This study investigates effects of choice of essay prompts on the writing performance of test takers in terms of scores in a college English program at a Korean university. Participants were divided into a choice group (N=20) and a no-choice group (N=20) and only the choice group was provided with two different essay topics in two different essay types: expository/private and argumentative/public. Writings were rated analytically to compare the influence of topic choice on the content and organization of the essay with the one on the vocabulary and grammar. Besides the quantitative investigation, the choice group was asked to answer a questionnaire in order to examine the test takers’ preference as well as the reasons for their selection of prompts. Results revealed that the choice of essay prompts had positive effects on test takers; in particular, the choice group had higher scores on content and organization. Those who had considered the essay type only or considered both essay type and topic familiarity when they had made a choice significantly outperformed the other participants. Out of twenty participants in the choice group, nineteen favored having a topic choice, believing that they write better with familiar topics. The findings indicate that having a topic choice has positive effects both on the test takers’ performance and affective side.
I. INTRODUCTION
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
III. RESEARCH METHOD
IV. RESULTS and DISCUSSION
V. CONCLUSION