Abstract This study explores the relationship between syntactic complexity and writing quality in assessed source-based research papers produced by ESL undergraduate writers in a first-year writing course through a combination of holistic and fine-grained measures of complexity. The analysis is based on a corpus of 280 student papers across three grade tiers: high, mid, and low. A one-way MANOVA was used to explore the statistical significance of differences of five commonly used syntactic complexity measures (assessed using Lu’s Second Language Syntactic Complexity Analyzer, 2010) across these grade tiers. Results reveal little variation in clausal subordination and coordination, but statistically significant lower complex nominal densities, mean length of clauses (phrasal measures), and mean length of T-units (global measure) in low-rated papers. Analysis of complex nominal composition using the Stanford Tregex with differences assessed with a one-way MANOVA shows that the highest densities of complex nominal types are present in high-rated papers, with statistical significance in adjectival pre-, prepositional post-, and participle modification, and the lowest densities in low-rated papers. While clausal complexity did not demonstrate a relationship with assessed quality, both global and phrasal complexity features appear to be important components. We conclude with implications for syntactic complexity research and ESL composition pedagogy.

中文翻译：

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评估的第一年 L2 写作中的句法复杂性和写作质量

摘要 本研究通过综合和细粒度的复杂性衡量标准，探讨了 ESL 本科作者在一年级写作课程中撰写的基于来源的评估研究论文中句法复杂性与写作质量之间的关系。该分析基于包含高、中、低三个年级的 280 篇学生论文的语料库。使用单向多元方差分析来探索五个常用句法复杂性度量（使用 Lu 的第二语言句法复杂性分析器，2010 年进行评估）在这些年级之间的差异的统计显着性。结果显示，小句从属和协调几乎没有变化，但在低评级论文中，复杂名义密度、从句平均长度（短语度量）和 T 单位的平均长度（全局度量）在统计上显着降低。使用斯坦福 Tregex 分析复杂名词成分，并使用单向多元方差分析评估差异表明，高评分论文中存在最高密度的复杂名词类型，在形容词前置、介词后置和分词修饰方面具有统计学意义，以及低评级论文中的最低密度。虽然从句复杂性没有表现出与评估质量的关系，但全局和短语复杂性特征似乎都是重要的组成部分。我们总结了对句法复杂性研究和 ESL 作文教学法的影响。在形容词前置、介词后置和分词修饰方面具有统计学意义，在低评分论文中密度最低。虽然从句复杂性没有表现出与评估质量的关系，但全局和短语复杂性特征似乎都是重要的组成部分。我们总结了对句法复杂性研究和 ESL 作文教学法的影响。在形容词前置、介词后置和分词修饰方面具有统计学意义，在低评分论文中密度最低。虽然从句复杂性没有表现出与评估质量的关系，但全局和短语复杂性特征似乎都是重要的组成部分。我们总结了对句法复杂性研究和 ESL 作文教学法的影响。