"This is the color I like" or "This is the color that I like": a study about the relative clauses in brazilian portuguese writing speech

The current study is linked to the research project "Teaching-learning writing process: studying the didactics of rewriting and its impact in textual quality", in progress at FACALE/UFGD. In this paper, we present the results of the analysis of relativization strategies used in written and rewritten texts by highly proficient subjects (16 undergraduates who are in the 3rd year of Portuguese and English Language major at FACALE/UFGD). The research corpus is formed by 103 texts which were written by the students enrolled in the discipline “Prática de Ensino em Língua Portuguesa II", during the second semester of 2008. The results have shown that the students use, in different levels, three types of relativization strategies: the pattern relative; the cutting relative and the copying relative, whereas the cutting relative has presented the highest volume of clauses in the undergraduates' texts.