistic coverage and paragraphs judged by human raters to be of higher quality were examined. The findings support the notions that paragraph types contain specific linguistic features that allow them to be distinguished from one another. The finding reported in this study should prove beneficial in classroom writing instruction and in automated writing assessment.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	University of Antwerp
dc.relation	http://jowr.org/Ccount/click.php?id=40
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/2030-1006
dc.rights	CC BY-NC-ND
dc.source	Journal of Writing Research , Vol 3, Iss 2, Pp 119-143 (2011)
dc.subject	paragraph structure
dc.subject	paragraph function
dc.subject	corpus linguistics
dc.subject	computational linguistics
dc.subject	cognitive modeling
dc.subject	Philology. Linguistics
dc.subject	P1-1091
dc.subject	Language and Literature
dc.subject	P
dc.subject	DOAJ:Linguistics
dc.subject	DOAJ:Languages and Literatures
dc.subject	Psychology
dc.subject	BF1-990
dc.subject	Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
dc.subject	B
dc.subject	DOAJ:Psychology
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Philology. Linguistics
dc.subject	P1-1091
dc.subject	Language and Literature
dc.subject	P
dc.subject	DOAJ:Linguistics
dc.subject	DOAJ:Languages and Literatures
dc.subject	Psychology
dc.subject	BF1-990
dc.subject	Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
dc.subject	B
dc.subject	DOAJ:Psychology
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Philology. Linguistics
dc.subject	P1-1091
dc.subject	Language and Literature
dc.subject	P
dc.subject	Psychology
dc.subject	BF1-990
dc.subject	Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
dc.subject	B
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Philology. Linguistics
dc.subject	P1-1091
dc.subject	Language and Literature
dc.subject	P
dc.subject	Psychology
dc.subject	BF1-990
dc.subject	Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
dc.subject	B
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Philology. Linguistics
dc.subject	P1-1091
dc.subject	Language and Literature
dc.subject	P
dc.subject	Psychology
dc.subject	BF1-990
dc.subject	Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
dc.subject	B
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	Classifying paragraph types using linguistic features: Is paragraph positioning important?
dc.type	article