How I feel, I write: emotions and learning outcomes in academic writing

Abstract

Academic writing is a complex activity that integrates cognitive, social, affective, cultural, and linguistic dimensions. This research focuses on emotions, an affective component that has been rarely explored. This paper presents the validation and pilot testing of the “self-report of emotions during the academic writing process” instrument, which was administered to twenty first-year undergraduate students in the Early Childhood Education program at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso. The main objectives were to compare emotional self-perception during the initial and final stages of the writing process and to relate it to learning outcomes. To this end, a computational linguistics tool based on Sentiment Analysis was used, which enabled the detection of lexical indicators of emotions in the texts. The findings revealed significant emotional differences between the two stages, as well as an association between affective states marked by the presence of unpleasant emotions and low academic performance. The main contribution of this study was the development of a method for systematically assessing emotional self-perception, which is expected to serve as a useful tool for future research and educational practice.