抄録
This longitudinal study examined the development of Japanese college students' writing proficiency by observing short essays written by them when they entered college, in their third year and in their fourth year. The essays were analyzed quantitatively over time, in terms of 1) the incidences of kanji misuse, spoken-style use, and subject-verb agreement problems, 2) changes in stylistic manners and 3) changes in logical development. As they advanced from first through third to fourth year, misuse decreased, the range of expressions increased, and the level of agreement between claims and reasons in logical development increased.The results showed an improvement in all kinds of problems, and we draw the conclusion that as the students progressed through college, their writing proficiency developed.
