Abstract
Differences in awareness of writing cognitive processes: substantive vs., mechanical and other, in 8 up to 16 years old students. The aim of this study is to know writing cognitive processes awareness in students, differentiating low or mechanical processes versus high or substantive ones, and other, as a function of age. We applied an open written survey, about writing composition metacognition, to 1.688 participants, since 8 up to 16 years old students. Written answers were typed in a word processor, and, after coded in a rational and an empirical way. We built a category system, ad hoc, exhaustive and mutually exclusive, with 22 categories, which when applied, we obtain 16.823 frequencies of categories. Results show a writing processes awareness improvement of substantive ones, and a decrease of mechanics ones, as age improve. Furthermore, negative motivation, self-valuation and efficient, increase with age and grade. We appraise results and their usefulness for writing composition assessment and instructional intervention, and shortcoming and future perspectives.