Abstract
This article aims to provide a reasoned classification of textual traits impacting coherence that may recur in school and university writings in Italian. This classification stems from a systematic review of the literature on students’ writing spanning the last three decades, and bases on the Basel Model of Textuality, which is the theoretical model of textuality used as blueprint. Employing a robust theoretical model of textuality permits the isolation of genuine textual anomalies from spurious traits that are inconsistently classified. Most critically, this approach enabled the systematization of problematic linguistic traits into well-defined textual dimensions (segmentation, connections on the thematic-referential and the logical-argumentative level), providing scholars and teachers with the diagnostic tools necessary to hypothesize about the prevalence, distribution patterns and underlying causes of these textual anomalies – as well as potential interventions to remedy them.