Building on previous studies of the effects of planning on second
language (L2) learners' oral narratives and drawing on Kellog's
(1996) model of writing, this article reports a
study of the effects of three types of planning conditions (pretask planning,
unpressured on-line planning, and no planning) on 42 Chinese
learners' written narratives elicited by means of a picture
composition. The results show that, whereas pretask planning resulted
in greater fluency (syllables per minute, p < .01) and
greater syntactic variety (number of different verb forms, p
< .01), the opportunity to engage in unpressured on-line planning
assisted greater accuracy (error-free clauses, p < .05). It
is proposed that the two types of planning impact on different aspects
of L2 writing processes, with pretask planning promoting formulation
and unpressured on-line planning providing better opportunities for
monitoring. Writers in the no-planning condition were faced with the
need to formulate, execute, and monitor under pressure, with negative
consequences for the fluency, complexity, and accuracy of the written
product in comparison to the planning groups.The authors would like to thank the anonymous SSLA
reviewers of an earlier version of this article for their perceptive and
constructive criticism.