On the Relationship between Performance Level of Argumentative Essays and Text Network Characteristics

Abstract

This study endeavors to examine university students’ argumentative essays texts using network analysis techniques, aiming to discern the interplay between the structural and expressive characteristics of the editorial texts, in conjunction with network indexes. To accomplish this objective, an expert evaluation of the argumentative essays was conducted, alongside network analysis, followed by statistical analysis to ascertain the presence of correlations between the evaluation scores and the network analysis indices, namely ‘centrality’ and ‘cohesion’. The outcomes of the analysis validate a significant association between the evaluation scores of argumentative sentences and diverse textual dimensions, encompassing textual quantity, network density, the count of nodes and links forming the network, and the number of communities.