Keystroke logging data: What can it tell us about mode and written language production?

In this chapter, we explore the place and value of keystroke logging (KSL) data as a research method and evaluate what it might tell us about mode and written language production by drawing on the account of register as found within the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). In doing so, we draw on results from previous work to explore Berry’s cline of consciousness ( 1975 , 2013 ), which provides evidence of important variables within mode. KSL is an observational tool ( Spelman Miller and Sullivan 2006 :1) that records, and analyses data related to digital language production in real time. We review how KSL-based methods have been employed in writing research generally including the nature of the digital mode of production, writing processes, and writing in additional languages (e.g., translation) and then describe three of our experimental studies that evidence what keystroke logging tells us about mode and written language production. We show how relatively straightforwardly KSL methods provide innovative empirical evidence for the assumptions we make about language making it a methodology that may well serve those working within a functional approach to language