Academic writing has been a subject of intensive research internationally since the 1970s. However, not much is known about the long-term effects of writing interventions on the development of academic writing. Previous longitudinal studies all relied on data which were not collected in interventional settings. These studies, therefore, do not allow for causal deductions regarding the role of instruction in academic writing development. On the other hand, there are several intervention studies, but these studies do not give much insight into the development of academic writing either, as the writing interventions conducted during the course of these studies only covered short periods of time.

The aim of this project is to address this research gap by conducting a longitudinal academic writing intervention study in secondary level 2 over a period of three years using a sample of n=240 pupils. The intervention serves as preparation for drafting a Vorwissenschaftliche Arbeit (pre-scientific paper), which is a compulsory academic requirement at the end of secondary education in Austria. The study examines the effects of three different genre-based treatments on the dependent variables Academic Text Quality, Academic Writing Motivation and Transfer Across Genres using latent growth curve modeling. Overall, the study can show how academic text quality and writing motivation develop under the influence of different genre-based writing instructions over a period of three years. Furthermore, the study provides insight into how the academic writing skills acquired through the intervention can be effectively transferred to the genre Vorwissenschaftliche Arbeit.