Reading comprehension and writing production among undergraduates / Relação entre a compreensão da leitura e a produção escrita em universitários

Some researches have demonstrated that a lot of undergraduates do not have the desirable competence in reading and writing skills. The aim of this study is to verify, among undergraduates, the relations between reading comprehension and writing production. The participants were 134 freshmen studying in the humanities, exact and natural sciences. A traditional Cloze text was used and some texts written by the students were analyzed in order to evaluate the correction in the use of orthography, verb and subject agreement, according to the Portuguese Language standard. The results showed that the poorer the reading comprehension the bigger the number of mistakes in grammatical rules, therefore confirming the relation between reading comprehension and writing. The Cloze technique was useful to detect at what level the readers are, bringing elements for either eventual intervention programs or pedagogical practices of faculty members that want to help their students to develop linguistic skills.