Özel Yetenekli Ortaokul Öğrencilerinin Yazma Becerilerinde Görülen Hatalar
Errors in the Writing Skills of Specially Gifted Middle School Students

Summary/Abstract: Writing, one of the four fundamental components of Turkish language instruction, is a skill that is inherently difficult to acquire; therefore, it needs to be systematically taught and developed both in middle schools and in science and art centers where gifted students receive education. This study aims to reveal the errors observed in the writing skills of gifted students attending a Science and Art Center. The research was designed as a case study, and the data were collected through a “Written Text Creation Form” and a “Writing Errors Inventory.” The study group consisted of 152 middle school students (5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades) attending a Science and Art Center (BİLSEM) in Aydın in 2024. Of these students, 54.61% were female and 45.39% were male. Errors related to writing skills were categorized under four themes and sixty-two sub-themes. These themes and sub-themes were used both as subject areas and as evaluation criteria in identifying errors. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. The analysis of the written texts revealed a total of 1,432 errors. Of these errors, 42.11% were related to form, 33.22% to content, 15.46% to spelling, and 9.87% to punctuation. These findings indicate that students made the highest number of errors in form and the lowest number in punctuation. In general, spelling and punctuation errors were less frequent than form and content errors. However, when the findings are examined at the sub-theme level, they partially overlap with the results of Uludağ (2002), who reported that students experience serious difficulties with spelling and punctuation. No instances of the use of sequential periods, single quotation marks, square brackets, slashes, or dashes were found in the written texts at any grade level. Although parentheses and dialogue lines were used, no errors related to their use were detected. Errors related to double quotation marks were mostly caused by not closing the quotation marks, not placing punctuation marks at the end of quoted sentences, or placing punctuation marks outside the quotation marks. According to the results, gifted middle school students made the most errors in form and the fewest errors in punctuation. The most common formal errors included not justifying the text, not leaving appropriate margins, and writing the entire text as a single paragraph. In terms of content, the most frequent errors were the absence of a title, failure to support the topic with relevant ideas, and insufficient use of idea development techniques. Regarding spelling, the most common errors involved misspelled words, incorrect use of capital letters, and errors in the use of the conjunction “de.” For punctuation, errors related to the incorrect use or omission of periods, misuse of commas, and incorrect use of apostrophes were prominent. Based on these findings, several suggestions can be made to reduce errors in writing skills. Although the written text levels of middle school students differ, similar types of errors are observed across grade levels. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers systematically address these errors at each grade level, conduct practical activities aimed at eliminating deficiencies, and implement continuous corrective practices. In addition, students should be encouraged to evaluate their own texts after completing writing tasks. Following self-assessment and peer assessment processes, teachers should provide feedback both verbally and by marking errors on the text with colored pens. Since formal errors were found to be the most frequent in writing activities conducted with gifted middle school students, form-related elements—such as leaving appropriate spacing between letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs, setting proper page margins, positioning the title correctly, and creating paragraph indents—should be explicitly explained before the writing process. These pre-writing reminders provided by teachers are expected to contribute to a gradual reduction in errors over time.

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