WRITING BEHAVIOR of STUDENTS: THE STUDENTS WRITE for WHOM, WHAT PURPOSE and WHICH ENVIRONMENTS

Writing is one of the linguistic skills that is based on comprehending and the students are tried to gain this skill starting from the first years of the school. Writing is both a means of expressing the ideas as well as opinions throughout the school life and learning for an individual. Therefore, it is a frequently investigated area within educational research. This study aims to examine the writing attitudes of students. In accordance with this purpose, an information form was created to question why, where and to whom the students write. 794 students in total including 2nd ( 107 participants ), 4th(169 participants ) , 6th (64 participants ), 8th (111 participants ) , 10th (176 participants ) and 12th (167 participants ) grades participated in the study. Descriptive survey model was used in the study. For data analysis, descriptive statistics was utilized. The results showed that students in the lower grades mostly write down on their notebooks in an attempt to do homework and fulfill the requests of their teacher. On the other hand; students in the upper grades mostly write in the digital environment to express themselves and produce something on the topics that they desire for. This result was interpreted in the way that students in the lower grades usually write for academic purposes, whereas the students in the upper grades usually write for various purposes in non-academic settings.