The genre of persuasive writing requires writers to independently probe their long-term memory to generate pertinent ideas that support their opinion on a given topic. However, many students with high-incidence disabilities struggle with the complex synergy of tasks involved in writing, and in particular generating ideas. A qualitatively dominant mixed methods study explored and compared the idea generation processes and writing outcomes of eighth grade students with high incidence disabilities and proficient writers. Students with high-incidence disabilities and proficient writers engaged in a think aloud protocol during "pretest," sharing idea generation processes, while simultaneously composing an essay in response to an opinion-based persuasive writing prompt without any supports. Both groups then received instructional lessons on the use of the technology-based graphic organizer (TBGO) with built-in evidence-based strategies. Students then engaged in a second think aloud with identical data collection procedures to "pretest" but using the TBGO as they were writing. Finally, a third think aloud was conducted when the TBGO was removed, where both groups participated in a final think aloud that again captured idea generation processes while composing another essay. The use of a think aloud was used to glean qualitative data of the idea generation processes employed when responding to an opinion-based persuasive writing prompt while writing outcomes (number of ideas generated, total number of written words, writing quality) were concurrently collected. The findings of this study revealed that both students with high-incidence disabilities and proficient writers generate ideas through personal experiences in all writing contexts. Proficient writers demonstrated more complex idea generation processes, as they generated ideas by employing strategy use, using organizational strategies, and by simply pausing to think. The use of the TBGO enhanced the idea generation processes of students with high-incidence disabilities, as these students less frequently exhibited idleness of their idea generation processes and were more likely to engage in multiple idea generation processes with the tool. However, results demonstrated that students with high-incidence disabilities likely require more explicit instruction related to the generation of ideas. Additionally, quantitative results demonstrated that the use of the (TBGO) resulted in a statistically significant difference in the number of ideas generated, the total number of written words, and writing quality for students with high-incidence disabilities when writing with and without the TBGO. Yet only the number of ideas generated, and the writing quality measures improved significantly for proficient writers. A mixed analysis was used to quantize the frequency of the emergent qualitative themes. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]