Luuk Van Waes

University of Antwerp | UA · Management (MNG)

With more and more people interested in how sustainable and socially responsible companies are, the comprehensibility of content on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become paramount. Producing easy-to-read business content-either by writing it from scratch or revising it-is a cognitively demanding undertaking, especially for second-languag...

Text simplification involves making texts easier to understand, usually for lay readers. Simplifying texts is a complex task, especially when conducted in a second language. The readability of the produced texts and the way in which authors manage the different phases of the text simplification process are influenced by their writing expertise and...

In this article, we explore if the observation of writing behavior can assist in the screening and follow-up of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). To this end, we examined the extent to which overall writing process measures and pausing behavior during writing differed between 15 cognitively impaired...

Communicating clearly about their socially responsible activities is becoming increasingly important for companies, as a growing number of stakeholders with different goals, knowledge, and language skills seek information on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Furthermore, the ability to communicate clearly is particularly appreciated in the wor...

Writing process data of 15 cognitively impaired patients and 15 age- and gender-matched healthy controls were obtained. Each of them completed two typed picture description tasks that were logged with Inputlog, a keystroke logging tool. Variables included time on task; number of characters, pauses and Pause-bursts per minute; proportion of pause ti...

We are happy to make a multilingual corpus available (open access) that currently consists of more than 5000 copy tasks. The + 5K corpus is carefully cleaned and fully anonymized. The Shiny interface allows users to filter the corpus based on about 10 variables. The selection can be downloaded in different formats and levels of aggregation (from...

The study of revision has been a topic of interest in writing research over the past decades. Numerous studies have, for instance, shown that learning-to-revise is one of the key competences in writing development. Moreover, several models of revision have been developed, and a variety of taxonomies have been used to measure revision in empirical s...

To writing anything on a keyboard at all requires us to know first what to type, then to activate motor programmes for finger movements, and execute these. An interruption in the information flow at any of these stages leads to disfluencies. To capture this combination of fluent typing and typing hesitations, researchers calculate different measure...

Feedback is important to improve writing quality; however, to provide timely and personalized feedback is a time-intensive task. Currently, most literature focuses on providing (human or machine) support on product characteristics, especially after a draft is submitted. However, this does not assist students who struggle during the writing process....

In keyboard writing, typing skills are considered an important prerequisite of proficient text production. We describe the design, implementation, and application of a standardized copy-typing task in order to measure and assess individual typing fluency. A test-retest analysis indicates the instrument’s reliability. While the task has been develo...

As typing has become more and more our preferred way of text production, keystroke logging has become one of the major observation tools used in writing process research. It allows for fine grained data collection without intruding into the writers’ activities or influencing the writing dynamics. This article describes how keystroke logging — more...

Current writing support tools tend to focus on assessing final or intermediate products, rather than the writing process. However, sensing technologies, such as keystroke logging , can enable provision of automated feedback during, and on aspects of, the writing process. Despite this potential , little is known about the critical indicators that ca...

Learning dashboards are often used to provide teachers with insight into students' learning processes. However, simply providing teachers with data on students' learning processes is not necessarily beneficial for improving learning and teaching; the data need to be action-able. Recently, human-centered learning analytics has been suggested as a so...

To date, research into dynamic descriptions of text has focused mainly on the spoken mode; and while writing process research has examined language structures, it has largely ignored the functionality (meaning) inherent in them. Therefore, drawing on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and keystroke logging software, this article takes a further...

OPEN ACCESS - https://www.jowr.org/abstracts/vol12_1/Vandermeulen_et_al_2020_12_1_abstract.html Keystroke loggers facilitate researchers to collect fine-grained process data and offer support in analyzing these data. Keystroke logging has become popular in writing research, and study by study we are now paving the path to a better understanding of...

Given the importance of revision in writing, revision has been a main topic of interest in writing research. Several models of revision have been developed, and a variety of taxonomies have been used to measure revision in empirical studies. Current advances in data collection and analysis have made it possible to study revision in more detail. How...

To date, research into dynamic descriptions of text has focused mainly on the spoken mode; and whilst writing process research has examined language structures, it has largely ignored the functionality (meaning) inherent in them. Therefore, drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), and keystroke logging software, this paper takes a further...

Background: The analysis of writing is complex, with planning, translating, and reviewing processes interacting in a non-linear fashion. Intuitively negligible activities such as the revisions of typing errors can have a large influence on the writing process, and hence also on the analysis of writing processes. For the analysis of writing, the imp...

Keyboarding is an essential mode of text production. In the context of typing courses, instruments have been developed to gauge typing skills but to our knowledge there is no computerized typing test measuring both motor skills and the influence of different levels of lexicality on typing fluency. That is why, we developed a strictly controlled cop...

Automated writing evaluation tools have been shown to improve writing quality. However, the impact of automated feedback, and especially the timing of the feedback, on students’ writing process is still unknown. Hence, we analyzed how feedback timing influences the revision process. Three experimental conditions were implemented into the writing to...

This article examines how master’s students consult and process sources in source-based writing tasks in L1 and L2. Two hundred eighty master’s students wrote a text in their L1 (Dutch) and L2 (English) at the beginning and end of the academic year. They wrote these texts based on three sources: a report, a web text, and a newspaper article. Their...

Keywords: linguistic analysis; natural language processing (NLP); working memory; fluency; L2; pause analysis; pausing behavior; S-Notation; word patterns; bursts In recent years, the analysis of keystroke logging data mainly focused on pausing and revision behaviour as an indicator of cognitive activities. For instance, pauses have been character...

The translator as a writer: Text production competence as a component of translation competence Most translation scholars and practitioners believe that translators should be able to write. What this writing competence for translators entails and how it differs from the competence of writers remains undiscussed. In this article we compare the relev...

This study aims to explore the process of reading during writing. More specifically, it investigates whether a combination of keystroke logging data and eye tracking data yields a better understanding of cognitive processes underlying fluent and nonfluent text production. First, a technical procedure describes how writing process data from the keys...

We developed a strictly controlled, multilingual copy task guiding participants through seven modules in which different prompts are presented, each dealing with complementary levels of lexicality. Fine-grained logging allows for a range of analyses. The software is open and allows researchers to adapt the tasks to their specific needs.The task is...

Background. The diagnostic work-up of Alzheimer Disease (AD) is complex, time-consuming, expensive, and quite demanding for the patients. Therefore, there is a growing need for simple non-invasive tools that add to the diagnostic work-up of patients. Objectives. This paper investigates a new method for monitoring motor functions in AD using everyda...

We describe the Multilanguage Written Picture Naming Dataset. This gives trial-level data and time and agreement norms for written naming of the 260 pictures of everyday objects that compose the colorized Snodgrass and Vanderwart picture set (Rossion&Pourtois in Perception, 33, 217–236, 2004). Adult participants gave keyboarded re- sponses in their...

This paper reports on an exploratory study into the effects of targeted writing instruction on the translation products and decision-making processes of professional translators. A pretest–posttest experimental design was used, in which five professional translators were trained in writing instructive texts in their L1 (Dutch). In the pretest and p...

This paper presents the results of a study into the approach used by 60 students of the MA in Multilingual Professional Communication of the University of Antwerp for reading and processing external sources in reading-to-write tasks. We explore what indicators are most appropriate to describe this approach. Furthermore, we examine to what degree th...

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental study of the effect of writing training on transediting in the translation product and process of undergraduate translation students. A classical pretest-posttest experimental design was used, in which the experimental group was trained in writing instructive texts in their mother tongue (Dutch) and the co...

Special issue: Traducción, Ideología y Poderen la Ficción Audiovisual.

Over the past decade writing has become an everyday activity for most people around the globe. Indeed, there seems to be a movement away from reading as the main literacy activity, mass reading, into what Brandt (2001) has described as an era of mass writing. The affordances of digital media for writing are enormous, and the impact of writing for c...

In this paper we briefly introduce keystroke logging as a research method in writing research, focusing more explicitly on the recently developed linguistic analysis technique. In a case study of two elderly people (healthy versus demented), we illustrate some aspects of this linguistic approach. This analysis aggregates event-based data from the c...

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental study of the effect of writing training on transediting in the translation product and process of undergraduate translation students. A classical pretest-posttest experimental design was used, in which the experimental group was trained in writing instructive texts in their mother tongue (Dutch) and the co...

Translators employ a wide variety of revision procedures in their day-to-day working practice. This paper empirically investigates the impact of these revision procedures on both the revision product and the revision process. Sixteen professional revisers revised four comparable translations, each time using a different procedure: (1) monolingual,...

Cognitive writing process characteristics in Alzheimer’s disease Introduction For the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a large variety of neuropsychological tests are available. In some of these tests, linguistic processing - both oral and written - is an important factor. Language disturbances might serve as a strong indicator for an underly...

Fluency in writing has been studied from different perspectives and in different contexts. In recent studies fluency has been defined mainly on the basis of four dimensions: (a) production, (b) process variation, (c) revision, and (d) pause behavior. In this paper we want to elaborate the concept of fluency by comparing writing processes in which d...

When writing a text, writers frequently read and reread their Text Produced So Far (TPSF) in order to monitor it for spelling, lexical choice, further planning or organization. By means of this explicit reading and rereading of the TPSF, writers can gain confidence that the text matches their thoughts and the text's goals and conventions. However,...

Using keystroke logging in writing research Keystroke logging has become instrumental in identifying writing strategies and understanding cognitive processes. These programs log and time stamp keystroke activity to reconstruct and describe text production processes. Recent technological advances have refined logging efficiency and analytical outpu...

Help file / manual of Inputlog 6.0

One of the main advantages of online learning materials is that they can be adapted for students with different learning styles. This article presents a study and a methodology to investigate whether students with different learning styles make use of the potential flexibility of online learning materials, i.c. in the context of an online writing c...

Writing in the workplace: Constructing documents using multiple digital sources Leijten, M., Van Waes, L., Schriver, K., & Hayes, J.R. (2014) Journal of Writing Research, 5(3), 285-337. http://www.jowr.org/Ccount/click.php?id=76 In today’s workplaces professional communication often involves constructing documents from multiple digital sources—i...

Het schrijvershoofd ontbloot. Schrijfprocessen Hoe verloopt de weg van idee naar tekst? Op die vraag is maar één antwoord: die weg is voor elke schrijver anders. In deze sessie staan we stil bij de manier waarop schrijvers hun schrijfproces organiseren. Ook demonstreren we een methode om dit proces automatisch te bewaren op je computer.

One of the main advantages of online learning materials is that they can be adapted for students with different learning styles. This article presents a study and a methodology to investigate whether students with different learning styles make use of the potential flexibility of online learning materials, i.c. in the context of an online writing c...

De ene tekst komt maar moeilijk en met veel zwoegen tot stand, de andere tekst krijg je makkelijk op papier gezet. Maar, wat betekent ‘vlot schrijven’ (writing fluency) nu eigenlijk precies? In dit artikel benaderen we writing fluency vanuit verschillende perspectieven en proberen we om zo een samengestelde maat op te bouwen om dit concept genuance...

Een van de grote voordelen van online leeromgevingen is dat hun architectuur ons in staat stelt om optimaal ondersteuning te geven aan studenten met verschillende leerstijlen. In traditionele leeromgevingen is dat niet altijd eenvoudig. Dit artikel beschrijft een studie waarin we nagaan of studenten met gedifferentieerde leerstijlen ook daadwerkeli...

Keystroke logging has become instrumental in identifying writing strategies and understanding cognitive processes. Recent technological advances have refined logging efficiency and analytical outputs. While keystroke logging allows for ecological data collection, it is often difficult to connect the fine grain of logging data to the underlying cogn...

Torrance, M., Alamargot, D., Castello, M., Ganier, F., Kruse, O., Mangen, A., Tolchinsky, L., & van Waes, L. (2012, Eds). Learning to write effectively: current trends in european research. Bingley (UK): Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Moment to moment, a writer faces a host of potential problems. How does the writer’s mind coordinate this problem solving? In the original Hayes and Flower model, the authors posited a distinct process to manage this coordinating—that is, the “monitor.” The monitor became responsible for executive function in writing. In two experiments, the curren...

Keystroke-logging tools are widely used in writing process research. These applications are designed to capture each character and mouse movement as isolated events as an indicator of cognitive processes. The current research project explores the possibilities of aggregating the logged process data from the letter level (keystroke) to the word leve...

Editing and translating are interconnecting concepts with fuzzy borderlines. In 1989, Stetting coined the term transediting to refer to the overlap of both activities in the translation task. This article reviews the existing literature on this topic. It also reports on an exploratory study of transediting in the translation processes of translatio...

Fluency in writing has been studied from different perspectives and in different contexts (see Latif 2009 for a review). In this paper we compare different measures that have been used in previous research studies to measure writing fluency (e.g. composing rate, i.e. the number of - correctly spelled - words or characters written per minute; length...

This session will introduce participants to writing process research with keystroke logging. In the opening lecture we will briefly explain the main characteristics of this research technique, and we will review its strengths and weaknesses. We will also provide empirical examples from recent studies . During the workshop, you will learn how to use...

Inputlog enables researchers to record data of a writing session in Microsoft Word and other Windows based programs (e.g. Internet Explorer, Mozilla, PowerPoint, etc.). Inputlog logs every keystroke, every mouse movement and click, and-if available-speech input from Dragon Naturally Speaking. Furthermore, all the windows that a writer opens in diff...

Keystroke logging tools are a valuable aid to monitor written language production. These tools record all keystrokes, including backspaces and deletions together with timing information. In this paper we report on an extension to the keystroke logging program Inputlog in which we aggregate the logged process data from the keystroke (character) leve...

Editing and translating are interconnecting concepts with fuzzy borderlines. In 1989, Stetting coined the term transediting to refer to the overlap of both activities in the translation task. This article reviews the existing literature on this topic. It also reports on an exploratory study of transediting in the translation processes of translatio...