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When Autistic Writing Is Superior to Neurotypical Writing: The Case of Blogs

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Title: When Autistic Writing Is Superior to Neurotypical Writing: The Case of Blogs
Language: English
Authors: Catherine L. Caldwell-Harris (ORCID 0000-0002-9830-1156), Solomon D. Posner
Source: Educational Review. 2024 76(7):1875-1897.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 23
Publication Date: 2024
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Autism Spectrum Disorders, Writing (Composition), Electronic Publishing, Web Sites, Writing Skills, Language Usage, Individual Characteristics, Adults
DOI: 10.1080/00131911.2024.2302119
ISSN: 0013-1911
1465-3397
Abstract: Research on autistic individuals' writing has long focused on weaknesses in structural complexity, organisation, and perspective-taking skills. More recently, awareness has grown that writing can be a strength, as suggested by research on autistic memoirs. To learn more about how well autistic individuals write when they use language for their own purposes, we turned to autistic-authored blogs. Online word usage patterns were analysed for 30 self-identified autistic bloggers and 30 age and gender-matched non-autistic bloggers, assumed to be neurotypical (NT). In addition, blog content was analysed for the range of topics discussed. Topics were categorised according to broad topics including common hobbies (e.g. sports, arts, crafts), preoccupations (e.g. people, vehicles, food, machines), and academic domains (e.g. belief systems, science, numbers, history). Compared to NT bloggers, autistic bloggers wrote in a more complex manner, as measured by word and sentence length and rare vocabulary. Autistic bloggers often wrote about science or other abstract topics rather than discussing daily life events. These findings suggest that one subset of autistic individuals, those who write blogs, are able to write in a more complex style than their NT peers. This may reflect having an intellectual orientation, or, autistic people with sophisticated writing skills are the ones who choose to author blogs. Raising awareness that some autistic individuals can be strong writers will be of broad help to diverse stakeholders, including educators, clinicians, families and autistic individuals themselves.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2024
Accession Number: EJ1450711
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0181054518;edi01nov.24;2024Nov27.05:08;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0181054518-1">When autistic writing is superior to neurotypical writing: the case of blogs </title> <p>Research on autistic individuals' writing has long focused on weaknesses in structural complexity, organisation, and perspective-taking skills. More recently, awareness has grown that writing can be a strength, as suggested by research on autistic memoirs. To learn more about how well autistic individuals write when they use language for their own purposes, we turned to autistic-authored blogs. Online word usage patterns were analysed for 30 self-identified autistic bloggers and 30 age and gender-matched non-autistic bloggers, assumed to be neurotypical (NT). In addition, blog content was analysed for the range of topics discussed. Topics were categorised according to broad topics including common hobbies (e.g. sports, arts, crafts), preoccupations (e.g. people, vehicles, food, machines), and academic domains (e.g. belief systems, science, numbers, history). Compared to NT bloggers, autistic bloggers wrote in a more complex manner, as measured by word and sentence length and rare vocabulary. Autistic bloggers often wrote about science or other abstract topics rather than discussing daily life events. These findings suggest that one subset of autistic individuals, those who write blogs, are able to write in a more complex style than their NT peers. This may reflect having an intellectual orientation, or, autistic people with sophisticated writing skills are the ones who choose to author blogs. Raising awareness that some autistic individuals can be strong writers will be of broad help to diverse stakeholders, including educators, clinicians, families and autistic individuals themselves.</p> <p>Keywords: Autism; writing; blogging; qualitative analysis; neurodiversity</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-2">Introduction</hd> <p>The neurodiversity movement has called on clinicians and educators to attend to autistic strengths across the spectrum of abilities (Haney, [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref1">28</reflink>]; Wright et al., [<reflink idref="bib58" id="ref2">58</reflink>]). This spectrum includes autistic individuals with typical intellectual ability, estimated as many as 59% of all autistic persons (Katusic et al., [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref3">34</reflink>]). One area for new consideration is writing. Writing has advantages over oral language because it avoids the social skills required for face-to-face communication. Written language could thus be a relative strength and/or a special interest of some persons with autism (Boytsova, [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref4">6</reflink>]; Kasirer & Mashal, [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref5">33</reflink>]; Newton et al., [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref6">42</reflink>]; Wood, [<reflink idref="bib57" id="ref7">57</reflink>]). Scholars have recently documented that many autistics are highly skilled writers who enjoy writing (Hacking, [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref8">26</reflink>]; Kim & Bottema-Beutel, [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref9">35</reflink>]; Tomlinson & Newman, [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref10">54</reflink>]; Van Goidsenhoven, [<reflink idref="bib55" id="ref11">55</reflink>]). Indeed, in two university student studies, autistic students' stories were rated at a higher reading level than non-autistic students' writing and contained fewer grammatical errors (Gillespie-Lynch et al., [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref12">22</reflink>]; Shevchuk-Hill et al., [<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref13">51</reflink>]).</p> <p>While discussing writing strengths in autism, Zajic and Brown ([<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref14">59</reflink>]) reviewed two traditions for studying autistic writing. One investigates foundational writing skills, such as spelling, handwriting, and text generation, as well as how these are impacted by underlying language and cognitive skills. An example is classroom studies that traditionally focus on remediating writing challenges in autistic children (Zajic & Wilson, [<reflink idref="bib61" id="ref15">61</reflink>]). The second approach is the tradition of studying autistic writers who write independently, such as those who write memoirs and personal narratives (e.g. Hacking, [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref16">26</reflink>]; Kim & Bottema-Beutel, [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref17">35</reflink>]). This strength-based approach " ... considers the social and historical components (i.e. the community) alongside the cognitive processes (i.e. internal components) that facilitate written language production across time and context" (Zajic & Brown, [<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref18">59</reflink>], p. 129).</p> <p>The current article examines self-motivated autistic writing by analysing blogs using a strength-based perspective (Stenning, [<reflink idref="bib53" id="ref19">53</reflink>]; Zajic & Brown, [<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref20">59</reflink>]). Here we briefly review the different approaches for studying autistic writing, and prior studies of autistic bloggers.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-3">The traditional approach: focus on writing challenges</hd> <p>The historic emphasis has been to understand and remediate autistic deficits. Writing is influenced by motor deficits, executive impairments, and mentalizing challenges (e.g. Akmanoglu & Batu, [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref21">1</reflink>]; Brown & Klein, [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref22">8</reflink>]; Asaro-Saddler & Coles, [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref23">2</reflink>]). Autistic children frequently have decreased legibility, complexity, and number of words relative to peers (Myles et al., [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref24">40</reflink>]). Pennington and Delano ([<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref25">46</reflink>]) urged the development of Computer Aided Instruction (CAI), tailored to remediate the specific perspective-taking limitations, executive function, and planning problems faced by autistic students.</p> <p>One line of research has examined whether mentalizing ability influences narrative and expository writing (Brown & Klein, [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref26">8</reflink>]). Participants viewed video clips of interpersonal conflict and then produced two writing samples, one about a personal experience with conflict, and one about conflicts between people. Autistic adults produced shorter texts, used fewer mental state terms, and attributed mental state terms to fewer characters in each scene. Compared to neurotypical[<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref27">1</reflink>] (NT) adults, autistic adults wrote in a more literal and less cohesive manner and were less likely to consider the mental state of readers. In contrast, NT writers used more cognition and emotional terms than did autistic and more extensively described the motivations of the actors in their stories.</p> <p>Interestingly, different findings were obtained when autistic youth wrote persuasive essays about why their parents should not limit their computer time (Brown et al., [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref28">7</reflink>]). There was no evidence of reduced mentalizing among autistic participants aged 8–17. This suggests that writing motivation may be an overlooked variable in studies of autistic writing, which is relevant to the recent call for more studies of naturalistic autistic writing.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-4">Strength-based Approaches</hd> <p>An increasing number of students with autism spectrum disorders participate in post-secondary education (Bakker et al., [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref29">4</reflink>]; Palmer, [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref30">43</reflink>]). These students most often have typical intellectual abilities, although some may have a mixture of cognitive and social strengths and weaknesses (Bakker et al., [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref31">4</reflink>]; Gillespie-Lynch et al., [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref32">22</reflink>]; Shevchuk-Hill et al., [<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref33">51</reflink>]). Greenbaum ([<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref34">24</reflink>]) noted that autistic adults in professional writing programmes face challenges related to the demands of the classroom environment, such as participating in group projects, meeting deadlines, and complying with educational etiquette. Greenbaum ([<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref35">24</reflink>]) described a specific autistic student who frequently caused distractions in the classroom (e.g. excessive movements, speaking out of turn), yet the student's written work was always outstanding. The student was an accomplished writer who wrote for her school newspaper.</p> <p>Cheriyan et al. ([<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref36">14</reflink>]) noted that autistic students were more likely than non-autistic students to mention social communication among potential challenges but described writing as an ability to help them excel in the workplace. Autistic students reported more positive writing affect than non-autistic students (Shevchuk-Hill et al., [<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref37">51</reflink>]). Autistic students have also been reported to use a greater number of distinct words in their writing (Price et al., [<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref38">47</reflink>]), as measured by the number of different words in each sample divided by the total number of words. Lexical diversity can be viewed as a writing strength, since it may mean that more rare words are used, but this may also reflect a pedantic writing style (Price et al., [<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref39">47</reflink>]).</p> <p>Several authors have documented and analysed the writing style and communicative achievements in the "autie-biographies", referring to published autistic memoirs (Hacking, [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref40">26</reflink>]; Kim & Bottema-Beutel, [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref41">35</reflink>]; Tomlinson & Newman, [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref42">54</reflink>]; Van Goidsenhoven, [<reflink idref="bib55" id="ref43">55</reflink>]). These autie-biographies have been instrumental in establishing an autistic community and conveying authentic experiences with readers who could be non-autistic or autistic and trying to forge an autistic identity (Hacking, [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref44">26</reflink>]). The autie-biographies demonstrate considerable skills. Zajic and Brown ([<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref45">59</reflink>]) summarise the literature on autistic life writing as indicating that "many autistics are highly skilled writers who love to write" (p. 129).</p> <p>However, by the requirement of being published, one could infer these individuals have dedicated themselves to developing strong writing ability. It would be useful to analyse a sample of autistic writers who are not among the small number of published authors, but resemble them by undertaking a writing project on their own initiative.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-5">Prior research on autistic bloggers</hd> <p>The current project on autistic bloggers fits with the "community of writers" perspective (e.g. Graham, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref46">23</reflink>]; as reviewed by Zajic & Brown, [<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref47">59</reflink>]). Bloggers choose when and what to write and thus resemble the writers of autie-biographies.</p> <p>Blogs are similar to controlled writing tasks by being topical and encouraging standard grammar. They differ by being self-directed. Researchers have studied online blogs and forums to address specific research questions (e.g. Caldwell-Harris et al., [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref48">11</reflink>]). Jones et al. ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref49">30</reflink>]) investigated whether blogs written by autistic persons would have reduced emotional content, consistent with theories of that era that autistic individuals had emotional deficits. The authors instead found extensive emotional expression. The bloggers shared their feelings of alienation, frustration, depression, and pervasive apprehension.</p> <p>Other researchers have studied online blogs for insight into the lived experience of persons with autism. Boytsova ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref50">6</reflink>]) conducted a thematic analysis on ten autistic blogs and provided writing excerpts, documenting considerable writing skills. Boytsova additionally asked bloggers to complete an open-ended questionnaire. Blogging was a significant part of bloggers' social life and provided a sense of community through exchanges with the larger autism community. Blogging also contributed to a positive off-line identity as an advocate for disability rights. Internet blogging thus provided benefits for self-esteem and leadership skills. Boytsova ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref51">6</reflink>]) showed good writing ability. Notably, Boytsova's sample contained persons with varied backgrounds, accomplishments, and autism profiles.</p> <p>The frequencies of diverse linguistic and psychological categories can be analysed using the text analysis software Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker & King, [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref52">45</reflink>]). LIWC has been widely used to quantitatively analyse online discussion forums and blogs (e.g. Lyons et al., [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref53">38</reflink>]). The words people use reflect a variety of individual differences variables, including gender and occupation (Pennebaker & King, [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref54">45</reflink>]). The LIWC programme identifies categories ranging from pronouns and numbers to emotional words, which are reported as a percentage of the text being analysed.</p> <p>Newton et al. ([<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref55">42</reflink>]) used LIWC to compare the posts of self-identified autistic bloggers (<emph>n</emph> = 30) to posts from a large sample of NT bloggers along five dimensions: melancholy (words denoting sadness), socialness (words describing activities, such as school, music, TV), ranting (swear words, words denoting anger), metaphysics (e.g. religious words), and work-relatedness (e.g. work, money). No statistically significant group differences were found among these five categories. However, the autistic bloggers showed more variability in how many social words were used. The authors speculated that autistic persons had larger variability in social experiences than persons without autism, ranging from low to high sociality. Newton et al. ([<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref56">42</reflink>]) further argued that the similarity in word usage between autistic and non-autistic bloggers challenges the "communicational deficit" commonly regarded as a key autistic symptom. They wrote, " ... we posit that this symptom is an artifact of diagnostic testing that requires proximal communication ... " Communication deficits may be reduced "when the playing field is levelled, such that there is time for effortful socio-emotional processing strategies and non-verbal communication behaviours are unnecessary (due to distance)" (Newton et al., [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref57">42</reflink>], pp. 463–464).</p> <p>In the current study, we analysed the word usage patterns and themes of bloggers with and without autism to understand better how persons with autism employ language in a naturalistic setting. We used the LIWC programme and evaluated each blogger's passages for Flesch Reading Ease (FRE). FRE is a combined measure of the average number of words per sentence and the average number of syllables per word (Flesch, [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref58">19</reflink>]). FRE is frequently used to quantify a text's writing complexity.</p> <p>As noted, our theoretical orientation was the strength-based approach of the neurodiversity movement (Zajic & Brown, [<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref59">59</reflink>]). We do not make any hypotheses concerning theory of mind deficits, given the reduced credibility of this perspective in recent years (see discussion in Brown et al., [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref60">7</reflink>]; Gillespie-Lynch et al., [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref61">22</reflink>]; Tomlinson & Newman, [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref62">54</reflink>]; Zajic & Wilson, [<reflink idref="bib61" id="ref63">61</reflink>]). However, a core characteristic of autism is atypical sociality. Following the social rewards deficit hypothesis of autism (Chevallier et al., [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref64">15</reflink>]), we anticipated that the blog content of the autistic bloggers would have reduced discussion of social events.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-6">Hypotheses</hd> <p></p> <ulist> <item> <emph>Writing Strengths.</emph> Consistent with Newton et al. ([<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref65">42</reflink>]) and Gillespie-Lynch et al. ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref66">22</reflink>]), we expected autistic blogs to reveal writing strengths. Specifically, FRE and LIWC measures of writing complexity would be similar for autistic and NT bloggers.</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Word use would reflect systemising.</emph> Compared to NT bloggers, autistic bloggers would use more words that refer to the non-social world, causation, and numbers, reflecting a cognitive style that prioritises systemising and objective reasoning (Baron-Cohen, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref67">5</reflink>]).</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Reduced references to people.</emph> Consistent with the social rewards deficit theory of autism (Chevallier et al., [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref68">15</reflink>]), autistic bloggers would make fewer references to other people by having a reduction in first person plural (e.g. <emph>we</emph>) and third person pronouns (e.g. <emph>he, they</emph>), as well as fewer references to friends and family.</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Negative emotions are more common than positive ones for autistic bloggers.</emph> Autistic bloggers would use fewer positive emotion words and more negative emotion words and anxiety-related words (LIWC category inhibition), based on a previous study that found negative emotion to be a dominant theme in the online experiences of several autistic individuals (Jones et al., [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref69">30</reflink>]).</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Blog content would reflect systemising.</emph> Autistic bloggers would write about systemising topics, consistent with special interests related to systemising, such as sensory and scientific domains (see Caldwell-Harris & Jordan, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref70">9</reflink>]; Winter-Messiers, [<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref71">56</reflink>]).</item> </ulist> <p>In addition to the specific hypotheses, we conducted exploratory analyses as part of learning from the corpus of posts. Analysing naturally occurring writing is an opportunity to gain insight from these texts. These exploratory analyses included the following three questions (but if additional questions emerged during the research process, we pursued them as well):</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Do correlations between studied variables help explain autistic-NT variation?</item> <p></p> <item> Are any patterns between autistic and NT bloggers affected by gender?</item> <p></p> <item> Could additional analyses suggested by blog content illuminate any identified patterns between autistic and NT bloggers?</item> </ulist> <hd id="AN0181054518-7">Method</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0181054518-8">Identifying bloggers</hd> <p>Self-identified autistic bloggers (<emph>N</emph> = 30) were found on LiveJournal.com, an online blogging site with interest-oriented communities, and Blogger.com, a similar blog hosting site operated by Google. Other researchers have utilised similar numbers of bloggers in their analyses (cf. Clarke & Van Amerom, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref72">17</reflink>]). We used the keywords <emph>Asperger</emph> and <emph>Autism</emph> and selected the first 30 bloggers who met the criteria below, without regard to gender. Surprisingly, our sample of autistic bloggers contained nearly equal numbers of males (<emph>N</emph> = 14) and females (<emph>N</emph> = 16), despite males being diagnosed with autism at higher rates than females (Loomes et al., [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref73">37</reflink>]).</p> <p>Criteria for inclusion were that the blogger mentioned having an autism spectrum condition in either their profile or blog while listing no other psychological disorders. We only included blogs in a journal-style format, meaning separate entries with at least 5,000 words. We set a minimum of 5,000 words based on various internet reports that the average blog post is around 800–1000 words long. This ensures that the bloggers we sampled have invested substantially in their blog writing. A minimum of 5,000 words also ensured a large amount of text on which to obtain reliable LIWC categories.</p> <p>NT bloggers (<emph>N</emph> = 30) were also selected from LiveJournal and Blogger using the same criteria, minus mention of autism spectrum conditions, and with the proviso that an NT blogger could be matched to an autistic blogger for gender and approximate age. Table 1 describes the two groups.</p> <p>Table 1. Description of bloggers.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><td /><td /><td>Age</td></tr><tr><td>Group</td><td>Number of bloggers</td><td>Mean (<italic>SD</italic>)</td><td>Range</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Autism Spectrum</td><td char=".">30</td><td char="(">31 (<italic>8</italic>)</td><td>18–48</td></tr><tr><td> Male</td><td char=".">14</td><td char="(">30 (<italic>8</italic>)</td><td>18–48</td></tr><tr><td> Female</td><td char=".">16</td><td char="(">32 (<italic>8</italic>)</td><td>18–46</td></tr><tr><td>Neurotypical</td><td char=".">30</td><td char="(">30 (<italic>7</italic>)</td><td>18–46</td></tr><tr><td> Male</td><td char=".">14</td><td char="(">29 (<italic>7</italic>)</td><td>18–43</td></tr><tr><td> Female</td><td char=".">16</td><td char="(">31 (<italic>7</italic>)</td><td>20–46</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>The 5000-word excerpts were extracted from blogs with posted dates between 2011 and 2014, meaning blogs came from a similar period. Blog entries were collected starting from the most recent posts and compiled into individual text files for each blogger. Non-prose blog posts such as poems, quizzes, and photo captions were omitted for consistency.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-9">Procedure</hd> <p>Three analyses were conducted. LIWC was used to measure word usage; each blog's FRE was calculated, and the authors categorised blog content.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-10">LIWC analysis</hd> <p>Conducting between-group significance tests on each of the 80 LIWC categories would result in several type 1 errors. We retained the following 20 LIWC categories that were theoretically relevant based on autistic traits and prior research, indicating their relevance to hypotheses 1-4. Table 2 lists examples of items.</p> <p>Table 2. LIWC categories included in preliminary analysis.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><td>LIWC category</td><td>Definition or examples</td><td>Prediction about autism bloggers</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><bold>Writing formality and complexity</bold></td><td /></tr><tr><td>Common words*</td><td>Words contained in the LIWC dictionary</td><td>Aut < NT</td></tr><tr><td>Long words*</td><td>More than 6 letters</td><td>Aut > NT</td></tr><tr><td>Punctuation</td><td>Quotation Marks*, Colons, Semicolons</td><td>unclear</td></tr><tr><td><bold>References to the nonsocial world</bold> (italicised words indicate examples)</td><td /></tr><tr><td>Time*</td><td><italic>annual, before, day, forever, October, spring, today, until</italic></td><td>unclear</td></tr><tr><td>Causation*</td><td><italic>affect, consequence, how, influence, reason, since, therefore</italic></td><td>Aut > NT</td></tr><tr><td>Space</td><td><italic>above, along, beside, close, east, far, here, inside, middle</italic></td><td>Aut > NT</td></tr><tr><td>Motion</td><td><italic>approach, bring, carry, drive, flying, follow, move, run</italic></td><td>Aut > NT</td></tr><tr><td>Numbers*</td><td><italic>one, second, million</italic></td><td>Aut > NT</td></tr><tr><td>Biological/Physical</td><td><italic>ache, allergic, arm, binge, blood, cough, diet, kiss</italic></td><td>Aut > NT</td></tr><tr><td><bold>References to people</bold></td><td /></tr><tr><td>1st person singular</td><td><italic>I, me, my</italic></td><td>Aut > NT</td></tr><tr><td>Pronouns we/you</td><td><italic>we, us, our, ours, you, your, yours</italic></td><td>Aut < NT</td></tr><tr><td>Pronouns for others</td><td><italic>she</italic>, <italic>he, they, their</italic></td><td>Aut < NT</td></tr><tr><td>Friends</td><td><italic>acquaintance, colleague, fiancé, neighbour, partner</italic></td><td>Aut < NT</td></tr><tr><td>Family</td><td><italic>cousin, daughter, husband, relatives, stepfather</italic></td><td>Aut < NT</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Emotional response and mentalizing words</bold></td><td /></tr><tr><td>Positive Emotion*</td><td><italic>agree, awesome, easy, friendly, happy, proud, trust, win</italic></td><td>Aut < NT</td></tr><tr><td>Negative Emotion</td><td><italic>anxious, confuse, difficult, helpless, lie, lonely, offend</italic></td><td>Aut > NT</td></tr><tr><td>Inhibition*</td><td><italic>avoid, careful, contradict, delay, hesitate, ignore, prevent</italic></td><td>Aut > NT</td></tr><tr><td>Religion</td><td><italic>angel, church, choir, God, pray</italic></td><td>Aut < NT</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>1 Note: * Categories that showed a statistically significant difference between autistic and NT bloggers in our exploratory analysis.</p> <p>Here we review why these 20 LIWC categories were examined.</p> <p> <emph>Writing formality and complexity, relevant to Hypothesis 1</emph>. To measure writing formality, we assessed three types of punctuation. The LIWC programme was used to count the frequency of colons, semicolons, and quotes. Using punctuation could reflect a more formal and/or grammatically complex writing style. To measure writing complexity, we included two LIWC measures of vocabulary difficulty, long words (words in a text with at least six letters) and common words, which are frequent enough to be in the LIWC dictionary. Text genres differ greatly in the percentage of common words they contain. While scientific writing averages only 53%, blogs average about 84%, and conversation reaches 91% (Pennebaker et al., [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref74">44</reflink>]).</p> <p> <emph>References to the non-social world, relevant to Hypothesis 2</emph>: We tested 6 LIWC categories about the non-social world, given that autistic individuals are interested in systemising topics (Baron-Cohen, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref75">5</reflink>]).</p> <p> <emph>Reference to people, relevant to Hypothesis 3</emph>. These five categories were included to test whether autistic bloggers wrote less about people and social activities, consisted of lower social motivation in autistic people, and prior findings on special interests (e.g. Jordan & Caldwell-Harris, [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref76">32</reflink>]).</p> <p> <emph>Emotional words, relevant to Hypothesis 4.</emph> Emotion words are relevant to longstanding views of emotion processing impairment in autism, including alexithymia.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-11">Coding blog content</hd> <p>The 5,000- word blog excerpts were read by the authors who initially worked independently without identifying information or demographic codes in text files. Our blog content analysis was primarily quantitative, adapting the method used by Jordan and Caldwell-Harris ([<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref77">32</reflink>]). Those authors had created 18 broad categories that could include any topic of interest, ranging from science to relationships, crafts, facts, food, people, sports, TV/video, nature, history/culture, and psychological disorders. As we read through blogs, we identified topics being discussed and assigned them to those 18 categories.</p> <p>As an example of assigning topics to the 18 categories, one paragraph described <emph>American exceptionalism</emph> and was assigned to the broader topic <emph>History and Culture.</emph> As another example, mentions of <emph>my boyfriend, mother, husband</emph>, and <emph>friends/relatives</emph> were common. These were coded as belonging to the <emph>People</emph> topic. Many bloggers discussed autism and/or Asperger's syndrome; these were categorised in the "psychological disorders" category. The authors met to discuss their coding and how to decide on the final categorizations. Appendix 1 contains a complete list of all topics identified and the categories to which they were assigned.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-12">Data analysis procedure</hd> <p> <emph>Autistic vs. NT group differences compared on LIWC metrics and Flesh Reading Ease (Hypotheses 1-4).</emph> The 20 LIWC metrics listed in Table 2 were entered into a two-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with group and gender as independent variables using SPSS. Pillai's Trace was used for F statistics, but note that significance did not vary across the test's statistical options offered by SPSS. Group and gender differences in FRE were examined with two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Since FRE was correlated with LIWC variables measures of writing complexity, we used multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) with FRE as the covariate.</p> <p> <emph>Variables that may illuminate correlations.</emph> LIWC categories that showed significant autistic-NT differences after controlling for FRE were examined in an exploratory manner to determine reasons why these differences may exist; these reasons were then further explored quantitatively.</p> <p> <emph>Autistic vs. NT blogs were analysed for content differences (Hypothesis 5).</emph> We investigated whether groups differed according to the percentage of blogs which discussed the 18 topics. Because the dependent variable was a proportion, each category was analysed using a 2-sided Fisher's exact test for group differences. This test is similar to chi-square but optimised for smaller sample sizes. Not every topic had to be analysed. We started with the topic with the largest difference in percentage between autistic and NT blogs and tested in order of difference magnitude, ceasing to test at the first non-significant result.</p> <p> <emph>Exploratory analysis to identify causes of differences in writing complexity between groups.</emph> An anonymous reviewer suggested we categorise blogs according to whether authors had written about daily life events vs. abstract ideas. Appendix 2 contains our method for categorising blogs according to whether the blog was more often concerned with daily life events vs. abstract ideas. Once categorisation was completed, a two-way ANOVA was conducted to determine if writing complexity, measured by FRE, varied as a function of blogger group and blog type.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-13">Results</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0181054518-14">LIWC metrics and flesh Reading ease</hd> <p>Whether LIWC metrics varied for autistic vs. NT bloggers was assessed via MANOVA. The dependent variables were the LIWC measures listed in Table 2. A main effect occurred for group, Wilkes Λ =.38, F(<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref78">20</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref79">37</reflink>) = 2.97, <emph>p</emph> = 0.002, ηp2 = 0.62. Table 3 shows the eight LIWC variables that varied significantly by group in the univariate analyses, listed in order of effect size. The strongest effect of group occurred for long words, with autistic bloggers using more long words than NT bloggers.</p> <p>Table 3. Significant LIWC categories in first and second analyses, in order of effect size.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><td /><td>Average Percentage* (<italic>SD</italic>)</td><td>Without controlling for Flesch Reading Ease</td><td>After controlling for Flesch Reading Ease</td></tr><tr><td>Category</td><td>Autistic</td><td>Neurotypical</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Long words</td><td char="(">17.8 (2.9)</td><td char="(">15.2 (2.3)</td><td><italic>p</italic> <.001; ηp2 = 0.218</td><td><italic>p</italic> =.165; ηp2 = 0.035</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Positive emotion</bold></td><td char="("><bold>2.4</bold> (<bold>0.5)</bold></td><td char="("><bold>2.8</bold> (<bold>0.6)</bold></td><td><bold><italic>p </italic>=.001; ηp2 = 0.184</bold></td><td><bold><italic>p </italic>=.048; ηp2 = 0.069</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Time</td><td char="(">3.8 (0.9)</td><td char="(">4.5 (0.9)</td><td><italic>p </italic>=.005; ηp2 = 0.134</td><td><italic>p </italic>=.469; ηp2 = 0.010</td></tr><tr><td>Causation</td><td char="(">1.1 (0.3)</td><td char="(">0.9 (0.3)</td><td><italic>p </italic>=.008; ηp2 = 0.119</td><td><italic>p </italic>=.252; ηp2 = 0.024</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Inhibition</bold></td><td char="("><bold>0.4</bold> (<bold>0.2)</bold></td><td char="("><bold>0.3</bold> (<bold>0.1)</bold></td><td><bold><italic>p </italic>=.008; ηp2 = 0.118</bold></td><td><bold><italic>p </italic>=.007; ηp2 = 0.127</bold></td></tr><tr><td><bold>Quotation marks</bold></td><td char="("><bold>0.9</bold> (<bold>0.8)</bold></td><td char="("><bold>0.4</bold> (<bold>0.4)</bold></td><td><bold><italic>p </italic>=.011; ηp2 = 0.109</bold></td><td><bold><italic>p </italic>=.044; ηp2 = 0.072</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Numbers</td><td char="(">1.3 (0.5)</td><td char="(">1.6 (0.5)</td><td><italic>p </italic>=.013; ηp2 = 0.105</td><td><italic>p </italic>=.222; ηp2 = 0.027</td></tr><tr><td>Common words</td><td char="(">73.0 (3.0)</td><td char="(">74.9 (3.7)</td><td><italic>p </italic>=.026; ηp2 = 0.086</td><td><italic>p </italic>=.79; ηp2 = 0.09</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>2 *The average percentage is the mean percentage of blog words from the specified category, averaged across all autistic or all NT bloggers. The three bolded categories remained statistically significant after including Flesch Reading Ease as a covariate in the MANCOVA.</p> <p>Not surprisingly, use of long words was inversely correlated with use of common words. This correlation held for both groups of bloggers (<emph>r</emph> = −.68, <emph>p</emph> <.001), as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 suggests a continuum between autistic and NT bloggers in their use of specialised vs. common words, with autistic bloggers generally using more difficult vocabulary and NT bloggers leaning toward simpler vocabulary.</p> <p>Graph: Figure 1. Percentage of words in the text that are long words plotted against percentage of words that are common words (operationalised as words in the LIWC dictionary) for Autistic vs. NT blogs.</p> <p>Graph: Figure 2. Higher Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) scores indicate less complex vocabulary and thus easier readability. The scale is truncated for readability. A score of 50 indicates 12 grade to college level. The lowest possible FRE range of 0-10, not depicted, indicates "Professional; very difficult to read."</p> <p>Our second test of writing complexity was the <emph>t</emph>-test conducted on FRE which revealed that autistic bloggers had lower reading ease (autistic bloggers: FRE Mean = 68.8 [SD = 8.3]; NT bloggers: FRE Mean = 76.1 [SD = 6.4]). Cohen's d for this test was 0.99, indicating a large effect, consistent with the strong group differences for the LIWC variables graphed in Figure 1. Note that FRE scores of 60–69 are assigned the label "Standard", or school grades 8–9 (age 13-14) while scores in the range of 70–79 are considered "Fairly easy".</p> <p>Given that the autistic bloggers wrote in a more complex manner, it is worth using FRE to control for writing complexity, while using only the eight LIWC variables that had been significant in the first MANOVA. We thus used MANCOVA with FRE as the covariate. The effect of group remained significant, Wilkes Λ =.64, F(<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref80">8</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref81">50</reflink>) = 13.0, <emph>p</emph> <.001, η<subs>p</subs><sups>2</sups> = 0.68. The univariate analyses on the LIWC categories allowed us to test hypotheses 2-4. Univariate tests were significant for the use of positive emotion words (<emph>p</emph> =.039, η<subs>p</subs><sups>2</sups> = 0.073), inhibition words (<emph>p</emph> =.005, η<subs>p</subs><sups>2</sups> = 0.129), and quotation marks (<emph>p</emph> =.039, η<subs>p</subs><sups>2</sups> = 0.072). These categories are bolded and italicised in Table 3.</p> <p>Hypothesis 2, that words used in autistic blogs would reflect greater references to the non-social world, was not supported. As shown in Table 3, autistic bloggers used more causation words than NT bloggers, but these differences were not statistically reliable when controlling for complex vocabulary (FRE). Therefore, using more causation words is best understood as a consequence of writing about complex topics involving explanations and causal relations.</p> <p>We had thought that using more number words would be found for autistic bloggers, as it could reflect systemising and writing about scientific topics. Instead, NT bloggers used more number words, but this effect disappeared when controlling for writing complexity using FRE. Using number words thus co-occurs with using less complex vocabulary, which also occurred for words about time (e.g. <emph>before, day, today, until, forever</emph>) (see Table 3). To understand why number and time words are signposts of simpler writing, we explored correlations between number and time words and other LIWC variables. Across all bloggers, time words were positively correlated with motion words, such as <emph>came</emph> and <emph>went</emph> (<emph>r</emph> =.54, <emph>p</emph> <.001), past tense verbs (<emph>r</emph> =.54, <emph>p</emph> <.001), and terms referring to friends (<emph>r</emph> =.38, <emph>p</emph> <.01). Use of number words was correlated with use of time words (<emph>r</emph> =.52, <emph>p</emph> <.001), and showed similar patterns with other words as did time words, but more weakly. This similarity can be explained if time and number words were often used in the context of situated experiences, as occurs when one discusses one's ongoing life experiences. For example, consider these examples of time and number words (see Appendix 2 for context):</p> <p> <emph>again this year ... this time ... it's been 12 years ... register today.</emph> </p> <p>Time words were also negatively correlated with using long words (<emph>r</emph> = −.63, <emph>p</emph> <.001). We infer that using words about time is part of a colloquial writing style.</p> <p>Hypothesis 3, that autistic bloggers would make fewer social references was not borne out. The autistic bloggers resembled NT bloggers in the LIWC count of social references, such as kin words and the use of pronouns. But during content analysis, we observed that autistic bloggers used <emph>we</emph> more often as a generic collective pronoun (impersonal, e.g. <emph>we the people</emph>) than NT bloggers. NT bloggers used personal we 57% of the time, while the autistic bloggers used personal we only 46% of the time (chi-squared, χ2 = 11.0, <emph>p</emph> =.001). One autistic blogger, whose posts were mainly philosophical, used just one instance of personal <emph>we</emph> compared to 56 instances of impersonal <emph>we</emph>. This philosophical blog is an example of writing about abstract topics, examined further below.</p> <p>Hypothesis 4 was supported. As shown in Table 3, NT bloggers used more positive emotion words and fewer inhibition words (threat-related words, see examples in Table 2). Controlling for writing complexity, autistic bloggers expressed less positive emotion and more inhibition.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-15">Analysis of blog topics</hd> <p>Hypothesis 5 was confirmed. Autistic bloggers wrote more often about topics related to systemising, such as sensory and scientific domains. This was tested by tallying the number of bloggers from each group who discussed a particular category and testing group differences using a 2-sided Fisher's exact test (see Appendix 1 for the list of categories and examples). Two group differences were found. More autistic bloggers, compared to NT bloggers, discussed specific sensory fixations (autistic = 9, NT = 0; <emph>p</emph> =.002) and scientific topics (autistic = 12, NT = 3; <emph>p</emph> =.015). Sensory fixations among autistic bloggers included the feeling of handshaking and specific sounds. Scientific topics among autistic bloggers included human sexuality, evolution, and the physiology of running. NT bloggers wrote more often about food and drink (<emph>N</emph> = 7, 23%) compared to autistic bloggers (<emph>N</emph> = 1, 3%), but this was not statistically reliable (<emph>p</emph> =.052). The relative numbers of each type of blogger who discussed each of the 28 topics can be viewed in Appendix 1.</p> <p>Discussion of topics related to systemising, such as technology, science, and object attachment, were comparable among autistic men and women. However, autistic males discussed sports and games more than autistic females (Fisher's exact test, males = 6, females = 1; <emph>p</emph> =.031). The only gender difference for NT bloggers was that more NT females discussed food and drink than NT males (males = 1, female = 6; <emph>p</emph> =.031).</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-16">Additional observations</hd> <p>Here we list observations that struck us as pertinent during reading and coding the blogs.</p> <p>Most autistic bloggers mentioned being autistic in the 5000 coded words (<emph>n</emph> = 23 out of 30, or 76%). Autistic experiences were discussed extensively by 40% of bloggers, including one who wrote about how she enjoyed being autistic. Five bloggers discussed their diagnosis. Only 17% of the autistic bloggers (<emph>n</emph> = 5) used their blog as a daily journal activity, while 40% of NT bloggers (<emph>n</emph> = 12) chose to do so. Consistent with the prior blog analysis of Jones et al. ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref82">30</reflink>]), 43% of autistic bloggers discussed the life problems they were facing, while only 7% of the NT bloggers (<emph>n</emph> = 2) did so.</p> <p>We observed that several autistic bloggers devoted their blogs to philosophical and scientific topics. Writing about abstract ideas could require a more complex writing style. Writing about daily events lends itself to adopting a colloquial writing style. To determine if writing about abstract ideas is the cause of a more complex writing style for autistic bloggers, we categorised blogs according to whether the topic concerned abstract ideas vs. daily life events. Appendix 2 describes the categorisation method.</p> <p>The 30 autistic blogs were almost equally divided between daily life events (53%) and abstract ideas (47%). In contrast, 80% of NT blogs are concerned with daily life events. A two-way ANOVA was conducted with FRE as the dependent variable and blogger and blog type as the predictor factors. A main effect was obtained for the group, F(<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref83">1</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref84">56</reflink>) = 8.8, <emph>p</emph> <.01, η<subs>p</subs><sups>2</sups> = 0.12, and for blogger (autistic vs. NT), F(<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref85">1</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref86">56</reflink>) = 8.2, <emph>p</emph> =.01, η<subs>p</subs><sups>2</sups> = 0.12; with no interaction, <emph>p</emph> = 0.83. These two main effects are depicted in Figure 2.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-17">Discussion</hd> <p>Autistic blogs demonstrated a more complex writing style than NT blogs, thus supporting Hypothesis 1 that writing strengths would be present in autistic blogs. Autistic blogs did not contain words related to systemising more frequently than NT blogs, refuting Hypothesis 2. Instead, greater use of causation words accompanied more complex writing for both groups of bloggers. Number and time words did not co-occur with systemising topics, but the opposite: these words are integral to writing about daily events. In contrast to the lack of support for Hypotheses 2 and 3, Hypothesis 4 was supported. Autistic bloggers expressed less positive emotion and more words related to inhibition, similar to the results of Jones et al. ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref87">30</reflink>]), even when controlling for writing complexity. Hypothesis 5 was confirmed. Autistic bloggers more often discussed topics related to systemising, especially sensory and scientific topics.</p> <p>In the sections below, we relate these results to ongoing topics in the literature on autistic writing and bring in the relevance of exploratory analyses.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-18">Understanding autistic writing strengths</hd> <p>Autistic bloggers wrote more complexly and were more likely to write often about intellectual and abstract ideas than NT bloggers. Writing in a complex manner is unexpected from the deficit perspective on autism, as well as research that specifically examines writing challenges in autistic children (Asaro-Saddler & Coles, [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref88">2</reflink>]; Brown & Klein, [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref89">8</reflink>]; Pennington & Delano, [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref90">46</reflink>]). But this result is consistent with writing ability being variable in autism, and writing being a strength for some autistic children and adults (e.g. Zajic & Brown, [<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref91">59</reflink>]; Zajic et al., [<reflink idref="bib60" id="ref92">60</reflink>]; Zajic & Wilson, [<reflink idref="bib61" id="ref93">61</reflink>]). We tested one explanation, which is that complex writing is a by-product of writing about abstract ideas. But autistic bloggers wrote complexly even when they wrote about daily events (Figure 2). Autistic bloggers thus wrote in a more complex style than NT bloggers, regardless of blog type. We conclude that the factor responsible for autistic bloggers' more complex writing was something beyond merely choosing to write about abstract ideas vs. daily events.</p> <p>Two possible explanations for the observed more complex writing style are described here.</p> <p> <emph>Intellectual orientation.</emph> One explanation is that autistic people with typical intelligence frequently have intellectual orientation, consistent with the documented overlap between autism and Geek syndrome (Nash & Bonesteel, [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref94">41</reflink>]; Silberman, [<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref95">52</reflink>]). Asperger referred to the children he studied as "little professors" (see Safran, [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref96">49</reflink>]). The autism community frequently discusses their special interests in science and scholarly topics as well as their logical and intellectual approach to daily life topics (Caldwell-Harris et al., [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref97">11</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref98">10</reflink>]). Rozenkrantz et al. ([<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref99">48</reflink>]) reviewed the literature on how autistic individuals are less susceptible to common reasoning biases such as the conjunction fallacy, sunk-cost bias, and framing effect. Those authors explained that enhanced rationality in autistic individuals is due to greater attention, deliberation, and reduced use of intuition (Ashwin & Brosnan, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref100">3</reflink>]). A cognitive style that emphasises deliberation and systemising (Baron-Cohen, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref101">5</reflink>]; Wright et al., [<reflink idref="bib58" id="ref102">58</reflink>]) could lead to a more complex writing style.</p> <p> <emph>Elite subset.</emph> A second explanation is that autistic bloggers are not representative of autistic adults but are a subset of autistic adults with superior writing skills. NT bloggers are also likely to have superior writing abilities relative to the general NT population, (one can speculate) to a lesser extent than is true of autistic bloggers. Reasons for this include the historical focus on autism as a disabling condition (Silberman, [<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref103">52</reflink>]). It was not until the 1990s that autism without intellectual disability was recognised as Asperger's syndrome (Frith, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref104">20</reflink>]). Lacking role models and other support, having high writing abilities may provide the confidence to take on the challenge of writing a blog. Note that Zajic et al. ([<reflink idref="bib60" id="ref105">60</reflink>]) found that autistic and non-autistic adolescents reported blogging at similar low rates. Only 6% of non-autistic youth and 5% of autistic youth blogged occasionally, while 5% and 0% reported blogging frequently.</p> <p>Although we cannot support or refute either explanation, two of our autistic bloggers but no NT bloggers mentioned publishing books. We checked the two published authors' blog type and reading ease score. Interestingly, they both had written about daily life events and had FRE scores of 74 and 75, similar to NT scores (compare in Figure 2). Although the FRE scores of these two bloggers have a writing style considered "fairly easy", the fact that they are published authors illustrates the idea of autistic bloggers having high accomplishments relative to the general population of autistic adults. Rozenkrantz et al. ([<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref106">48</reflink>]) mentioned similar idea when they discussed how different selection pressures exist when recruiting autistic research participants vs. the general NT population, creating the potential for incorrect conclusions when comparing autistic and NT participants in experimental studies.</p> <p>The "elite subset" and "intellectual orientation" explanations may also apply to Gillespie-Lynch et al.'s (2020) finding that post-secondary autistic students demonstrated more advanced writing skills than non-autistic students. Those authors noted the higher non-verbal intelligence of autistic students. The relatively high intelligence of autistic students is consistent with the elite subset explanation, i.e. autistic university students are a higher-achieving subset of the autistic population relative to the achievements of NT university students and the broader NT population.</p> <p>Comparing autistic university students to the broader autistic population is a complex endeavour. A Dutch study found no difference in average examination grades in students with disabilities (including autism) and those without disabilities. However, autistic students "more often had non-standard pre-education qualifications" (Bakker et al., [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref107">4</reflink>], p. 1).</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-19">Using blogs to learn about autistic interests and writing style</hd> <p>Autistic bloggers more frequently discussed topics related to science compared to NT bloggers. There was a trend for more references to technology (autistic = 5, NT = 1) and information systems (autistic = 3, NT = 0), but those differences were not significant (see Appendix 1 for details). Our sample size was too small to capture those differences as fewer than ten bloggers generally discussed topics related to a given category. The differences observed in technology references were thus weaker than the emphasis on technology and information systems noted in forum discussion posts (Caldwell-Harris & Jordan, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref108">9</reflink>]).</p> <p>The main conclusion is of overlap in topics between autistic and NT bloggers, as can be seen from numerical counts of topics in Appendix 1. Topics discussed by both groups included media consumption (e.g. watching movies, playing video games), life events (e.g. birthdays), and close relationships. Autistic and NT individuals have interests that lie on a continuum with each other rather than exhibiting a discontinuity in which autistic interests are "narrow" or "circumscribed" (Caldwell-Harris & Jordan, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref109">9</reflink>]).</p> <p>An unexpected autistic-NT difference was autistic bloggers' more frequent use of quotation marks, even when statistically controlling for FRE. To understand the use of quotation marks, we identified how quotation marks were used in context. Both the autistic and NT bloggers used quotation marks in the following ways:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> to specify names and titles (e.g. we saw "The Avengers")</item> <p></p> <item> to indicate measurement (e.g. I'm 5′6″ tall)</item> <p></p> <item> to imply non-standard readings of words and phrases (e.g. there's a "traffic jam" in my head; let's talk about something "fun").</item> </ulist> <p>Autistic bloggers used quotation marks more frequently in this last category. Quotation marks to imply non-standard readings may indicate bloggers' awareness of their distinct status as cultural outsiders. For example, the "traffic jam" mention could indicate a state of mental chaos that other neurodiverse individuals would understand. The reference to "fun" could mean something that lacks appeal for the author but is recognised as entertaining in the neurotypical world, or vice versa.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-20">Connections to prior research on autistic writing complexity</hd> <p>In Shevchuk-Hill et al.'s ([<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref110">51</reflink>]) research, autistic students' stories contained fewer grammatical errors, which may reflect greater attention to detail, consistent with a detail-oriented cognitive style (Mottron et al., [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref111">39</reflink>]). Gillespie-Lynch et al.'s ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref112">22</reflink>]) participants were 92% male, and thus our findings are a useful extension of those authors' finding of considerable writing complexity by autistic students. Gillespie-Lynch et al. ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref113">22</reflink>]) did not replicate Brown and colleagues' ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref114">7</reflink>]) finding that autistic students tend to use more rare words. Our findings are thus useful because our autistic bloggers used more long words and rare words (Figure 1), which is also consistent with Price et al. ([<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref115">47</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-21">Influence of gender and the question of self-diagnosis</hd> <p>Autistic men outnumber autistic women by 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 (Loomes et al., [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref116">37</reflink>]), but our sample of autistic bloggers contained nearly equal numbers of men and women. This equality was found by prior researchers who analysed discussion forums (Caldwell-Harris et al., [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref117">11</reflink>]) and blogs (Clarke & Van Amerom, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref118">17</reflink>]). A potential explanation is that autistic women display more functional social behaviour than autistic men (Halladay et al., [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref119">27</reflink>]). Women may value blogging and online self-expression more than men (Chen, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref120">13</reflink>]). Another perspective is that men and women have similar rates of autism, with disparities due to diagnoses that emphasise male-typical symptoms (Hull & Mandy, [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref121">29</reflink>]). However, this explanation implies that female autistic bloggers were more often self-diagnosed than male bloggers, and this was not the case in our sample of bloggers.</p> <p>Our bloggers stated they were autistic (or had an Asperger's diagnosis). None mentioned being self-diagnosed. None wondered if they should get diagnosed, and none expressed uncertainty about being autistic, although those are common topics on discussion boards (Caldwell-Harris et al., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref122">10</reflink>]). Members of the autistic community take diagnosis seriously and are reluctant to claim a status they do not merit (Giles & Newbold, [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref123">21</reflink>]). Giles and Newbold ([<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref124">21</reflink>]) concluded that formal diagnoses allowed users to present themselves as part of an in-group with special authority to speak about their disorder or disability. Sarrett ([<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref125">50</reflink>]) noted in a later analysis of <emph>Wrong Planet</emph> posts that many posters accept self-diagnosis. However, posters generally state if they are self-diagnosed. Our impression from comparing similarities and differences between blogs and forum posts is that public blogging is a high-stakes endeavour where honesty is valued.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-22">Limitations</hd> <p>The advantage of analysing blogs is their ecological validity. Blogs are a naturally occurring writing product, and the content is thus free of researchers' expectations and hypotheses. The primary shortcoming is that public writing does not deliver the demographic data possible when using a survey. Background factors between the groups could have explained why groups varied in writing complexity. Plausible individual differences include years of education, personality dimensions such as need-for-cognition, and the purpose of writing a blog. While we did not match autistic and NT blogs on their subject matter, the current findings probably would not have been influenced since autistic bloggers wrote more complexly than NT bloggers, even when writing about their daily life events. This project does not compare autistic individuals who do not write blogs. Future work can analyse how writing differs between autistic individuals who do and do not pursue substantial writing projects.</p> <p>An additional difference between autistic and NT bloggers is that some autistic bloggers used their blog to expand on their experience of being autistic. The average FRE scores for autistics who blogged extensively about autism was 69.0, indistinguishable from those who did not discuss autism (FRE = 68.0) or who discussed autism only somewhat (FRE = 68.5). Future research can analyse the life experiences discussed when blogging about having autism, thus extending and updating the first-hand accounts analysed by Jones et al. ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref126">30</reflink>]).</p> <p>Analysis by humans is time-consuming and can be overly subjective. Computer tools could have been used for sentiment or topic analysis, as reported in several recent studies on autistic online writing (Castro & Lucke, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref127">12</reflink>]). An additional limitation is that only the two authors analysed these blogs and examined only a few characteristics. Future research could use multiple trained raters or AI systems to gauge blog attributes such as writing complexity, creativity, novelty, newsworthiness, or other attributes.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-23">Implications</hd> <p>By analysing the writing of autistic bloggers, we responded to Greenbaum's ([<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref128">24</reflink>], p. 41) call to address a scholarship gap: "If you research autism in education, you will get significant scholarship related to early education, intervention, and mainstreaming, but there is a dearth of research that contributes to the discussion of what happens to these children as they become young adults and move into higher education." Consistent with how Zajic and Brown ([<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref129">59</reflink>]) described the Writer(s)-with-in-Community framework (Graham, [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref130">23</reflink>]), these platforms offer a unique opportunity to study how autistic individuals use writing for their own purposes.</p> <p>These current results add to the growing literature documenting autistic strengths in writing (Gillespie-Lynch et al., [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref131">22</reflink>]; Greenbaum, [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref132">24</reflink>]; Shevchuk-Hill et al., [<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref133">51</reflink>]; Tomlinson & Newman, [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref134">54</reflink>]; Van Goidsenhoven, [<reflink idref="bib55" id="ref135">55</reflink>]). In addition, it documents bloggers' interest in writing about abstract ideas. The current analysis of blog content is consistent with autistic individuals' well-documented interest in science, technology, and philosophical concepts (Baron-Cohen, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref136">5</reflink>]; Caldwell-Harris & Jordan, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref137">9</reflink>]; Silberman, [<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref138">52</reflink>]; Wood, [<reflink idref="bib57" id="ref139">57</reflink>]).</p> <p>The freedom to choose one's topics and a reduced pressure to conform to the needs of one's audience plausibly allows complex language to flourish. Bloggers generally enjoy writing and believe they are good writers (Clark & Dugdale, [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref140">16</reflink>]). Allowing autistic students to write in a manner consistent with their cognitive strengths may enhance academic performance, especially in English or writing classes.</p> <p>Many educators may not be aware that writing can be a strength for autistic students (Asaro-Saddler & Coles, [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref141">2</reflink>]). Current interventions primarily target deficits. Extrapolating these difficulties to all autistic individuals hides areas of strength, such as the writing strengths of autistic bloggers. Altering this view can open more doors for writing to be an avenue of personal and career success for autistic students.</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-24">Disclosure statement</hd> <p>No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).</p> <hd id="AN0181054518-25">Appendix 1: Blog topics by group and category, sorted by strength of group difference</hd> <p> <emph>Overview of blog topic appendix.</emph> Rows in the table with bolded, italicised headers list category descriptors; these are the 28 categories, such as <bold><emph>Sensory Interests</emph></bold>, to which blog topics (e.g. "certain sounds"), were assigned. Below each category descriptor are 2 rows for the specific topics identified during coding: one row for topics in autistic blogs, and a second row for topics in NT blogs. The ratio of number of NT bloggers to autistic bloggers is listed after the category descriptor. The 3 categories of Sensory Interests, Information and Mechanical Systems, and Numerical Information have a NT/autism ratio of 0.0 because no NT bloggers wrote about these topics. Machines and Technology has a NT/autism ratio of 0.20, because NT were only 1/5 as likely to write about machines and technology as were autistic individuals. This ratio allows sorting the topics from <emph>more characteristic of autism</emph> (low NT/autism) to <emph>more characteristic of NT</emph> (high NT/autism ratio).</p> <p>To convey information about how genders differed we included a column with the header indicating Male, Female, abbreviated <bold><emph>M,F</emph></bold>. Under the M,F column header we list the number of male and female bloggers whose blogs are categorised under this descriptor. For example, 2 males and 7 females wrote blogs that discussed sensory issues. For simplicity, blog topics are not listed separately for male, female bloggers.</p> <p> <emph>Summary</emph> </p> <p>NT = Neurotypical ratio of NT/Autism listed next to category label; 30 NT bloggers; 30 autistic bloggers</p> <p>M = Male (<emph>N</emph> = 14), F = Female (<emph>N</emph> = 16) in each group of 30 NT and 30 Autistic bloggers</p> <p></p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><td>Group</td><td>Category Label and NT/Autistic Ratio (High Value = More NT)</td><td>M,F</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><bold>Sensory Interests, 0.0</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>personal sensory issues, body clock and eating, feeling of handshaking, certain sounds, sensory overload, visual thinking</td><td>2, 7</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>-</td><td>0, 0</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Information & Mechanical Systems, 0.0</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>manufacturing methods, bus route, archiving/library science, education system, law about driver's licenses, disability laws, inventions</td><td>3, 0</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>-</td><td>0, 0</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Numerical Information, 0.0</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>math terms</td><td>1, 0</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>-</td><td>0, 0</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Psychological Disorders, 0.13</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>specific disorders (Asperger's syndrome, ADHD, personalty disorders, Alexithymia, psychopathy, hyperlexia, savantism); topics related to disorders (neurodiversity, anxiety attacks, risk of violence in mentally ill subjects, how autistic brains different, trauma from sexual abuse)</td><td>5, 10</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>cyclothymia or bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's disease</td><td>0, 2</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Machines & Technology, 0.20</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>software troubleshooting, coding, tech-based gifts, programming, creating website, linux, gaming console, types of keyboards</td><td>3, 2</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>computer upgrade (technical)</td><td>1, 0</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Science, 0.25</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>mental states, personality traits, disability, evolutionary perspective on bullying, science of running (cardiac muscle), neurotransmitters, endorphins, gender/sexuality, hormones, study on the effect of social media, human territorial behavior, cognitive science, climate change, environmental science</td><td>5, 7</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>economics, climate change, logic/rhetoric, nature versus nurture</td><td>2, 1</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Nature, 0.33</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>being outdoors, hiking, nature, bouldering</td><td>1, 2</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>the outdoors</td><td>0, 1</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Animals, 0.33</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>pets, farm animals</td><td>1, 5</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>pets, riding horses</td><td>1, 1</td></tr><tr><td><bold>History & Culture, 0.43</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>Ancient Greece, foreign accents, learning languages, history of comedy, authentic cuisine, advent of email, language, middle east, Arabic</td><td>5, 2</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>Japan, other cultures, American exceptionalism</td><td>2, 1</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Factual Information, 0.60</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>specific experiment from the 1950s, Vikings, capital of Denmark, fires in California, general news</td><td>2, 3</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>linguistic facts, marathon scores</td><td>2, 1</td></tr><tr><td><bold>People, 0.81</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>friends/relatives (girlfriend, husband, ex-girlfriend, sister, boyfriend, father, mom, ex-husband, wife) groups of people (videogame teammates, sexy people, hot girls, students at college, doctors, relatives, groups that share my interests, psychopaths, people dealing with trauma, we Aspergers, Jewish people, atheists) events with people (friend visiting, children's classroom project, visit from a door-to-door election worker; discussion of movie trailer with online friend) topics relating to people (difficulty relating to people, difficulty with friends, taxonomy of types of people) public people (Frank Miller's political opinions; Stephen Colbert)</td><td>13,14</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>friends/relatives (husband, wife, friends, named friends, daughter, son, brother, sister, father, mother, family, employer, boyfriend, girlfriend, coworker) groups of people (our generation, baby boomers, my readers, types of leaders, musicians, liberals, people who are gay, journalists, Presbyterian girls, Israeli Jews) events with people (parties, going to bars, family vacation, church conference, communicating with people, horse show) topics relating to people (people who are difficult to deal with, speculations about types of people, people who travel) public people (Osama Bin Laden, Cameron Crowe, Matt Damon, Colin Ford, Obama, Michael Jackson, actors in Monty Python)</td><td>11,11</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Sports & Games, 0.86</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>online poker, video games, running track & field</td><td>6, 1</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>triathlons, video games, martial arts, NFL, running</td><td>4, 2</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Creative Arts, 0.90</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>writing, book signing, comics, comedy tv shows, movies, acting, writing stand-up comedy, drawing, being fibre artist, pottery, blogging, music, documentaries, photography, anime</td><td>9, 11</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>writing, photography, reading fiction, book review, storyboards, art, anime, art show, music festivals/concerts, movies, slam poetry</td><td>9, 9</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Vehicles, 1.0</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>personal car</td><td>1, 0</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>personal car</td><td>1, 0</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Item Attachment, 1.22</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>new toy, LED lights, specific words, ATMs, an old jingle, bras, old home, website</td><td>4, 5</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>specific words, cigarettes, dead animal, tea, mushrooms, hay, Halloween costume, phone, piercings, camera, wedding charms, website</td><td>4, 7</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Belief Systems, 2.0</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>logic of faith, government, atheists, Judaism, social rules vs. religious doctrine, tea party</td><td>4, 1</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>belief in god, Christianity, politics, reform Judaism, feminism, advent, philosophy, Aristotle, bible, values, liberals</td><td>7, 3</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Crafts, 3.0</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>crafting business, building things, making hats</td><td>1, 0</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>quilting, knitting, general crafting, craft shows, scrapbooking</td><td>0, 3</td></tr><tr><td><bold>Food & Drink, 7.0</bold></td></tr><tr><td>Autistic</td><td>making granola bars</td><td>0, 1</td></tr><tr><td>NT</td><td>cooking, trying specific foods, lima beans, specific meals, chili cook off</td><td>1, 6</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <hd id="AN0181054518-26">Appendix 2: Guidelines for categorising blog type as about daily life events vs. abstract ide...</hd> <p>All examples are from autistic bloggers.</p> <p> <emph>Daily life events</emph> </p> <p>Daily life events were defined as descriptions of recent events happening today, yesterday, last week, tomorrow. Blogs about daily events needed to contain at least three paragraphs devoted to describing 3 separate, recent life events, while also having minimal (less than one paragraph) description of an intellectual idea. We did not categorise based on time words, since those can be misleading (although autistic bloggers used fewer time words, as shown in Table 3).</p> <p>Sentences illustrating daily life events included:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> But for now, my living environment is as close to perfect as I can reasonably hope for it to be ...</item> <p></p> <item> I'm signing books there again this year ... only, this time I'll have copies of Kea's Flight to sign too ...</item> <p></p> <item> As a former spelling bee geek (it's been 12 years, believe it or not) ...</item> <p></p> <item> I was just trying to register for a forum today, and came across a CAPTCHA that looked like this ...</item> <p></p> <item> The other day, I was reminded why I hesitate to tell people I'm mildly autistic.</item> <p></p> <item> So the other day I blew up about a particularly problematic article over in the atheist/skeptic community ...</item> <p></p> <item> In other news, my (significantly less formal) class today was a blast! I teach a drop-in class on Fridays about recycling/practicality-oriented crafts ...</item> </ulist> <p> <emph>Abstract ideas</emph> </p> <p>Many blogs focused on intellectual ideas. Three-quarters of the paragraphs in a blog needed to be concerned with ideas, rather than events.</p> <p>Sentences illustrating abstract ideas included:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Consequently, I have delved into a new realm, a wordless realm of abstraction, a world of complexity simplified by the singularising of ever fewer philosophical pillars, a world that is seemingly irrational to all but myself, the cogitator who sensately surmises subjective facts from the observations of introspective excursions.</item> <p></p> <item> ... a scenario that would make for a good short story premise ... An extrasolar planet is discovered in an area of space not more than a few light-years from Earth in an orbit that would place it at the right distance from its star for Terra – compatible temperatures.</item> <p></p> <item> It's hard to tell who truly lacks empathy and who is blocking it due to the opposite problem of having too much empathy. This is how people with Asperger Syndrome can get misunderstood.</item> <p></p> <item> How can women be a meaningful part of a conversation if they are not physically present and allowed to speak (and even photographed) as the equals of men?</item> <p></p> <item> So to start with: What does "stupid" mean? As was pointed out in the essay I objected to on Wednesday, "stupid" is maddeningly vague in its current use, and it has been accreting cultural baggage for some time.</item> <p></p> <item> If you think that Xmas is supposed to be all about spending time with family and friends, but you're not the sort of person who (for whatever reason) enjoys spending lots of time in social settings, and you throw in some sensory issues, it can be challenging.</item> <p></p> <item> It's an interesting and inadequately addressed subject, considering how pervasive territorial behavior is among humans. I engage in territorial behavior. You do.</item> </ulist> <ref id="AN0181054518-27"> <title> Note </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref21" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Bloggers who do not identify as autistic may still not be neurotypical as they could have some other neurotype that is not mentioned, such as OCD or ADHD. 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  Data: When Autistic Writing Is Superior to Neurotypical Writing: The Case of Blogs
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Catherine+L%2E+Caldwell-Harris%22">Catherine L. Caldwell-Harris</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9830-1156">0000-0002-9830-1156</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Solomon+D%2E+Posner%22">Solomon D. Posner</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Educational+Review%22"><i>Educational Review</i></searchLink>. 2024 76(7):1875-1897.
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  Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
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  Data: 23
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  Label: Publication Date
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  Data: 2024
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  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Autism+Spectrum+Disorders%22">Autism Spectrum Disorders</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Writing+%28Composition%29%22">Writing (Composition)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Electronic+Publishing%22">Electronic Publishing</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Web+Sites%22">Web Sites</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Writing+Skills%22">Writing Skills</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Language+Usage%22">Language Usage</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Individual+Characteristics%22">Individual Characteristics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Adults%22">Adults</searchLink>
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  Data: 10.1080/00131911.2024.2302119
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  Data: 0013-1911<br />1465-3397
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  Label: Abstract
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  Data: Research on autistic individuals' writing has long focused on weaknesses in structural complexity, organisation, and perspective-taking skills. More recently, awareness has grown that writing can be a strength, as suggested by research on autistic memoirs. To learn more about how well autistic individuals write when they use language for their own purposes, we turned to autistic-authored blogs. Online word usage patterns were analysed for 30 self-identified autistic bloggers and 30 age and gender-matched non-autistic bloggers, assumed to be neurotypical (NT). In addition, blog content was analysed for the range of topics discussed. Topics were categorised according to broad topics including common hobbies (e.g. sports, arts, crafts), preoccupations (e.g. people, vehicles, food, machines), and academic domains (e.g. belief systems, science, numbers, history). Compared to NT bloggers, autistic bloggers wrote in a more complex manner, as measured by word and sentence length and rare vocabulary. Autistic bloggers often wrote about science or other abstract topics rather than discussing daily life events. These findings suggest that one subset of autistic individuals, those who write blogs, are able to write in a more complex style than their NT peers. This may reflect having an intellectual orientation, or, autistic people with sophisticated writing skills are the ones who choose to author blogs. Raising awareness that some autistic individuals can be strong writers will be of broad help to diverse stakeholders, including educators, clinicians, families and autistic individuals themselves.
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        PageCount: 23
        StartPage: 1875
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Autism Spectrum Disorders
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Writing (Composition)
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      – SubjectFull: Electronic Publishing
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Web Sites
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      – TitleFull: When Autistic Writing Is Superior to Neurotypical Writing: The Case of Blogs
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