Sample records for academic writing class

  1. Nurturing Interdisciplinary Competence in Academic Writing Classes: Two Taiwanese TESOL Professionals' Shared Journey

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chen, Cheryl Wei-yu; Wang, Hung-chun

    2016-01-01

    This study delineates two Taiwanese TESOL teachers' efforts of combining English writing with entrepreneurship education to cultivate English majors' interdisciplinary competence in academic writing classes. An integrated business-and-writing approach was proposed to foster English majors' academic writing skills and entrepreneurial capacities. In…

  2. An Interview Study of Learner Motivation and Learner Involvement in Mandatory College-Level Academic Writing Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vanniarajan, Swathi M.

    2011-01-01

    Scholarship in applied linguistics has not sufficiently addressed learner motivation in mandatory writing classes in postsecondary settings. The data collected through short interviews from 20 students enrolled in a mandatory academic writing program at the junior/senior level in a California State University indicated that learner motivation in…

  3. Academic writing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Eremina, Svetlana V.

    2003-10-01

    The series of workshops on academic writing have been developed by academic writing instructors from Language Teaching Centre, Central European University and presented at the Samara Academic Writing Workshops in November 2001. This paper presents only the part dealing with strucutre of an argumentative essay.

  4. Writing by Academics: A Transactional and Systems Approach to Academic Writing Behaviours

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kempenaar, Larissa Elisabeth; Murray, Rowena

    2016-01-01

    The literature on academic writing in higher education contains a wealth of research and theory on students' writing, but much less on academics' writing. In performative higher education cultures, discussions of academics' writing mainly concern outputs, rather than the process of producing them. This key component of academic work remains…

  5. Writing as Envision: Autobiographical and Academic Writing in the Composition Class.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tokarczyk, Michelle M.

    Three students in an autobiography class--an African-American, a woman, and a gay man struggling to come out--used their writing to both affirm their places in the world and envision another place. Having reviewed her early educational experiences as an African-American, Holly focused her essay back to her present college days and her attempts to…

  6. Applying Cultural Project Based Learning to Develop Students' Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Irawati, Lulus

    2015-01-01

    Writing is considered to be the most demanding and difficult skill for many college students, since there are some steps to be followed such as prewriting, drafting, editing, revising and publishing. The interesting topic like culture including lifestyle, costume, and custom is necessary to be offered in Academic Writing class. Accordingly, this…

  7. Collaborative Writing to Enhance Academic Writing Development through Project Work

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Robayo Lun, Alma Milena; Hernandez Ortiz, Luz Stella

    2013-01-01

    Advanced students at university level struggle with many aspects of academic writing in English as a foreign language. The purpose of this article is to report on an investigation aimed at analyzing what collaborative writing through project work tells us about students' academic writing development at the tertiary level. The compositions written…

  8. Strategic English Writing for Academic Purposes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lin, Grace Hui Chin

    2017-01-01

    Writing is one of the four abilities in English Learning. Many students need to write their theses and dissertations in English in order to achieve their academic degrees. English writing is in fact an access of international and intercultural communication with native-speakers and non-native speakers, in academic fields. After reading abundant…

  9. Talking about Writing: Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Adolescents' Socialization into Academic Literacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gilliland, Elizabeth A.

    2012-01-01

    This dissertation describes and analyzes the academic language socialization of culturally and linguistically diverse adolescents through a multi-case ethnographic study of high school writing instruction in California. I argue that there is a significant gap between the norms for writing in English language development classes and those in the…

  10. Deconstructing Attitudes towards Plagiarism of Japanese Undergraduates in EFL Academic Writing Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Teeter, Jennifer

    2015-01-01

    In this study, a qualitative analysis of 276 first-year Japanese university science major responses to plagiarism to deconstruct prevailing generalizations regarding the incidence of plagiarism by Japanese university students. These students were enrolled in a compulsory yearlong English academic writing course. While utilizing a contextualized…

  11. Writing for the World: Wikipedia as an Introduction to Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tardy, Christine M.

    2010-01-01

    As students move from writing personal essays to writing formal academic texts in English, they face several new challenges. Writing tasks in higher education often require students to draw upon outside sources and to adopt the styles and genres of academic discourse. They must conduct research, summarize and paraphrase, cite sources, adopt genre…

  12. Academic Writing: Theory and Practice

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Street, Brian V.

    2015-01-01

    In this paper I attempt to locate the study of academic writing in the broader field of Literacies as Social Practice. I begin with a brief summary of recent theories of Literacies as Social Practice and then recount some of the ethnographic methods for studying these. I then discuss the application of these concepts to academic writing in Higher…

  13. Using gamification to develop academic writing skills in dental undergraduate students.

    PubMed

    El Tantawi, Maha; Sadaf, Shazia; AlHumaid, Jehan

    2018-02-01

    To assess the satisfaction of first-year dental students with gamification and its effect on perceived and actual improvement of academic writing. Two first-year classes of dental undergraduate students were recruited for the study which extended over 4 months and ended in January 2015. A pre-intervention assessment of students' academic writing skills was performed using criteria to evaluate writing. The same criteria were used to evaluate the final writing assignment after the intervention. Students' satisfaction with game aspects was assessed. The per cent change in writing score was regressed on scores of satisfaction with game aspects controlling for gender. Perceived improvement in writing was also assessed. Data from 87 (94.6%) students were available for analysis. Students' overall satisfaction with the gamified experience was modest [mean (SD) = 5.9 (2.1)] and so was their overall perception of improvement in writing [mean (SD) = 6.0 (2.2)]. The per cent score of the first assignment was 35.6 which improved to 80 in the last assignment. Satisfaction with playing the game was significantly associated with higher percentage of improvement in actual writing skills [regression coefficient (95% confidence interval) = 21.1 (1.9, 40.2)]. Using gamification in an obligatory course for first-year dental students was associated with an improvement in academic writing skills although students' satisfaction with game aspects was modest and their willingness to use gamification in future courses was minimal. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  14. Academic Writing Practices in Spanish Universities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Castello, Montserrat; Mateos, Mar; Castells, Nuria; Inesta, Anna; Cuevas, Isabel; Sole, Isabel

    2012-01-01

    Introduction: This article aims at describing the use of written genres at university and how they are used to teach and learn. Method: We carried out a descriptive study focusing on teachers' perceptions regarding the importance of academic writing in promoting learning, the degree of competence they attribute to academic writing in comparison…

  15. Approaches Reflected in Academic Writing MOOCs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kwak, Subeom

    2017-01-01

    Since it was first introduced in 2008, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been attracting a lot of interest. Since then, MOOCs have emerged as powerful platforms for teaching and learning academic writing. However, there has been no detailed investigation of academic writing MOOCs. As a result, much uncertainty still exists about the…

  16. Facilitating Scholarly Writing in Academic Medicine

    PubMed Central

    Pololi, Linda; Knight, Sharon; Dunn, Kathleen

    2004-01-01

    Scholarly writing is a critical skill for faculty in academic medicine; however, few faculty receive instruction in the process. We describe the experience of 18 assistant professors who participated in a writing and faculty development program which consisted of 7 monthly 75-minute sessions embedded in a Collaborative Mentoring Program (CMP). Participants identified barriers to writing, developed personal writing strategies, had time to write, and completed monthly writing contracts. Participants provided written responses to open-ended questions about the learning experience, and at the end of the program, participants identified manuscripts submitted for publication, and completed an audiotaped interview. Analysis of qualitative data using data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification showed that this writing program facilitated the knowledge, skills, and support needed to foster writing productivity. All participants completed at least 1 scholarly manuscript by the end of the CMP. The impact on participants’ future academic productivity requires long-term follow-up. PMID:14748862

  17. Assessing and Improving L2 Graduate Students' Popular Science and Academic Writing in an Academic Writing Course

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rakedzon, Tzipora; Baram-Tsabari, Ayelet

    2017-01-01

    This paper reports a study using a quasi-experimental design to examine whether an academic writing course in English can improve graduate students' academic and popular science writing skills. To address this issue, we designed pre- and post-assessment tasks, an intervention assessment task and a scoring rubric. The pre- and post-assessment tasks…

  18. Changing Academic Identities in Changing Academic Workplaces: Learning from Academics' Everyday Professional Writing Practices

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lea, Mary R.; Stierer, Barry

    2011-01-01

    In this article we examine issues of academic identity through the lens of academics' everyday workplace writing, offering a complementary perspective to those already evident in the higher education research literature. Motivated by an interest in the relationship between routine writing and aspects of professional practice, we draw on data from…

  19. Corpus-Supported Academic Writing: How Can Technology Help?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chitez, Madalina; Rapp, Christian; Kruse, Otto

    2015-01-01

    Phraseology has long been used in L2 teaching of academic writing, and corpus linguistics has played a major role in the compilation and assessment of academic phrases. However, there are only a few interactive academic writing tools in which corpus methodology is implemented in a real-time design to support formulation processes. In this paper,…

  20. Reflections on the GUN CONTROL Simulation: Pedagogical Implications for EAP Writing Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Salies, Tania Gastao

    2007-01-01

    This article critically reflects on the GUN CONTROL simulation (Salies, 1994a) by retaking ideas advanced by Salies (2002) and applying them to the context of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing classes in Brazil. It examines how controlled practice relates to learners' performance on the first draft in a simulation-based content unit…

  1. English for Specific Purposes and Academic Literacies: Eclecticism in Academic Writing Pedagogy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McGrath, Lisa; Kaufhold, Kathrin

    2016-01-01

    Academic Literacies and English for Specific Purposes perspectives on the teaching of academic writing tend to be positioned as dichotomous and ideologically incompatible. Nonetheless, recent studies have called for the integration of these two perspectives in the design of writing programmes in order to meet the needs of students in the…

  2. Using Academic Literacies and Genre-Based Models for Academic Writing Instruction: A "Literacy" Journey

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wingate, Ursula

    2012-01-01

    Three writing development initiatives carried out at King's College London UK are discussed in this article to illustrate the need to draw on different theoretical models to create effective methods of teaching academic writing. The sequence of initiatives resembles a journey: the destination is to develop academic writing programmes suitable for…

  3. Potential of Mobile Learning in Teaching of ESL Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zaki, Arlina Ahmad; Yunus, Melor Md

    2015-01-01

    The potentials of mobile learning in teaching academic writing skills for ESL students are explored in this paper. Although there have been studies on MALL to improve writing skills, academic writing was never really touched. Few aspects are covered like the changes in educational technology, defining MALL, identifying issues in academic writing…

  4. Writing that Excites and Educates: A Class Novel

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nobles, Susanne

    2009-01-01

    In this article, the author shares how she envisioned and created a writing assignment for a ninth-grade English course. The writing project is a class novel comprised of short stories, one written by each student. In the writing assignment, seniors compile their favorite writings from any class in any year of high school and write reflections…

  5. Fostering Academic Vocabulary Use in Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brun-Mercer, Nicole; Zimmerman, Cheryl Boyd

    2015-01-01

    Though research has established a relationship between vocabulary knowledge and academic success and identified features to guide the L2 word learner through academic tasks (see Nation, 2013), less is known regarding student perceptions of academic vocabulary and the conscious decision-making process of these learners while they are writing. In…

  6. Designing a Website to Support Students' Academic Writing Process

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Åberg, Eva Svärdemo; Ståhle, Ylva; Engdahl, Ingrid; Knutes-Nyqvist, Helen

    2016-01-01

    Academic writing skills are crucial when students, e.g., in teacher education programs, write their undergraduate theses. A multi-modal web-based and self-regulated learning resource on academic writing was developed, using texts, hypertext, moving images, podcasts and templates. A study, using surveys and a focus group, showed that students used…

  7. The Effects of Writing to Learn (WTL) on Academic Achievement and Attitude to Lesson in English Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Incirci, Ayhan; Parmaksiz, Ramazan Sükrü

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of applying the writing letter activity of writing to learn strategies on the English Language Academic Achievement and Attitude level of 11th grade students. The research was carried out with 84 students (43 male, 41 female) at one of the state schools in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. Mixed…

  8. Developing Academic Identities: Persuasive Writing as a Tool to Strengthen Emergent Academic Identities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carbone, Paula M.; Orellana, Marjorie Faulstich

    2010-01-01

    This paper examines how writing samples produced by middle school students reveal their emerging academic identities through their rhetorical choices in writing. Analyses of two texts produced by each student revealed students' implicit understandings of the requirements of academic voice. Through comparisons of each student's texts, strategies…

  9. Fostering Topic Knowledge: Essential for Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Proske, Antje; Kapp, Felix

    2013-01-01

    Several researchers emphasize the role of the writer's topic knowledge for writing. In academic writing topic knowledge is often constructed by studying source texts. One possibility to support that essential phase of the writing process is to provide interactive learning questions which facilitate the construction of an adequate situation…

  10. Peer-Formativity: A Framework for Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murray, Rowena; Thow, Morag

    2014-01-01

    The system currently deployed to assess research outputs in higher education can influence what, how and for whom academics write; for some it may determine whether or not they write at all. This article offers a framework for negotiating this performative context--the writing meeting. This framework uses the established theoretical underpinning…

  11. Writing an academic essay: a practical guide for nurses.

    PubMed

    Booth, Y

    Writing academic essays can be a major hurdle and source of anxiety for many students. Fears and misconceptions relating to this kind of writing can be dispelled if the task is approached in a logical and systematic manner. This article outlines the key steps involved in successfully completing an essay and provides some practical tips to facilitate critical and analytical writing. These steps are: analysing the task; exploring the subject; planning the essay; writing the account; and revising the drafts. Although this process is challenging, academic writing is a means of developing both personally and professionally.

  12. Challenging the Productivity Mantra: Academic Writing with Spirit in Place

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Laurel; Roitman, Sonia; Morgan, Ann; MacLeod, Jason

    2017-01-01

    Academic writing groups aim to improve the quality and/or the rate of academic publications. In this article, the authors reflect on a writing group with academic and non-academic members that evolved over two years to uphold a deeper and arguably spiritual purpose. The group commenced with the aim of increasing its members' publication rates, but…

  13. Using Non-Finites in English Academic Writing by Chinese EFL Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yang, Bingjun

    2014-01-01

    Frequent use of non-finites is an important feature of English academic writing (Chafe & Danielewicz, 1987), but teachers and students in the Chinese environment are not aware of it. To investigate the problems that can be found in academic writings by Chinese students is significant in two aspects: academic writing by Chinese EFL students…

  14. Transitional and Transformational Spaces: Mentoring Young Academics through Writing Centres

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Archer, Arlene; Parker, Shabnam

    2016-01-01

    The effectiveness of writing centre interventions on student writing in higher education has been well-documented in academic literacies studies. This paper changes the focus of investigation from student to consultant and, consequently, explores the way in which an academic writing centre can function as a mentoring environment for young…

  15. Supporting the Development of Students' Academic Writing through Collaborative Process Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mutwarasibo, Faustin

    2013-01-01

    The study examines how undergraduate university students in Rwanda experience collaborative process writing as an instruction method capable of helping them improve their academic writing abilities in English. It involved 34 second-year students, divided into 12 small working groups. The data were collected by means of group interviews carried out…

  16. Effects of Blackboard on EFL Academic Writing and Attitudes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fageeh, Abdulaziz; Mekheimer, Mohamed Amin A.

    2013-01-01

    This study aimed to recognize the pedagogical effects of Blackboard as a computer-mediated communication (CMC) environment for teaching academic writing and improving students' attitudes toward academic writing. Learners' interactions in the CMC environment of Blackboard were analyzed via a controlled descriptive design to examine how students…

  17. The Role of Networked Learning in Academics' Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McCulloch, Sharon; Tusting, Karin; Hamilton, Mary

    2017-01-01

    This article explores academics' writing practices, focusing on the ways in which they use digital platforms in their processes of collaborative learning. It draws on interview data from a research project that has involved working closely with academics across different disciplines and institutions to explore their writing practices,…

  18. Embedding the Teaching of Academic Writing into Anthropology Lectures

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mostert, Linda Ann; Townsend, Rodwell

    2018-01-01

    This paper lends support to the argument that students require a variety of teaching strategies to help them improve their academic writing. The study described here took place in 2014 in the context of embedding the teaching of academic writing into anthropology modules. The strategies implemented were microthemes, peer feedback, annotated…

  19. Improving Academic Writing in Nursing Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mattsson, Janet

    2016-01-01

    Background: At a specialist nursing education in intensive care, located at a University college in Sweden, there was a desire among the faculty to develop their ability to support specialist nursing students in their academic development, as well as in their academic writing, to improve the overall quality of the master theses. A quality…

  20. Reading-Writing Relationships in First and Second Language Academic Literacy Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grabe, William; Zhang, Cui

    2016-01-01

    Reading and writing relations, as this concept applies to academic learning contexts, whether as a major way to learn language or academic content, is a pervasive issue in English for academic purposes (EAP) contexts. In many cases, this major link between reading/writing and academic learning is true even though explicit discussions of this…

  1. Stories Are Like Water: An Academic Writing Workshop for Nurses.

    PubMed

    Walker, Madeline; Tschanz, Coby

    2018-04-01

    Traditionally, there is very little formal instruction in academic writing for nurses in graduate programs. We, the writing scholar and a nurse educator and PhD student at a major Canadian university, describe how we collaborated on developing and delivering a 1-day academic writing workshop for incoming master of nursing students. By sharing this description, we hope to motivate nursing faculty to offer similar workshops to address the dearth of writing instruction for graduate students in nursing and to improve scholarship outcomes.

  2. Creative Writing and Schiller's Aesthetic Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Howarth, Peter

    2007-01-01

    For academics committed to the idea of an all-round aesthetic education, one of the great successes of the last thirty years has been the tremendous expansion of creative writing classes. Despite the dramatic expansion of creative writing as an academic discipline, the methods, ideals, and values of creative writing workshops have very often been…

  3. Using Reflective Writing as a Predictor of Academic Success in Different Assessment Formats.

    PubMed

    Tsingos-Lucas, Cherie; Bosnic-Anticevich, Sinthia; Schneider, Carl R; Smith, Lorraine

    2017-02-25

    Objectives. To investigate whether reflective-writing skills are associated with academic success. Methods. Two hundred sixty-four students enrolled in a pharmacy practice course completed reflective statements. Regression procedures were conducted to determine whether reflective-writing skills were associated with academic success in different assessment formats: written, oral, and video tasks. Results. Reflective-writing skills were found to be a predictor of academic performance in some formats of assessment: written examination; oral assessment task and overall score for the Unit of Study (UoS). Reflective writing skills were not found to predict academic success in the video assessment task. Conclusions. Possessing good reflective-writing skills was associated with improved academic performance. Further research is recommended investigating the impact of reflective skill development on academic performance measures in other health education.

  4. Examining Academic Writing Motivation of Prospective Indonesian Language Teachers Using Exploratory Factor Analysis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Surastina; Dedi, Fransisca S. O.

    2018-01-01

    Motivation determines students' success in academic writing. The current study adopted 28 items of the academic writing motivation questionnaire by Payne (2012) translated into Indonesian language to explore students' motivation in academic writing. This study involved 120 prospective Indonesian language teachers at STKIP PGRI Bandar Lampung that…

  5. Strategies for successful academic writing - institutional and non-institutional support for students.

    PubMed

    Gopee, Neil; Deane, Mary

    2013-12-01

    Students develop better academic writing skills as they progress through their higher education programme, but despite recent continuing monitoring of student satisfaction with their education in UK, there has been relatively little research into students' perceptions of the active support that they need and receive to succeed as academic writers. To examine the strategies that university students on health or social care courses utilise to develop as writers in the face of many pressures and demands from different sources. Qualitative research conducted at a British University into undergraduates' writing practices in the field of healthcare. Ten participants took part in semi-structured interviews, half of whom were international students. The data was analysed by the researchers from the field of writing development using thematic analysis. The main findings are that certain students struggle as academic writers if they do not receive tuition on appropriate and effective academic writing through institutional provisions, or through non-institutional strategies, that can promote success with the writing process. There is also uncertainty over the extent to which nurse educators are expected to teach academic writing skills, alongside their discipline-specific subject areas. Both institutional provisions for academic writing development, such as a dedicated writing support department, and non-institutional factors such as peer-collaboration should be fully recognised, supported and resourced in tertiary education at a time when students' satisfaction and performance are high on the agenda. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. An academic writing needs assessment of English-as-a-second-language clinical investigators.

    PubMed

    Wang, Min-Fen; Bakken, Lori L

    2004-01-01

    Academic writing for publication is competitive and demanding for researchers. For the novice English-as-a-second-language (ESL) researcher, the pressure to publish compounds the difficulties of mastering the English language. Very few studies have used ESL graduate and post-graduate students as academic writing research subjects. The purpose of this project was to assess the learning needs of ESL clinical investigators regarding academic writing for English scholarly publication. A qualitative evaluation approach was used to examine the gap between the current and desired proficiency level for the academic writing of ESL clinical investigators. We considered the perspectives of seven ESL clinical investigators plus three mentors and three writing instructors. Semi-structured questions were asked. Field notes were organized using a field-work recording system. They were analyzed using the constant comparative method. ESL clinical investigators do not accurately perceive their writing deficiencies. They have little knowledge of criteria for academic writing and they are influenced by their prior English learning experiences in their home culture, which engender passive attitudes toward seeking appropriate writing resources. Adequate time is especially needed to develop successful writing skills. Four basic steps are recommended to guide program planners in developing ESL writing activities for professional learning: (1) recognize discrepancies, (2) establish clear standards and performance criteria for scholarly writing, (3) develop individual plans, and (4) organize long-term writing assistance.

  7. Designing ICT-Enhanced Language Programmes: Academic Writing for Postgraduate Studies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stepanek, Libor; Hradilova, Alena

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents a case study of a course on academic writing for postgraduate studies within a collaborative and interactive information and communication technologies (ICT) based language-learning setting. It describes the structure of an academic writing course for PhD students, focusing on three ICT-enhanced course activities: collaborative…

  8. Identifying Gaps in Academic Writing of ESL Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Giridharan, Beena

    2012-01-01

    There is growing evidence that the lack of competence of university ESL (English as a second language) students in academic writing affects their overall academic performance. Olivas and Li (2006) connected low second-language proficiency levels in English to poor academic performance of international students studying at both university and…

  9. Getting Past "Just Because": Teaching Writing in Science Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grymonpre, Kris; Cohn, Allison; Solomon, Stacey

    2012-01-01

    How many times do teachers assign writing in science class only to be exasperated by their students' lack of writing skills? They often have difficulty making claims and using evidence; instead of explaining their reasoning, they state, "Just because." But teaching writing isn't just for English/language arts (ELA) class. Over the past two years,…

  10. Critical Pedagogy in Undergraduate English Writing Classes in Taiwan

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chi, Gen-Hua

    2011-01-01

    This one-year study explores the possibility of integrating critical pedagogy into undergraduate English writing classes in Taiwan. The participants were the students in 2 first-year writing classes taught by the researcher. For these classes, I reinvented Freire's (2000) pedagogy of the oppressed, which emphasizes problem-posing, dialogue, and…

  11. Facilitating Metacognitive Processes of Academic Genre-Based Writing Using an Online Writing System

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yeh, Hui-Chin

    2015-01-01

    Few studies have investigated how metacognitive processes foster the application of genre knowledge to students' academic writing. This is largely due to its internal and unobservable characteristics. To bridge this gap, an online writing system based on metacognition, involving the stages of planning, monitoring, evaluating, and revising, was…

  12. How to incorporate academic writing pedagogy in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.

    PubMed

    Kostenko, Viktoriia G; Solohor, Iryna M

    2018-01-01

    Introduction: Medical researchers, who are non-native English speakers, are facing now the growing need to publish their research results in international journals switching to an English-only policy, to apply for grants and scholarship, but at the same time this puts many authors whose native language is not English at a disadvantage compared to their English-speaking counterparts. The aim: This paper aims at analysing the existing parameters of academic writing proficiency of medical undergraduate and postgraduate students; elucidating current approaches to develop academic writing competency and to promote academic multi-literacy of junior researchers, and outlining the general recommendations to improve the quality and sophistication of their writing by incorporating the principles and achievements of academic writing pedagogy into the system of medical training. Materials and methods: This study is an empirical applied research of a qualitative type mainly based on data elicited from informants (n=120) of the Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy aged from 20 - 35. Results and conclusions: All participants were able to identify personal problem areas, and virtually all they note dissatisfaction with the use of English in their scholarly writing. They stated the obvious difficulties in sentence patterns and keeping tone of scientific narrative format. Writing in genres other than original research articles seems to be quite demanding and is often associated with the lack of self-confidence and language anxiety. Attention to developing academic writing skills should focus on the basic elements of academic writing, characteristics of written genres across the disciplines, providing a framework in which expert and practical knowledge is internally organized.

  13. Academic voice: On feminism, presence, and objectivity in writing.

    PubMed

    Mitchell, Kim M

    2017-10-01

    Academic voice is an oft-discussed, yet variably defined concept, and confusion exists over its meaning, evaluation, and interpretation. This paper will explore perspectives on academic voice and counterarguments to the positivist origins of objectivity in academic writing. While many epistemological and methodological perspectives exist, the feminist literature on voice is explored here as the contrary position. From the feminist perspective, voice is a socially constructed concept that cannot be separated from the experiences, emotions, and identity of the writer and, thus, constitutes a reflection of an author's way of knowing. A case study of how author presence can enhance meaning in text is included. Subjective experience is imperative to a practice involving human interaction. Nursing practice, our intimate involvement in patient's lives, and the nature of our research are not value free. A view is presented that a visible presence of an author in academic writing is relevant to the nursing discipline. The continued valuing of an objective, colorless academic voice has consequences for student writers and the faculty who teach them. Thus, a strategically used multivoiced writing style is warranted. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  14. The Impact of Blended e-Learning on Undergraduate Academic Essay Writing in English (L2)

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ferriman, Nicholas

    2013-01-01

    This paper describes a quasi-experimental study into the impact of a blended e-learning environment on academic writing assignments in English (L2) at a Thai international college. An experimental group of 15 students used an on-line bulletin board, as well as face-to-face (F2F) communication in class, to share information for essay topics they…

  15. Student Writing in a Talent Development Program: Sanctuary and Academic Site of the "Personally Humane"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Paley, Karen Surman

    2008-01-01

    The author had the pleasure of being in an academic setting where students of color were in the majority. That was the summer of 2004 as she observed African-American Literature 1900-Present, a writing intensive class in the Special Program in Talent Development (SPTD) at the University of Rhode Island (URI). The author wants to tell the story of…

  16. Attitudes toward text recycling in academic writing across disciplines.

    PubMed

    Hall, Susanne; Moskovitz, Cary; Pemberton, Michael A

    2018-01-01

    Text recycling, the reuse of material from one's own previously published writing in a new text without attribution, is a common academic writing practice that is not yet well understood. While some studies of text recycling in academic writing have been published, no previous study has focused on scholars' attitudes toward text recycling. This article presents results from a survey of over 300 journal editors and editorial board members from 86 top English-language journals in 16 different academic fields regarding text recycling in scholarly articles. Responses indicate that a large majority of academic gatekeepers believe text recycling is allowable in some circumstances; however, there is a lack of clear consensus about when text recycling is or is not appropriate. Opinions varied according to the source of the recycled material, its structural location and rhetorical purpose, and conditions of authorship conditions-as well as by the level of experience as a journal editor. Our study suggests the need for further research on text recycling utilizing focus groups and interviews.

  17. Designing Academic Writing Analytics for Civil Law Student Self-Assessment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Knight, Simon; Buckingham Shum, Simon; Ryan, Philippa; Sándor, Ágnes; Wang, Xiaolong

    2018-01-01

    Research into the teaching and assessment of student writing shows that many students find academic writing a challenge to learn, with legal writing no exception. Improving the availability and quality of timely formative feedback is an important aim. However, the time-consuming nature of assessing writing makes it impractical for instructors to…

  18. The Relationship between Academic Writing Experience and Academic Publishing for Graduate Physics Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hess, Steven Timothy Michael

    2012-01-01

    Writing for scientific publication represents an opportunity to interact with colleagues and make a positive contribution to the academic community. However, there is a growing concern regarding the ability of graduate students' to transfer writing skill sets learned at the graduate and undergraduate levels into professional settings. The main…

  19. Undergraduate ESL Students' Engagement in Academic Reading and Writing in Learning to Write a Synthesis Paper

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zhao, Ruilan; Hirvela, Alan

    2015-01-01

    As an important and a challenging source-based writing task, synthesizing offers rich opportunities to explore the connections between reading and writing. In this article, we report findings from a qualitative study of two Chinese students' learning experiences with academic synthesis writing in a university ESL composition course. Specifically,…

  20. "It's Not a Hobby": Reconceptualizing the Place of Writing in Academic Work

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murray, Rowena

    2013-01-01

    The writing activities involved in research are not fully articulated in discussions of academic work. In this context, academics say they have to disengage from other tasks in order to write, which raises fundamental questions about the place of writing in academic work. A study designed to find out more about this disengagement showed that it…

  1. Online Class Size, Note Reading, Note Writing and Collaborative Discourse

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Qiu, Mingzhu; Hewitt, Jim; Brett, Clare

    2012-01-01

    Researchers have long recognized class size as affecting students' performance in face-to-face contexts. However, few studies have examined the effects of class size on exact reading and writing loads in online graduate-level courses. This mixed-methods study examined relationships among class size, note reading, note writing, and collaborative…

  2. Why Academics Have a Hard Time Writing Good Grant Proposals

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Porter, Robert

    2007-01-01

    When they are new to the grant game, even scholars with fine publishing records can struggle with proposal writing. Many are surprised to find that the writing style that made them successful as academics is not well suited to crafting a winning proposal. To succeed at grant writing, most researchers need to learn a new set of writing skills. This…

  3. Dynamic Assessment, Tutor Mediation and Academic Writing Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shrestha, Prithvi; Coffin, Caroline

    2012-01-01

    Supporting undergraduate students with their academic literacies has recently been a major focus in higher education in the UK. This paper explores the value of tutor mediation in the context of academic writing development among undergraduate business studies students in open and distance learning, following the dynamic assessment (DA) approach…

  4. The Best of Both Worlds? Towards an English for Academic Purposes/Academic Literacies Writing Pedagogy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wingate, Ursula; Tribble, Christopher

    2012-01-01

    This article is a review of two dominant approaches to academic writing instruction in higher education, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), which is used internationally, and Academic Literacies, which has become an influential model in the UK. The review was driven by a concern that Academic Literacies has been mainly focused on the situations…

  5. Doing Academic Writing in Education: Connecting the Personal and the Professional

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Richards, Janet C.; Miller, Sharon K.

    2005-01-01

    This clear, reader-friendly book is carefully designed to help readers gain confidence and acquire competence in their academic writing abilities. It focuses on real people as they write and actively involves readers in the writing process. The authors' innovative approach encourages reflection on how professional writing initiatives connect to…

  6. Reading in the Writing Class: Conventions, Socialization, and Revision.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Werner, Warren W.

    On the premise that the kind of writing done in business and technical writing classes is a social act, the business and technical writing courses at Auburn University (Alabama) use peer interaction, revision, and audience awareness to help students become aware of and internalize the conventions of writing. Students are required to read each…

  7. Improving English Language Learners' Academic Writing: A Multi-Strategy Approach to a Multi-Dimensional Challenge

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marulanda Ángel, Nora Lucía; Martínez García, Juan Manuel

    2017-01-01

    The demands of the academic field and the constraints students have while learning how to write appropriately call for better approaches to teach academic writing. This research study examines the effect of a multifaceted academic writing module on pre-service teachers' composition skills in an English teacher preparation program at a medium sized…

  8. Articulate--Academic Writing, Refereeing Editing and Publishing Our Work in Learning, Teaching and Educational Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wisker, Gina

    2013-01-01

    Most work on writing and publication processes focuses on writing support for undergraduates or postgraduates writing in the disciplines, while work on academic identities frequently considers development as a university teacher. This essay consider the reviewing process for academics who write, whether doctoral students, researchers, teachers or…

  9. A Community-Academic Partnered Grant Writing Series to Build Infrastructure for Partnered Research.

    PubMed

    King, Keyonna M; Pardo, Yvette-Janine; Norris, Keith C; Diaz-Romero, Maria; Morris, D'Ann; Vassar, Stefanie D; Brown, Arleen F

    2015-10-01

    Grant writing is an essential skill necessary to secure financial support for community programs and research projects. Increasingly, funding opportunities for translational biomedical research require studies to engage community partners, patients, or other stakeholders in the research process to address their concerns. However, there is little evidence on strategies to prepare teams of academic and community partners to collaborate on grants. This paper presents the description and formative evaluation of a two-part community-academic partnered grant writing series designed to help community organizations and academic institutions build infrastructure for collaborative research projects using a partnered approach. The first phase of the series was a half-day workshop on grant readiness, which was open to all interested community partners. The second phase, open only to community-academic teams that met eligibility criteria, was a 12-week session that covered partnered grant writing for foundation grants and National Institutes of Health grants. Participants in both phases reported an increase in knowledge and self-efficacy for writing partnered proposals. At 1-year follow-up, participants in Phase 2 had secured approximately $1.87 million in funding. This community-academic partnered grant writing series helped participants obtain proposal development skills and helped community-academic teams successfully compete for funding. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  10. A Community–Academic Partnered Grant Writing Series to Build Infrastructure for Partnered Research

    PubMed Central

    Pardo, Yvette‐Janine; Norris, Keith C.; Diaz‐Romero, Maria; Morris, D'Ann; Vassar, Stefanie D.; Brown, Arleen F.

    2015-01-01

    Abstract Grant writing is an essential skill necessary to secure financial support for community programs and research projects. Increasingly, funding opportunities for translational biomedical research require studies to engage community partners, patients, or other stakeholders in the research process to address their concerns. However, there is little evidence on strategies to prepare teams of academic and community partners to collaborate on grants. This paper presents the description and formative evaluation of a two‐part community–academic partnered grant writing series designed to help community organizations and academic institutions build infrastructure for collaborative research projects using a partnered approach. The first phase of the series was a half‐day workshop on grant readiness, which was open to all interested community partners. The second phase, open only to community–academic teams that met eligibility criteria, was a 12‐week session that covered partnered grant writing for foundation grants and National Institutes of Health grants. Participants in both phases reported an increase in knowledge and self‐efficacy for writing partnered proposals. At 1‐year follow‐up, participants in Phase 2 had secured approximately $1.87 million in funding. This community–academic partnered grant writing series helped participants obtain proposal development skills and helped community–academic teams successfully compete for funding. PMID:26365589

  11. The writing retreat: a high-yield clinical faculty development opportunity in academic writing.

    PubMed

    Cable, Christian T; Boyer, Debra; Colbert, Colleen Y; Boyer, Edward W

    2013-06-01

    The need for consistent academic productivity challenges junior clinician-scholars, who often lack the aptitude to ensure efficient production of manuscripts. To solve this problem, an academic division of a major medical center developed an off-site writing retreat. The purpose of the retreat was not to teach writing skills, but to offer senior mentor assistance with a focus on the elements of manuscript writing. The retreat paired senior faculty members with junior staff. Senior faculty identified manuscript topics and provided real-time writing and editing supervision. Team-building exercises, midcourse corrections, and debriefing interviews were built into the retreat. The number of manuscripts and grant proposals generated during the 2008-2011 retreats was recorded, and the program was evaluated by using unstructured debriefing interviews. An average of 6 to 7 faculty members and fellows participated in each retreat. During the past 4 years, participants produced an average of 3 grant proposals and 7 manuscripts per retreat. After the writing retreat, each fellow and junior faculty member produced an average of 4 scholarly products per year, compared to fewer than 2 for prior years' retreats. Participant feedback indicated the success of the retreat resulted from protected time, direct mentorship by the scholars involved, and pairing of authors, which allows for rapid production of manuscripts and accelerated the editing process. More than 80% of mentors returned each year to participate. The writing retreat is a feasible, effective strategy to increase scholarship among faculty, acceptable to mentees and mentors, and sustainable over time.

  12. Why It Is so Hard for Academics to Write Textbooks

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sternberg, Robert J.

    2017-01-01

    Although academics are accustomed to writing articles and books, they much less frequently write textbooks. When they do, they likely find it much harder to do well than they ever would have imagined. This difficulty is likely to surprise them, because they have considerable experience in writing research articles and in teaching. I argue in this…

  13. Angst about Academic Writing: Graduate Students at the Brink

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Holmes, Barbara; Waterbury, Theresa; Baltrinic, Eric; Davis, Arielle

    2018-01-01

    This paper offers some insights into the anxieties graduate students bring into the classroom about academic or technical writing. In this qualitative study, a focus group of graduate students was utilized to describe the specific negative feelings, attitudes and experiences held about writing. Findings suggest that students were able to identify…

  14. Reprint 2007: Why Academics Have a Hard Time Writing Good Grants Proposals

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Porter, Robert

    2017-01-01

    This paper discusses the contrasting perspectives of academic prose versus grant writing, and lists strategies grant specialists can use to help researchers break old habits and replace them with techniques better suited to the world of competitive grant proposals. [This article is a reprint of "Why Academics Have a Hard Time Writing Good…

  15. The Effectiveness of Adopting E-Readers to Facilitate EFL Students' Process-Based Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hung, Hui-Chun; Young, Shelley Shwu-Ching

    2015-01-01

    English as Foreign Language (EFL) students face additional difficulties for academic writing largely due to their level of language competency. An appropriate structural process of writing can help students develop their academic writing skills. This study explored the use of the e-readers to facilitate EFL students' process-based academic…

  16. Missing: Electronic Feedback in Egyptian EFL Essay Writing Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Seliem, Soheir; Ahmed, Abdelhamid

    2009-01-01

    EFL essay writing is considered one of the most important academic courses in the teacher education programmes that should help develop students' skills to write cohesively and coherently. Teachers' feedback plays a crucial role in improving and enhancing the quality of students' written essays. The aim of the current study was to shed light on…

  17. Translanguaging in English Academic Writing Preparation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adamson, John; Coulson, David

    2015-01-01

    We investigate translanguaging (i.e. the co-use of first and second languages) in a Content and Language Integrated Learning course, as a pragmatic means to promote the skill of young university students in extended critical academic writing. We aimed to prepare new undergraduate students (n = 180) for courses where partial English-medium…

  18. Democratizing Academic Writing: A Revision of an Experience of Writing an Autoethnographic Dissertation in Color

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Polanco, Marcela

    2013-01-01

    In this paper, I revise my experience of writing an autoethnographic (Ellis, 2004) dissertation in the field of family therapy as a Colombian mestiza. I discuss how I grappled with my writing, and, in the process, stumbled into matters of democratizing texts. I problematize male-dominant academic standards, telling of the tensions when maneuvering…

  19. Goal Orientations in an EFL Advanced Academic Writing Context

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dehghan, Farzaneh; Razmjoo, Seyyed Ayatollah

    2015-01-01

    Academic writing at advanced levels is the most important way of demonstrating one's expertise in a discipline. Developing this kind of competence is especially a challenging effort for students in foreign language contexts. Many factors may be involved in determining why some students are more and some are less motivated in writing successful,…

  20. Combined Training of One Cognitive and One Metacognitive Strategy Improves Academic Writing Skills.

    PubMed

    Wischgoll, Anke

    2016-01-01

    Academic writing is a challenging task. Expert writers apply various writing skills as they anticipate the reader's view of their text while paying attention to structure and content. Research in the high school setting shows that the acquisition of writing skills can be supported by single-strategy training. However, research in higher education is scarce. We tested whether the development of academic writing skills can also be effectively supported by training single strategies or even combined strategies. As metacognition is an important skill for advanced and adult learners, we focused in this study on the benefit of combined cognitive strategies with and without a metacognitive strategy. An experiment including three conditions was conducted (N = 60 German-speaking psychology undergraduates, M = 22.8, SD = 4.4), which lasted for three hours. Each group received a modeling intervention of a basic cognitive strategy on the application of text structure knowledge. Two groups received an additional modeling intervention with either a cognitive strategy treatment on text summarization or a metacognitive strategy treatment on self-monitoring the writing process. One group received no further strategy treatment. Prior knowledge and learning outcomes were measured with a specially developed test on academic writing skills. In addition, all participants wrote an abstract of an empirical article. We found that learners who received the additional self-monitoring strategy intervention benefited significantly more in terms of acquisition of academic writing skills and the quality of their texts than learners who did not receive this intervention. Thus, the results underline the importance of self-monitoring strategies in academic writing. Implications and further research opportunities are discussed.

  1. Combined Training of One Cognitive and One Metacognitive Strategy Improves Academic Writing Skills

    PubMed Central

    Wischgoll, Anke

    2016-01-01

    Academic writing is a challenging task. Expert writers apply various writing skills as they anticipate the reader’s view of their text while paying attention to structure and content. Research in the high school setting shows that the acquisition of writing skills can be supported by single-strategy training. However, research in higher education is scarce. We tested whether the development of academic writing skills can also be effectively supported by training single strategies or even combined strategies. As metacognition is an important skill for advanced and adult learners, we focused in this study on the benefit of combined cognitive strategies with and without a metacognitive strategy. An experiment including three conditions was conducted (N = 60 German-speaking psychology undergraduates, M = 22.8, SD = 4.4), which lasted for three hours. Each group received a modeling intervention of a basic cognitive strategy on the application of text structure knowledge. Two groups received an additional modeling intervention with either a cognitive strategy treatment on text summarization or a metacognitive strategy treatment on self-monitoring the writing process. One group received no further strategy treatment. Prior knowledge and learning outcomes were measured with a specially developed test on academic writing skills. In addition, all participants wrote an abstract of an empirical article. We found that learners who received the additional self-monitoring strategy intervention benefited significantly more in terms of acquisition of academic writing skills and the quality of their texts than learners who did not receive this intervention. Thus, the results underline the importance of self-monitoring strategies in academic writing. Implications and further research opportunities are discussed. PMID:26941671

  2. Saudi English-Major Undergraduates' Academic Writing Problems: A Taif University Perspective

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Al-Khairy, Mohamed Ali

    2013-01-01

    This study attempted to investigate Saudi English-major undergraduates studying at Taif University to identify a) the types of academic writing Saudi English-major undergraduates carry out at English departments, b) Saudi English-major undergraduates' writing problems, c) the reasons behind Saudi English-major undergraduates' writing problems and…

  3. Writing Purposefully in Art and Design: Responding to Converging and Diverging New Academic Literacies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Melles, Gavin; Lockheart, Julia

    2012-01-01

    In disciplines with long histories in higher education, academic literacies, including writing practices, are less contested than in newer academic fields such as art and design. The relatively recent incorporation of such fields and schools into the university sector has required these fields to create academic writing practices consistent with…

  4. The Research Paper: From Personal to Academic Writing (Instructional Note).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Malinowski, Patricia A.

    1990-01-01

    Describes a research project designed to take students from personal writing to academic writing requiring research and application of documentation skills. Explains that the project involves choosing a career, is divided into four parts, and is completed over a four- to five-week period. (MG)

  5. Main Ingredients for Success in L2 Academic Writing: Outlining, Drafting and Proofreading.

    PubMed

    Munoz-Luna, Rosa

    2015-01-01

    Spanish undergraduates of English Studies are required to submit their essays in academic English, a genre which most of them are not acquainted with. This paper aims to explore the extralinguistic side of second language (L2) academic writing, more specifically, the combination of metalinguistic items (e.g. transition and frame markers, among others) with students' writing strategies when composing an academic text in L2 English. The research sample conveys a group of 200 Spanish undergraduates of English Studies; they are in their fourth year, so they are expected to be proficient in English academic writing but their written production quality varies considerably. Results are analysed following a mixed methodology by which metalinguistic items are statistically measured, and then contrasted with semi-structured interview results; SPSS and NVivo provide quantitative and qualitative outcomes, respectively. The analyses reveal that undergraduate students who produce complex sentences and more coherent texts employ a wider range of writing strategies both prior and while writing, being able to (un)consciously structure and design their texts more successfully. These high-scoring students make more proficient use of complex transition markers for coherence and frame markers for textual cohesion; their commonly used (pre-)writing strategies are drafting, outlining, and proofreading.

  6. Main Ingredients for Success in L2 Academic Writing: Outlining, Drafting and Proofreading

    PubMed Central

    Munoz-Luna, Rosa

    2015-01-01

    Spanish undergraduates of English Studies are required to submit their essays in academic English, a genre which most of them are not acquainted with. This paper aims to explore the extralinguistic side of second language (L2) academic writing, more specifically, the combination of metalinguistic items (e.g. transition and frame markers, among others) with students’ writing strategies when composing an academic text in L2 English. The research sample conveys a group of 200 Spanish undergraduates of English Studies; they are in their fourth year, so they are expected to be proficient in English academic writing but their written production quality varies considerably. Results are analysed following a mixed methodology by which metalinguistic items are statistically measured, and then contrasted with semi-structured interview results; SPSS and NVivo provide quantitative and qualitative outcomes, respectively. The analyses reveal that undergraduate students who produce complex sentences and more coherent texts employ a wider range of writing strategies both prior and while writing, being able to (un)consciously structure and design their texts more successfully. These high-scoring students make more proficient use of complex transition markers for coherence and frame markers for textual cohesion; their commonly used (pre-)writing strategies are drafting, outlining, and proofreading. PMID:26046836

  7. The Impact of Training Students How to Write Introductions for Academic Essays: An Exploratory, Longitudinal Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Gavin T. L.; Marshall, Jennifer C.

    2012-01-01

    Successful academic writing requires strong command of the rhetorical moves that orient the reader to the theme and substantive material of an academic essay. Effective control of the introduction leads to better overall writing. The goal of this study was to devise and evaluate a pedagogy for teaching the writing of academic essay introductions.…

  8. Implicit Theory of Writing Ability: Relationship to Metacognitive Strategy Knowledge and Strategy Use in Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Karlen, Yves; Compagnoni, Miriam

    2017-01-01

    Implicit theories about the nature of human attributes as either malleable or fixed influence how people perceive knowledge and approach different tasks. Two studies explored the relationship between implicit theory of writing ability, metacognitive strategy knowledge (MSK), and strategy use in the context of academic writing. The pre-study with N…

  9. Masters Level Graduate Student Writing Groups: Exploring Academic Identity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ruggles, Tosha M.

    2012-01-01

    This action research project explores masters level graduate student writing and academic identity during one semester in an interdisciplinary masters program. Informing this study is a two part theoretical framework including the Academic Literacy Model (Lea and Street) and Wenger's concept of identity. The purpose of this exploration was to…

  10. Assessing Second Language Writing in Academic Contexts.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hamp-Lyons, Liz, Ed.

    The articles contained in this volume on second language writing evaluation focus on the evaluation of academic English learned as a second language (ESL). Essays include: "Assessment by Misconception: Cultural Influences and Intellectual Traditions" (Brigid Ballard, John Clanchy); "Reading the World Differently: A Cross-Cultural Approach to…

  11. Summary Writing in Academic Contexts: Implicating Meaning in Processes of Change

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hood, Susan

    2008-01-01

    The practice of summary writing from source texts has long been a core activity in academic writing programs. When described as precis writing, textbooks focusing on teaching this skill date back to the second half of the nineteenth century. In current guidelines, students are typically asked to demonstrate an understanding of the key meanings…

  12. Teaching Adolescent ELs to Write Academic-Style Persuasive Essays

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ramos, Kathleen

    2014-01-01

    The wide adoption of the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in the U.S. has increased expectations for all teachers to prepare all learners to read and write in academic ways. More knowledge is needed about instructional approaches that may lead adolescent English learners (ELs) to meet this goal. Developing academic literacy practices…

  13. Student Beliefs and Attitudes about Authorial Identity in Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pittam, Gail; Elander, James; Lusher, Joanne; Fox, Pauline; Payne, Nicola

    2009-01-01

    Authorial identity is the sense a writer has of themselves as an author and the textual identity they construct in their writing. This article describes two studies exploring psychology students' authorial identity in academic writing. A qualitative focus group study with 19 students showed that authorial identity was largely unfamiliar to…

  14. An Examination of How a Cross-Section of Academics Use Computer Technology when Writing Academic Papers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wood, Eileen; Willoughby, Teena; Specht, Jacqueline; Porter, Lisa

    2002-01-01

    Describes a study conducted at two Canadian universities that surveyed a cross-section of 361 faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students to assess computer availability, experience, attitudes toward computers, and use of computers while engaged in academic writing. Compares advantages and disadvantages of writing on a computer versus written,…

  15. The Efficacy of the Internet-Based Blackboard Platform in Developmental Writing Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shudooh, Yusuf M.

    2016-01-01

    The application of computer-assisted platforms in writing classes is a relatively new paradigm in education. The adoption of computers-assisted writing classes is gaining ground in many western and non western universities. Numerous issues can be addressed when conducting computer-assisted classes (CAC). However, a few studies conducted to assess…

  16. Students' Perceptions of Academic Writing as a Mode of Communication

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Majidi, Mojdeh

    2005-01-01

    Adopting the social theory of writing and new rhetorical genre studies (Bakhtin, 1986; Dias, Freedman, Medway, & Pare, 1999; Freedman & Medway, 1994; Miller, 1984/1994) as the theoretical framework in this study I made an attempt to explore graduate students' perceptions of academic writing as a mode of communication in academia. I interviewed…

  17. Exploring the Use of Focused Freewriting in Developing Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Li, Linda Y.

    2007-01-01

    Focused freewriting, broadly defined as writing without stopping and editing about a specific topic, has been viewed and used as a powerful tool for developing student writing in a wide spectrum of educational contexts. This study aimed to further explore the use of focused freewriting in the context of promoting students' academic skills…

  18. Source-Based Tasks in Writing Independent and Integrated Essays

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gholami, Javad; Alinasab, Mahsa

    2017-01-01

    Integrated writing tasks have gained considerable attention in ESL and EFL writing assessment and are frequently needed and used in academic settings and daily life. However, they are very rarely practiced and promoted in writing classes. This paper explored the effects of source-based writing practice on EFL learners' composing abilities and…

  19. The Effect of Carrying out Writing to Learn Activities on Academic Success of Fifth Grade Students in Secondary School on the Subject of "Force and Motion"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Seven, Sabriye; Koksal, Asiye Pinar; Kocak, Gulsen

    2017-01-01

    The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of writing poems and keeping a journal as writing-to-learn activities on the academic achievement of students in teaching the Force and Motion unit in the Science class of fifth grade students in secondary school. Sample of the study consists of 50 students who study in the fifth grade of two…

  20. Linguistic Features of Humor in Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Skalicky, Stephen; Berger, Cynthia M.; Crossley, Scott A.; McNamara, Danielle S.

    2016-01-01

    A corpus of 313 freshman college essays was analyzed in order to better understand the forms and functions of humor in academic writing. Human ratings of humor and wordplay were statistically aggregated using Factor Analysis to provide an overall "Humor" component score for each essay in the corpus. In addition, the essays were also…

  1. Write to the Top! How to Become a Prolific Academic

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, W. Brad; Mullen, Carol A.

    2007-01-01

    This concise guide to writing is designed to help any academic become not only productive but truly prolific. It is a pithy, no-nonsense, no-excuses guide to maximizing the quality and quantity of scholarly output. The authors offer an accessible overview of the art of writing efficiently and effectively, provide a one-stop source for the nuts and…

  2. "Good" Academic Writing in Hebrew: The Perceptions of Pre-Service Teachers and Their Instructors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ezer, Hanna; Sivan, Tamar

    2005-01-01

    This study explores the perceptions of different groups of L1 and L2 Israeli pre-service teachers and their instructors regarding "good" academic writing. The study further investigates whether those perceptions accurately reflect their knowledge of academic writing. Eighty-one participants graded three different essays written by…

  3. Academic Writing: Supporting Faculty in a Critical Competency for Success

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dankoski, Mary E.; Palmer, Megan M.; Banks, Julianna; Brutkiewicz, Randy R.; Walvoord, Emily; Hoffmann-Longtin, Krista; Bogdewic, Stephen P.; Gopen, George D.

    2012-01-01

    All faculty regardless of discipline or school need to be highly competent at writing for an academic audience. The "publish or perish" pressure is alive and well for academic advancement, publications, and external grant funding. Yet few faculty, particularly in the health professions and sciences, receive formal training on the craft…

  4. How Does the Science Writing Heuristic Approach Affect Students' Performances of Different Academic Achievement Levels? A Case for High School Chemistry

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kingir, Sevgi; Geban, Omer; Gunel, Murat

    2012-01-01

    This study investigates the effects of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH), known as an argumentation-based science inquiry approach, on Grade 9 students' performance on a post-test in relation to their academic achievement levels. Four intact classes taught by 2 chemistry teachers from a Turkish public high school were selected for the study; one…

  5. Writing across the Curriculum: A Hermeneutic Study of Students' Experiences in Writing in Food Science Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dzurec, David J.; Dzurec, Laura Cox

    2005-01-01

    Writing can enhance learning by helping students put words to their thinking about course material. The purposes of this study were to assess the influence of a structured academic journal writing exercise on student learning in a food science class and to examine student responses to the experience. Hermeneutics, a philosophy of science and…

  6. Writing-Intensive Approaches in a Typographic Design Studio Class: Using Writing as a Tool toward More Intentional Design

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fowler, Michael

    2015-01-01

    Taking advantage of a university-wide initiative that requires all students during their course of study to take at least one of their writing intensive classes in their major, the author relates how he was spurred to formulate one of his graphic design studio classes to accommodate the writing-intensive requirement. He had been intuitively…

  7. Embedded academic writing support for nursing students with English as a second language.

    PubMed

    Salamonson, Yenna; Koch, Jane; Weaver, Roslyn; Everett, Bronwyn; Jackson, Debra

    2010-02-01

    This paper reports a study which evaluated a brief, embedded academic support workshop as a strategy for improving academic writing skills in first-year nursing students with low-to-medium English language proficiency. Nursing students who speak English as a second language have lower academic success compared with their native English-speaking counterparts. The development of academic writing skills is known to be most effective when embedded into discipline-specific curricula. Using a randomized controlled design, in 2008 106 students pre-enrolled in an introductory bioscience subject were randomized to receive either the intervention, a 4-day embedded academic learning support workshop facilitated by two bioscience (content) nursing academics and a writing and editing professional, or to act as the control group. The primary focus of the workshop was to support students to work through a mock assignment by providing progressive feedback and written suggestions on how to improve their answers. Of the 59 students randomized to the intervention, only 28 attended the workshop. Bioscience assignment results were analysed for those who attended (attendees), those randomized to the intervention but who did not attend (non-attendees), and the control group. Using anova, the results indicated that attendees achieved statistically significantly higher mean scores (70.8, sd: 6.1) compared to both control group (58.4, sd: 3.4, P = 0.002) and non-attendees (48.5, sd: 5.5, P = 0.001). A brief, intensive, embedded academic support workshop was effective in improving the academic writing ability of nursing students with low-to-medium English language proficiency, although reaching all students who are likely to benefit from this intervention remains a challenge.

  8. Action Research and Academic Writing: A Conversation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Winter, Richard; Badley, Graham

    2007-01-01

    Here is a conversation between two former colleagues about action research and academic writing. Richard Winter opens the discussion with a series of reflections on his work as an action researcher. These reflections include the key argument that action research is a noble cause because it is relevant to working life, has a practical impact and…

  9. Introducing the Process into Tertiary Level ESP Writing Classes.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rea, Simon; Brewster, Eric

    1993-01-01

    Insights from first- and second-language learning research have been used to help prepare a process-based writing course for large nonnative speaker classes at a commercial and technical university in Austria. Methods used during the 21-hour course are described, including think-aloud writing tapes. (Contains 32 references.) (Author/LB)

  10. Exploring the Impact of Online Peer-Editing Using Google Docs on EFL Learners' Academic Writing Skills: A Mixed Methods Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ebadi, Saman; Rahimi, Masoud

    2017-01-01

    This article reports the results of a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach to explore the impact of online peer-editing using Google Docs and peer-editing in a face-to-face classroom on EFL learners' academic writing skills. As the study adopted a quasi-experimental design, two intact classes, each with ten EFL learners, attending an…

  11. Write on the Edge: Using a Chemistry Corpus to Develop Academic Writing Skills Resources for Undergraduate Chemists

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bruce, M. L.; Coffer, P. K.; Rees, S.; Robson, J. M.

    2016-01-01

    Many undergraduate students find the production of an extended piece of academic writing challenging. This challenge is more acute in the sciences where production of extended texts is infrequent throughout undergraduate studies. This paper reports the development of a new English for Academic Purposes (EAP) workshop and associated resources for…

  12. Research Writing in a Foreign Language.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Simpson, JoEllen M.

    1998-01-01

    Reports on the application of a North American system of research writing in a high-intermediate class of English-as-foreign-language learners in Colombia. The system was adapted from a variety of sources representing typical approaches to the introduction of academic research writing at the university level in the United States. (Author/VWL)

  13. Improve Your Students' Writing with a Class Magazine.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stuart, Moira K.

    This paper describes two different English programs for international students at the American Language Institute in San Diego, California. One is English for Academic Purposes (EAP), and the other is Intensive English for Communication (IEC). The paper focuses on one teacher's experiences teaching IEC writing after 2 years of teaching EAP…

  14. Superordinate Precision: An Examination of Academic Writing Among Bilingual Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students.

    PubMed

    Scott, Jessica A; Hoffmeister, Robert J

    2018-04-01

    Academic English is an essential literacy skill area for success in post-secondary education and in many work environments. Despite its importance, academic English is understudied with deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students. Nascent research in this area suggests that academic English, alongside American Sign Language (ASL) fluency, may play an important role in the reading proficiency of DHH students in middle and high school. The current study expands this research to investigate academic English by examining student proficiency with a sub-skill of academic writing called superordinate precision, the taxonomical categorization of a term. Currently there is no research that examines DHH students' proficiency with superordinate precision. Middle and high school DHH students enrolled in bilingual schools for the deaf were assessed on their ASL proficiency, academic English proficiency, reading comprehension, and use of superordinate precision in definitions writing. Findings indicate that student use of superordinate precision in definitions writing was correlated with ASL proficiency, reading comprehension, and academic English proficiency. It is possible that degree of mastery of superordinate precision may indicate a higher overall level of proficiency with academic English. This may have important implications for assessment of and instruction in academic English literacy.

  15. "By-Products": The Added Value of Academic Writing Instruction for Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Perpignan, Hadara; Rubin, Bella; Katznelson, Helen

    2007-01-01

    We previously defined the "by-products" of academic writing instruction as "affective and social changes perceived by students, "along with" changes in their writing, reflected in interpersonal and intrapersonal behaviors carried over into other spheres of their lives" [Katznelson, Perpignan, & Rubin, 2001. What…

  16. A Model of Research Paper Writing Instructional Materials for Academic Writing Course: "Needs & Documents Analysis and Model Design"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ghufron, M. Ali; Saleh, Mursid; Warsono; Sofwan, Ahmad

    2016-01-01

    This study aimed at designing a model of instructional materials for Academic Writing Course focusing on research paper writing. The model was designed based on the Curriculum at the English Education Study Program, Faculty of Language and Art Education of IKIP PGRI Bojonegoro, East Java, Indonesia. This model was developed in order to improve…

  17. The Consequences of Integrating Faith into Academic Writing: Casuistic Stretching and Biblical Citation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ringer, Jeffrey M.

    2013-01-01

    This essay considers how a male evangelical Christian in a first-year writing (FYW) course at a state university negotiates his identity in his academic writing for a non-Christian audience. It focuses on how "Austin" casuistically stretches a biblical text to accommodate his audience's pluralistic perspective. Austin's writing thus provides a…

  18. Teaching Scientific/Academic Writing in the Digital Age

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Peretz, Arna

    2005-01-01

    This paper describes a graduate-level scientific/academic writing course for non-native speakers (NNS) of English at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Israel, which is taught in a technology-enhanced or blended learning environment. The use and integration of electronic discourses, such as email and Powerpoint, on-screen marking…

  19. The Whys, Hows, and Lessons Learned from Our 780-Person Writing Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bowse, Robert; Lawrence, Holly

    2017-01-01

    Two business communication faculty share the story of teaching a 780-person business writing class. The article discusses the challenges of teaching such a large writing class. Challenges ranged from adopting a hybrid course model to hiring adjunct faculty for help with the task of grading. The article offers lessons learned, and recommends that…

  20. Calibrating Genre: Metacognitive Judgments and Rhetorical Effectiveness in Academic Writing by L2 Graduate Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Negretti, Raffaella

    2017-01-01

    Several strands of applied linguistic research have emphasized the importance of genre awareness for academic writing students. Although metacognitive behaviors have been linked to L2 writing proficiency and performance, there is still the need for an account of how and why different metacognitive behaviors can help L2 academic writers to apply…

  1. Diction and Expression in Error Analysis Can Enhance Academic Writing of L2 University Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sajid, Muhammad

    2016-01-01

    Without proper linguistic competence in English language, academic writing is one of the most challenging tasks, especially, in various genre specific disciplines by L2 novice writers. This paper examines the role of diction and expression through error analysis in English language of L2 novice writers' academic writing in interdisciplinary texts…

  2. International Graduate Students' Academic Writing Practices in Malaysia: Challenges and Solutions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Singh, Manjet Kaur Mehar

    2015-01-01

    This article focuses on the challenges faced by non-native English speaking international graduate students in their academic writing practices while they studied at a university in Malaysia as well as the solutions they employed when faced with the challenges. Academic Literacies Questionnaire was used to collect data. Based on 131 participants,…

  3. "Say What They Want to Hear": Students' Perceptions of Writing in a Working-Class High School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gorlewski, Julie

    2016-01-01

    The effects of neoliberal ideologies infiltrate all aspects of the teaching-learning environment, including academic practices of reading and writing. Writing, more than simply a demonstration of academic proficiency, represents a means of thinking--an opportunity to develop critical thought, build resistance to neoliberal individualism through…

  4. Mastering Academic Language: Organization and Stance in the Persuasive Writing of High School Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Uccelli, Paola; Dobbs, Christina L.; Scott, Jessica

    2013-01-01

    Beyond mechanics and spelling conventions, academic writing requires progressive mastery of advanced language forms and functions. Pedagogically useful tools to assess such language features in adolescents' writing, however, are not yet available. This study examines language predictors of writing quality in 51 persuasive essays produced by high…

  5. Writing Strategy Instruction: Its Impact on Writing in a Second Language for Academic Purposes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    De Silva, Radhika

    2015-01-01

    Writing for academic purposes in a second/foreign language is a major challenge faced by many students at both secondary and tertiary levels. This suggests that displaying content knowledge and understanding of a subject through a second language is a very complex process. This article discusses the findings of a longitudinal intervention study…

  6. Ethnography as Method, Methodology, and "Deep Theorizing" Closing the Gap between Text and Context in Academic Writing Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lillis, Theresa

    2008-01-01

    This article critically explores the value of ethnography for enhancing context-sensitive approaches to the study of academic writing. Drawing on data from two longitudinal studies, student writing in the United Kingdom and professional academic writing in Hungary, Slovakia, Spain, and Portugal, the author illustrates the different contributions…

  7. Creating an Oasis: Some Insights into the Practice and Theory of a Successful Academic Writing Group

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wardale, D.; Hendrickson, T.; Jefferson, T.; Klass, D.; Lord, L.; Marinelli, M.

    2015-01-01

    Academic writing groups are acknowledged as a successful approach to increasing research publication output and quality. However, the possible links between the formation and ongoing utilisation of writing groups and improvements in scholarly written research outputs remain relatively undertheorised. In this article, we draw on academic writing…

  8. Improving Student Writing Skills through the Modeling of the Writing Process.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kapka, Dawn; Oberman, Dina A.

    This study describes a program designed to improve students' writing skills in order to improve academic achievement. The targeted population consists of third and fifth grade elementary students in two separate communities ranging from low to middle class, located in two midwestern suburbs of a large city. Evidence for the existence of the…

  9. Is Their Class in This Room?: Focusing on Class in Diverse Classrooms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hiraldo, Carlos

    2011-01-01

    As the increasing racial diversity of the United States continues to be reflected in colleges and universities across the country, academics who think and write about their teaching philosophy remain more comfortable arguing for a curriculum that deals with race and gender than for one that centers on class and social mobility. Some academics feel…

  10. Organic Chemistry YouTube Writing Assignment for Large Lecture Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Franz, Annaliese K.

    2012-01-01

    This work describes efforts to incorporate and evaluate the use of a YouTube writing assignment in large lecture classes to personalize learning and improve conceptual understanding of chemistry through peer- and self-explanation strategies. Although writing assignments can be a method to incorporate peer- and self-explanation strategies, this…

  11. Mentor Texts and the Coding of Academic Writing Structures: A Functional Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Escobar Alméciga, Wilder Yesid; Evans, Reid

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of the present pedagogical experience was to address the English language writing needs of university-level students pursuing a degree in bilingual education with an emphasis in the teaching of English. Using mentor texts and coding academic writing structures, an instructional design was developed to directly address the shortcomings…

  12. The Use and Misuse of Academic Words in Writing: Analyzing the Writing of Secondary English Learners and Redesignated Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cons, Andrea Marie

    2012-01-01

    This study investigated the specific ways secondary English learners (ELs) and redesignated fluent English-proficient learners (RFEPs) use academic vocabulary that assesses interpretive reading and analytical writing ability. The research examines how ELs and RFEPs, formerly ELs, differ in use and misuse of academic words. The study extends…

  13. Can We Prepare Effective Writing Teachers for Academically Diverse Classrooms?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Uyar, Yusuf

    2016-01-01

    This study examines whether preservice teachers, who provide writing instruction in native language education, are ready to teach students with different learning needs effectively. This study used a survey research design and qualitative data collection tools. An interview form and writing samples from students in the same class with different…

  14. Promoting Writing for Research: The "Writing Retreat" Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Singh, R. J.

    2012-01-01

    Research papers take a long time to write and in an academic environment where the "publish or perish" clause applies, writing retreats are a way of creating time and space to write academic articles in a concentrated period of time. This article examines ways in which academics can write more articles for publication. In particular it…

  15. Reading and Writing as Academic Literacy in EAP Program of Indonesian Leaners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Solikhah, Imroatus

    2015-01-01

    This study investigates academic literacy imposed in reading and writing for academic purposes in the EAP program. This study uses descriptive design elaborating data from curriculum documents and interviews. Involving 45 participants from IAIN Surakarta and Veteran University, data were analyzed using constant-comparison and inductive analysis…

  16. Retelling Basic Writing at a Regional Campus: Iconic Discourse and Selective Function Meet Social Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tassoni, John Paul

    2005-01-01

    This article relates case histories of basic writing programs at regional campuses in Florida, and the perceived need to incorporate concerns of social class into basic writing curriculum. Attention to class helps scholars identify institutional patterns that distance basic writing from the university's mainstream business. This author describes a…

  17. Leveraging the Potential of Peer Feedback in an Academic Writing Activity through Sense-Making Support

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wichmann, Astrid; Funk, Alexandra; Rummel, Nikol

    2018-01-01

    The act of revising is an important aspect of academic writing. Although revision is crucial for eliminating writing errors and producing high-quality texts, research on writing expertise shows that novices rarely engage in revision activities. Providing information on writing errors by means of peer feedback has become a popular method in writing…

  18. A Creative Approach to the Research Paper: Combining Creative Writing with Academic Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Blue, Tim

    2006-01-01

    This article describes a combination of a research essay and a creative writing assignment that encourages rigorous academic research while allowing students to get "outside the box" of traditional academic research papers. This assignment has five steps. The first two steps offer the chance to introduce academic research along with summary and…

  19. British Students' Academic Writing: Can Academia Help Improve the Writing Skills of Tomorrow's Professionals?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sultan, Nabil

    2013-01-01

    The problem of poor academic writing among British university students is a major cause of concern for universities and their tutors; and it is also of concern to employers struggling to recruit individuals able to communicate clearly and accurately. This article reports on a study designed to highlight some of the reasons for the lack of writing…

  20. Academic essay writing in the first person: a guide for undergraduates.

    PubMed

    Hamill, C

    In this article, Conal Hamill aims to contribute to the on-going debate about the appropriate use of first person writing in academic nursing assignments and provide guidance for nursing undergraduates.

  1. Teaching Techniques: Audiovisual Feedback in EFL/ESL Writing Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Woodard, William J.

    2016-01-01

    In this article, William J. Woodard, an English teacher preparing students for university-level work in academic English, describes a more effective student feedback technique that decreases the amount of time spent writing such feedback. Woodard explains his discovery of the tool "Jing." Jing is a free application for PCs and Macs by…

  2. Academic Language Socialization in High School Writing Conferences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gilliland, Betsy

    2014-01-01

    This study examines multilingual high school writers' individual talk with their teachers in two advanced English language development classes to observe how such talk shapes linguistically diverse adolescents' writing. Addressing adolescent writers' language socialization through microethnographic discourse analysis, the author argues that…

  3. The Reliability and Validity of Peer Review of Writing in High School AP English Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schunn, Christian; Godley, Amanda; DeMartino, Sara

    2016-01-01

    One approach to writing instruction that has been shown to improve secondary students' academic writing without increasing demands on teachers' time is peer review. However, many teachers and students worry that students' feedback and assessment of their peers' writing is less accurate than teachers'. This study investigated whether Advanced…

  4. The Reliability and Validity of Peer Review of Writing in High School AP English Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schunn, Christian; Godley, Amanda; DeMartino, Sara

    2016-01-01

    One approach to writing instruction that has been shown to improve secondary students' academic writing without increasing demands on teachers' time is peer review. However, many teachers and students worry that students' feedback and assessment of their peers' writing is less accurate than teachers'. This study investigated whether Advanced…

  5. A Case Study of Using Facebook in an EFL English Writing Class: The Perspective of a Writing Teacher

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yu, Li-Tang

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to address a writing teacher's perspective about integrating Facebook, a social networking site, into a university-level English writing course in Taiwan. Data, including interviews with the teacher and class postings on Facebook, were analyzed inductively, qualitatively, and interpretively, resulting in three…

  6. Caught between Two Stools? Academic Writing in "New" Vocational Disciplines in Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Strauss, Pat

    2017-01-01

    "New" vocational disciplines often struggle for acceptance in the academy. The marginalising of these disciplines impacts on their teaching and learning environment often to the detriment of staff and students. This study focuses both on the role academic writing plays in this marginalisation and how the teaching of such writing is…

  7. Deliberate False Provisions: The Use and Usefulness of Models in Learning Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Macbeth, Karen P.

    2010-01-01

    Although models have been a mainstay of academic writing pedagogy for centuries, a recurrent critique has been that they control or limit student writing and misrepresent the affairs they claim to model. These insufficiencies notwithstanding, models are ubiquitous in the ordinary, practical world, and their usefulness to novices can easily go…

  8. The Space Between: Pedagogic Collaboration between a Writing Centre and an Academic Department

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mckay, Tracey Morton; Simpson, Zachary

    2013-01-01

    The expectations placed on students with respect to appropriate academic writing may hinder successful participation in Higher Education. Full participation is further complicated by the fact that each discipline within the University constitutes its own community of practice, with its own set of literacy practices. While Writing Centres aim to…

  9. The Use of Academic Words in the Analytical Writing of Secondary English Learners and Native English Speakers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cons, Andrea M.

    2013-01-01

    This study explores the following research question: How do secondary English learners (ELs) and Re-designated fluent English proficient students (RFEPs) use academic words in analytical writing in comparison to native English speakers (NESs)? It highlights previously overlooked differences in academic word use in the writing of students who are…

  10. Researching the Internet in a Writing Class: A Writing Teacher's Role and a Computer Specialist's Role.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anstendig, Linda; Meyer, Jeanine

    An Internet research project was undertaken by a class of college honors students to see how effectively the Internet could be used for genuine research purposes. The class consisted of 16 students, a mix of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, enrolled in an advanced writing course whose focus was different forms of research: I-Search, ethnography,…

  11. Critical Argument and Writer Identity: Social Constructivism as a Theoretical Framework for EFL Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McKinley, Jim

    2015-01-01

    This article makes the argument that we need to situate student's academic writing as socially constructed pieces of writing that embody a writer's cultural identity and critical argument. In support, I present and describe a comprehensive model of an original English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing analytical framework. This article explains…

  12. Class Blogs as a Teaching Tool to Promote Writing and Student Interaction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sullivan, Miriam; Longnecker, Nancy

    2014-01-01

    Blogs are a useful teaching tool for improving student writing and increasing class interaction. However, most studies have looked at individual blogs rather than blogs maintained by a whole class. We introduced assignments involving participation in class blogs to four science communication classes with enrolments of between 15 and 36 students.…

  13. The confounding factors leading to plagiarism in academic writing and some suggested remedies: A systematic review.

    PubMed

    Guraya, Salman Yousuf; Guraya, Shaista Salman

    2017-05-01

    There is a staggering upsurge in the incidence of plagiarism of scientific literature. Literature shows divergent views about the factors that make plagiarism reprehensible. This review explores the causes and remedies for the perennial academic problem of plagiarism. Data sources were searched for full text English language articles published from 2000 to 2015. Data selection was done using medical subject headline (MeSH) terms plagiarism, unethical writing, academic theft, retraction, medical field, and plagiarism detection software. Data extraction was undertaken by selecting titles from retrieved references and data synthesis identified key factors leading to plagiarism such as unawareness of research ethics, poor writing skills and pressure or publish mantra. Plagiarism can be managed by a balance among its prevention, detection by plagiarism detection software, and institutional sanctions against proven plagiarists. Educating researchers about ethical principles of academic writing and institutional support in training writers about academic integrity and ethical publications can curtail plagiarism.

  14. Showcasing Modeling Strategies in the ESOL Writing Class: Blending Rhetorical Fluency with Grammatical Accuracy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pandey, Anjali

    2010-01-01

    This paper argues for an overt innovational shift in praxis, as well as classroom configuration in the ESOL writing class by calling for a move away from the current foci on process-based pedagogies for newcomer populations, to an explicit teaching of modeling strategies with concomitant practice opportunities provided in the ESOL writing class.…

  15. Academic Writing in the Business School: The Genre of the Business Case Report

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nathan, Philip

    2013-01-01

    The writing of business case reports is a common requirement for students on academic business programmes and presents significant challenges for both native and non-native speaker students. In order to support the development of pedagogical practice in the teaching of case report writing, this paper reports a genre-based study of a corpus of 53…

  16. Connecting in Class? College Class Size and Inequality in Academic Social Capital

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beattie, Irenee R.; Thiele, Megan

    2016-01-01

    College students who interact with professors and peers about academic matters have better college outcomes. Although institutional factors influence engagement, prior scholarship has not systematically examined whether class sizes affect students' academic interactions, nor whether race or first-generation status moderate such effects. We…

  17. Applying SF-Based Genre Approaches to English Writing Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wu, Yan; Dong, Hailin

    2009-01-01

    By exploring genre approaches in systemic functional linguistics and examining the analytic tools that can be applied to the process of English learning and teaching, this paper seeks to find a way of applying genre approaches to English writing class.

  18. Writing Abilities Longitudinally Predict Academic Outcomes of Adolescents with ADHD

    PubMed Central

    Molitor, Stephen J.; Langberg, Joshuah M.; Bourchtein, Elizaveta; Eddy, Laura D.; Dvorsky, Melissa R.; Evans, Steven W.

    2016-01-01

    Students with ADHD often experience a host of negative academic outcomes and deficits in reading and mathematics abilities contribute to these academic impairments. Students with ADHD may also have difficulties with written expression but there has been minimal research in this area and it is not clear whether written expression abilities uniquely contribute to the academic functioning of students with ADHD. The current study included a sample of 104 middle school students diagnosed with ADHD (grades 6–8). Participants were followed longitudinally to evaluate whether written expression abilities at baseline predicted student GPA and parent ratings of academic impairment 18 months later, after controlling for reading ability and additional relevant covariates. Written expression abilities longitudinally predicted both academic outcomes above and beyond ADHD and ODD symptoms, medication use, reading ability, and baseline values of GPA and parent-rated academic impairment. Follow-up analyses revealed that no single aspect of written expression was demonstrably more impactful on academic outcomes than the others, suggesting that writing as an entire process should be the focus of intervention. PMID:26783650

  19. Adbusting: Critical Media Literacy in a Multi-Skills Academic Writing Lesson

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grigoryan, Anna; King, John Mark

    2008-01-01

    This article provides 10 reasons why it is important to do critical media analysis in the second language classroom and describes how a process-writing approach can be used for this in a university writing class. The authors explain how to prepare a lesson plan and the idea of an "Adbuster." They then describe 10 stages in the lesson…

  20. Difficulties in Academic Writing: From the Perspective of King Saud University Postgraduate Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Al Fadda, Hind

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine what difficulties King Saud University students encounter when learning to write academic English and to differentiate between students' learning needs and objectives. The sample consisted of 50 postgraduate students enrolled in King Saud University during the academic year 2009-2010. Analysis of the data…

  1. Academic Boot Camp for the Writing of Psychology Research Reports

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Skues, Jason L.; Wise, Lisa

    2014-01-01

    Herein, we describe the implementation of, and responses to, a structured writing workshop in the form of an academic boot camp. Participants were 42 undergraduate psychology students from a medium-sized Australian university who were completing their major assignment for the semester. A majority of the students expressed satisfaction with the…

  2. Academic Writing for Graduate-Level English as a Second Language Students: Experiences in Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sidman-Taveau, Rebekah; Karathanos-Aguilar, Katya

    2015-01-01

    Graduate-level ESL students in Education are future multicultural educators and promising role models for our diverse K-12 students. However, many of these students struggle with academic English and, in particular, writing. Yet little research or program development addresses the specific writing-support needs of this group. This article shares…

  3. Dynamic Development of Complexity and Accuracy: A Case Study in Second Language Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rosmawati

    2014-01-01

    This paper reports on the development of complexity and accuracy in English as a Second Language (ESL) academic writing. Although research into complexity and accuracy development in second language (L2) writing has been well established, few studies have assumed the multidimensionality of these two constructs (Norris & Ortega, 2009) or…

  4. Ethical and Unethical Methods of Plagiarism Prevention in Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bakhtiyari, Kaveh; Salehi, Hadi; Embi, Mohamed Amin; Shakiba, Masoud; Zavvari, Azam; Shahbazi-Moghadam, Masoomeh; Ebrahim, Nader Ale; Mohammadjafari, Marjan

    2014-01-01

    This paper discusses plagiarism origins, and the ethical solutions to prevent it. It also reviews some unethical approaches, which may be used to decrease the plagiarism rate in academic writings. We propose eight ethical techniques to avoid unconscious and accidental plagiarism in manuscripts without using online systems such as Turnitin and/or…

  5. Writing Our Way into Shared Understanding: Collaborative Autobiographical Writing in the Qualitative Methods Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lapadat, Judith C.

    2009-01-01

    From her experience as an instructor, the author finds that it is valuable to engage graduate students in conducting a study within their qualitative methods course. In this article, the author discusses how she used a collaborative autobiographical research approach. Class members generate autobiographical writing to be shared with the group, and…

  6. Exploring Barriers and Solutions to Academic Writing: Perspectives from Students, Higher Education and Further Education Tutors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Itua, Imose; Coffey, Margaret; Merryweather, David; Norton, Lin; Foxcroft, Angela

    2014-01-01

    Staff and student perceptions of what constitutes good academic writing in both further and higher education often differ. This is reflected in written assignments which frequently fall below the expected standard. In seeking to develop the writing skills of students and propose potential solutions to writing difficulties, a study was conducted in…

  7. Emphasizing the "Literacy" in "Scientific Literacy": A Concise Blueprint for Integrating Writing into Biology Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yule, Jeffrey V.; Wolf, William C.; Young, Nolan L.

    2010-01-01

    Effectively integrating writing into biology classes gives students the opportunity to develop a better understanding of and engagement with course content. Yet many instructors remain reluctant to emphasize writing. Some are concerned about the time commitment writing assessment requires. Others shy away from emphasizing writing in their classes…

  8. Effectiveness of Using Screencast Feedback on EFL Students' Writing and Perception

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ali, Amira Desouky

    2016-01-01

    This mixed-methods research was carried out to investigate the effect of screencast video feedback on the writing of freshmen, studying academic writing course at a university in Egypt, and explore their perception towards receiving screencast feedback. Two classes of 63 students were chosen to participate in this study and were assigned into two…

  9. Using Prewriting Tasks in L2 Writing Classes: Insights from Three Experiments

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McDonough, Kim; Neumann, Heike

    2014-01-01

    Even though collaborative prewriting tasks are frequently used in second language (L2) writing classes (Fernández Dobao, 2012; Storch, 2005), they have not been as widely researched as other tasks, such as collaborative writing and peer review. This article examines the effectiveness of collaborative prewriting tasks at encouraging English for…

  10. Reviewing to Learn: Graduate Student Participation in the Professional Peer-Review Process to Improve Academic Writing Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chittum, Jessica R.; Bryant, Lauren H.

    2014-01-01

    Although expectations for graduate students' writing abilities are high, their actual writing skills are often subpar (Cuthbert & Spark, 2008; Singleton-Jackson, Lumsden, & Newson, 2009), even though academic writing is considered integral to graduate education and necessary for career preparedness (e.g., Mullen, 2006; Stevens, 2005).…

  11. Writing abilities longitudinally predict academic outcomes of adolescents with ADHD.

    PubMed

    Molitor, Stephen J; Langberg, Joshua M; Bourchtein, Elizaveta; Eddy, Laura D; Dvorsky, Melissa R; Evans, Steven W

    2016-09-01

    Students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience a host of negative academic outcomes, and deficits in reading and mathematics abilities contribute to these academic impairments. Students with ADHD may also have difficulties with written expression, but there has been minimal research in this area and it is not clear whether written expression abilities uniquely contribute to the academic functioning of students with ADHD. The current study included a sample of 104 middle school students diagnosed with ADHD (Grades 6-8). Participants were followed longitudinally to evaluate whether written expression abilities at baseline predicted student grade point average (GPA) and parent ratings of academic impairment 18 months later, after controlling for reading ability and additional relevant covariates. Written expression abilities longitudinally predicted both academic outcomes above and beyond ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms, medication use, reading ability, and baseline values of GPA and parent-rated academic impairment. Follow-up analyses revealed that no single aspect of written expression was demonstrably more impactful on academic outcomes than the others, suggesting that writing as an entire process should be the focus of intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  12. Automated Writing Evaluation for Non-Native Speaker English Academic Writing: The Case of IADE and Its Formative Feedback

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cotos, Elena

    2010-01-01

    This dissertation presents an innovative approach to the development and empirical evaluation of Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) technology used for teaching and learning. It introduces IADE (Intelligent Academic Discourse Evaluator), a new web-based AWE program that analyzes research article Introduction sections and generates immediate,…

  13. Reconsiderations: We Got the Wrong Gal--Rethinking the "Bad" Academic Writing of Judith Butler

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Birkenstein, Cathy

    2010-01-01

    It is hard to think of a writer whose work has been more prominently upheld as an example of bad academic writing than the philosopher and literary theorist Judith Butler. In 1998, Butler was awarded first prize in the annual Bad Writing Contest established by the journal "Philosophy and Literature," and early in 1999, was lampooned in an…

  14. A Reinterpretation of the Writings of Frazier on the Black Middle Class.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Landry, Bart

    1978-01-01

    A careful review of all of E. Franklin Frazier's writings dealing with the Black middle class will put into perspective the distorted view many people have regarding his criticism in "Black Bourgeoisie" of the attitudes and behavior of the Black middle class. (EB)

  15. Nonresident Undergraduates' Performance in English Writing Classes-- Hierarchical Linear Modeling Analysis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vaughn, Allison A.; Bergman, Matthew; Fass-Holmes, Barry

    2015-01-01

    Do undergraduates whose native language is not English have writing deficiencies leading to academic struggles? The present study showed that the answer to this question was "no" at an American West Coast public university. This university's nonresident undergraduates on average earned B- to B+ in their colleges' English…

  16. Service Learning in a Basic Writing Class: A Best Case Scenario

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pine, Nancy

    2008-01-01

    This article explores the particular challenges and possibilities of service learning pedagogy for basic writers. Because a number of scholars of service learning and basic writing (Adler-Kassner, Arca, and Kraemer) are concerned primarily with developing underprepared students' academic literacies, I investigated how the students in a service…

  17. Teaching Writing within the Disciplines: A Viable Approach for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Instructors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leopold, Lisa

    2011-01-01

    This case study of an adjunct-model English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing course linked to a policy-analysis course describes an effective approach for putting "specificity" into practice in EAP curriculum design. The rationale for interdisciplinary collaboration, the positive learning outcomes from the EAP writing course, the…

  18. Open and Anonymous Peer Review in a Digital Online Environment Compared in Academic Writing Context

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Razi, Salim

    2016-01-01

    This study compares the impact of "open" and "anonymous" peer feedback as an adjunct to teacher-mediated feedback in a digital online environment utilising data gathered on an academic writing course at a Turkish university. Students were divided into two groups with similar writing proficiencies. Students peer reviewed papers…

  19. Strengthening Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bodnar, Julie R.; Petrucelli, Susan L.

    2016-01-01

    Underprepared students often need assistance building writing skills and maintaining confidence in their abilities and potential. The authors share the philosophy, pedagogy, and experience of freshman developmental education and the writing center at a four-year, private, not-for-profit urban college. They describe high-impact educational…

  20. Diagnosing University Students' Academic Writing in English: Is Cognitive Diagnostic Modelling the Way Forward?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Xie, Qin

    2017-01-01

    The study utilised a fine-grained diagnostic checklist to assess first-year undergraduates in Hong Kong and evaluated its validity and usefulness for diagnosing academic writing in English. Ten English language instructors marked 472 academic essays with the checklist. They also agreed on a Q-matrix, which specified the relationships among the…

  1. Competence in Lexical Boosters and Nativeness in Academic Writing of English: The Possible Relation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Demir, Cüneyt

    2017-01-01

    Boosters are an important metadiscourse device for writers because it creates an emphatic impression in the reader. In addition, the competence of metadiscourse devices such as boosters is crucial in having native-fluency in academic writing. Therefore, this avoidance of using boosters may spawn foreignness in non-native writers' academic texts.…

  2. Class start times, sleep, and academic performance in college: a path analysis.

    PubMed

    Onyper, Serge V; Thacher, Pamela V; Gilbert, Jack W; Gradess, Samuel G

    2012-04-01

    Path analysis was used to examine the relationship between class start times, sleep, circadian preference, and academic performance in college-aged adults. Consistent with observations in middle and high school students, college students with later class start times slept longer, experienced less daytime sleepiness, and were less likely to miss class. Chronotype was an important moderator of sleep schedules and daytime functioning; those with morning preference went to bed and woke up earlier and functioned better throughout the day. The benefits of taking later classes did not extend to academic performance, however; grades were somewhat lower in students with predominantly late class schedules. Furthermore, students taking later classes were at greater risk for increased alcohol consumption, and among all the factors affecting academic performance, alcohol misuse exerted the strongest effect. Thus, these results indicate that later class start times in college, while allowing for more sleep, also increase the likelihood of alcohol misuse, ultimately impeding academic success.

  3. Natives and Academics: Researching and Writing about American Indians.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mihesuah, Devon A., Ed.

    This anthology provides Native perspectives on the ethics of researching, writing about, and teaching about American Indians, and may be used as a text for discussion in American Indian Studies classes. Leading Native scholars discuss the representativeness of Native informants, the merits of various data collection methods, the role and veracity…

  4. An online academic writing and publishing skills course: Help Syrians find their voice

    PubMed Central

    Sabouni, Ammar; Chaar, Abdelkader; Bdaiwi, Yamama; Masrani, Abdulrahman; Abolaban, Heba; Alahdab, Fares; Firwana, Belal; Al-Moujahed, Ahmad

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: A group of Arab-American physicians and researchers in the United States organized a blended online course in academic writing and publishing in medicine targeting medical students and physicians in war-torn Syria. This was an effort to address one of the reasons behind the poor quantity and quality of scientific research papers in Syria and the Arab region. In this paper, we report on the design, conduct, and outcome of this course and attempt to evaluate its effectiveness. Methods: The educational intervention was a 2-month blended online course. We administered a questionnaire to assess satisfaction and self-reported improvement in knowledge, confidence, and skills of academic writing and publishing. Results: The course succeeded in reaching more than 2588 physicians and medical students from the region; 159 of them completed most of the course. Eighty-three percent of the participants felt that they were confident enough to write an academic paper after the course and 95% felt the learning objectives were achieved with an average student satisfaction of 8.4 out of 10. Conclusion: Physicians in Syria and neighboring countries are in need of training to become an active part of the global scientific community and to document and communicate the crisis their countries are going through from a medical perspective. Low-cost online educational initiatives help respond, at least partially, to those needs. PMID:28791242

  5. Concordancers and Dictionaries as Problem-Solving Tools for ESL Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yoon, Choongil

    2016-01-01

    The present study investigated how 6 Korean ESL graduate students in Canada used a suite of freely available reference resources, consisting of Web-based corpus tools, Google search engines, and dictionaries, for solving linguistic problems while completing an authentic academic writing assignment in English. Using a mixed methods design, the…

  6. Graduate Students' Needs and Preferences for Written Feedback on Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Singh, Manjet Kaur Mehar

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this research is to examine graduate students' needs and preferences for written feedback on academic writing from their lecturers and thesis supervisors. Quantitative method via survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 21 respondents. The data collection involved Master and Doctorate students at a tertiary level institution…

  7. Salience of Student Written Feedback by Peer-Revision in EFL Writing Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lei, Zhu

    2017-01-01

    The study investigates the incorporation and effectiveness of student written feedback and their attitudes towards peer feedback in writing class. Taking a qualitative case study approach, this study followes closely a class of thirty-two English juniors over one semester. Data sources include composition drafts, student written feedback and…

  8. Collaborative Writing among Second Language Learners in Academic Web-Based Projects

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kessler, Greg; Bikowski, Dawn; Boggs, Jordan

    2012-01-01

    This study investigates Web-based, project oriented, many-to-many collaborative writing for academic purposes. Thirty-eight Fulbright scholars in an orientation program at a large Midwestern university used a Web-based word processing tool to collaboratively plan and report on a research project. The purpose of this study is to explore and…

  9. Stigma, Tensions, and Apprehension: The Academic Writing Experience of International Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Maringe, Felix; Jenkins, Jennifer

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: This paper examines the experiences of engaging with academic writing of international doctoral students in the schools of humanities and education at a UK university. The purpose of this paper is to uncover the real accounts of international students whose cultural and language backgrounds are often marginalised and considered, not as…

  10. Black Working Class Adolescents' Attitudes Toward Academic Achievement.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mickelson, Roslyn Arlin

    This paper examines the discrepancy between black working class students' positive attitudes toward academic achievement and their failure to achieve good grades. The research presented was drawn from a study which altered a high school's reward structure, and then tested its effects on student attitudes toward academic achievement. The results of…

  11. A Case Study into the Writing of Chinese Postgraduate Students in a UK Academic Environment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lan, Feng

    2015-01-01

    This case study explores the problematic issues in academic writing of three Chinese postgraduate students studying in UK academic environment. It aims to attempt to identify mismatches in lecturer and postgraduate student expectations and to understand the reasoning behind these mismatches from the students' perspective. This study was carried…

  12. Classroom Research: Writing Assessment in Paired and Separate History and English Classes.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Messina, Susan; White, Diane

    In fall 1991, Solano Community College (California) undertook a study comparing the writing skills of students in an integrated course combining history and freshman English composition with students in unpaired history and English classes. Students were divided into three groups: the integrated class and two control groups, one taking history…

  13. Disciplinary Epistemologies, Generic Attributes and Undergraduate Academic Writing in Nursing and Midwifery

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gimenez, Julio

    2012-01-01

    Generic attributes such as "holding a critical stance", "using evidence to support claims", and "projecting an impersonal voice" are central to disciplinary academic writing in higher education. These attributes, also referred to as "skills", have for a long time been conceptualised as transferable in that…

  14. Teaching Google Search Techniques in an L2 Academic Writing Context

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Han, Sumi; Shin, Jeong-Ah

    2017-01-01

    This mixed-method study examines the effectiveness of teaching Google search techniques (GSTs) to Korean EFL college students in an intermediate-level academic English writing course. 18 students participated in a 4-day GST workshop consisting of an overview session of the web as corpus and Google as a concordancer, and three training sessions…

  15. Lexical Bundles in the Academic Writing of Advanced Chinese EFL Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wei, Yaoyu; Lei, Lei

    2011-01-01

    The present study investigated the use of lexical bundles in the academic writing of advanced Chinese EFL learners. A corpus of doctoral dissertations by the learners and a corpus of published journal articles by professional writers were collected for the study. Four-word lexical bundles in the two corpora were identified and analysed. Results…

  16. Graduate Students as Academic Writers: Writing Anxiety, Self-Efficacy and Emotional Intelligence

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Huerta, Margarita; Goodson, Patricia; Beigi, Mina; Chlup, Dominique

    2017-01-01

    Researchers interested in psychological factors affecting writers in higher-education institutions, or academic writers, are concerned with internal variables affecting writing productivity; however few empirical studies explore these factors with samples of students who are in the process of earning master's or doctoral degrees (i.e., graduate…

  17. Transforming and Constructing Academic Knowledge through Online Peer Feedback in Summary Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yang, Yu-Fen

    2016-01-01

    Recognizing that graduate students seldom have the opportunity to participate collaboratively, either in providing or receiving feedback to improve their academic writing skills, this study reports on the design of a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) system used to investigate how graduate students transform and construct their…

  18. Promoting critical thinking and academic writing skills in nurse education.

    PubMed

    Borglin, Gunilla

    2012-07-01

    Although academic skills, conceptualised as writing and critical thinking, are a vital part of university studies, research indicates that many students leave without having mastered these skills effectively. This research also reflects on nursing students. Nursing could also be said to be hampered by a number of complex educational challenges that are likely to impact on the academic socialisation process in general. These challenges include being a relatively 'young' academic discipline, the 'theory-practice' divide, a knowledge bed lying on a complex intersection of two 'antithetical sciences' and, at least in the Scandinavian countries, an increasing number of nurse educators with a PhD in nursing science but with limited time to develop their own teaching skills. In combination, these challenges have the potential to act as stumbling blocks, both from a teaching and learning perspective. I would suggest that a departure in teaching from theoretical educational models, such as Lea and Street's 'academic literacies model,' including skills, socialisation and academic literacy models simultaneously, could be one of several ways forward to create a learning environment that takes these issues into account. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Performing Academic Practice: Using the Master Class to Build Postgraduate Discursive Competences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baerenholdt, Jorgen Ole; Gregson, Nicky; Everts, Jonathan; Granas, Brynhild; Healey, Ruth L.

    2010-01-01

    How can we find ways of training PhD students in academic practices, while reflexively analysing how academic practices are performed? The paper's answer to this question is based on evaluations from a British-Nordic master class. The paper discusses how master classes can be used to train the discursive skills required for academic discussion,…

  20. Laying the Foundation for Successful Non-Academic Writing: Professional Communication Principles in the K-5 Curricula of the McKinney Independent School District

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Trevino, Marlea

    2009-01-01

    Traditionally, K-5 students' writing has had a primarily academic aim--to help students master concepts and express themselves. Even if students take a professional writing course later, they typically do not have the opportunity to practice--over the long period of time mastery requires--the non-academic writing skills they will be required to…

  1. Writing-Intensive Astronomy Classes in a Liberal Arts Setting

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schmidtke, P. C.

    2013-04-01

    The Integrative Studies Program at Arizona State University is a modern adaptation of a traditional liberal arts degree. An important component of the curriculum is the requirement for a course in the area of “math and science perspectives.” Among the options are two classes on Life in the Universe and Black Holes and Beyond. These classes present contemporary astronomy topics in a format designed for humanities-oriented students. Course material is developed via class discussion of readings, augmented by a wide range of hands-on activities, and organized within the BlackBoard course management system. Almost all assignments are writing intensive: daily journals, formal papers, and an essay-type exam. The design of these courses makes them highly interactive between the instructor and students.

  2. Nursing students' understanding of critical thinking and appraisal and academic writing: a descriptive, qualitative study.

    PubMed

    Borglin, Gunilla; Fagerström, Cecilia

    2012-11-01

    In Sweden, regulations from the National Agency for Higher Education advocate an education that equips students with independence as well as critical, problem-based thinking, i.e. academic literacy skills. However, some research findings indicate that students may leave higher education without mastering these skills effectively. As part of quality-assuring a nursing programme at a university college in south-east Sweden we explored the nursing student's view of crucial academic literacy skills, such as critical thinking and appraisal and academic writing, by conducting a descriptive, qualitative study. Informants were recruited through an advertisement posted on the university's e-learning tool. Eight focused interviews were conducted during autumn 2010. The transcribed interviews were analysed - inspired by content analysis - and two categories became apparent: constantly questioning and formality before substance. The latter revealed a gap between the student's perception of academic writing and that of the educators, thus implying that nursing students might not be equipped with the tools they need to develop within academia. We suggest that students could benefit in their academic endeavours from theoretical educational models that integrate several academic skills simultaneously and which could be incorporated into the development of syllabuses and curriculums. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Peer Feedback in Anonymous Peer Review in an EFL Writing Class in Spain

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Coté, Robert A.

    2014-01-01

    The present study reports the results of a process of peer feedback through anonymous peer review in an EFL writing class. Numerous studies have reported on the benefits of peer review (PR) in the ESL/EFL writing classroom. However, the literature also identifies social issues that can negatively affect the outcome of face-to-face PR. In this…

  4. Action Research: Applying a Bilingual Parallel Corpus Collocational Concordancer to Taiwanese Medical School EFL Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reynolds, Barry Lee

    2016-01-01

    Lack of knowledge in the conventional usage of collocations in one's respective field of expertise cause Taiwanese students to produce academic writing that is markedly different than more competent writing. This is because Taiwanese students are first and foremost English as a Foreign language (EFL) readers and may have difficulties picking up on…

  5. Technology to Support Writing by Students with Learning and Academic Disabilities: Recent Research Trends and Findings

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Peterson-Karlan, George R.

    2011-01-01

    The trends and findings from a descriptive analysis of 25 years of research studies examining the effectiveness of technology to support the compositional writing of students with learning and academic disabilities are presented. A corpus of 85 applied research studies of writing technology effectiveness was identified from among 249 items in the…

  6. Using latent class analysis to identify academic and behavioral risk status in elementary students.

    PubMed

    King, Kathleen R; Lembke, Erica S; Reinke, Wendy M

    2016-03-01

    Identifying classes of children on the basis of academic and behavior risk may have important implications for the allocation of intervention resources within Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) models. Latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted with a sample of 517 third grade students. Fall screening scores in the areas of reading, mathematics, and behavior were used as indicators of success on an end of year statewide achievement test. Results identified 3 subclasses of children, including a class with minimal academic and behavioral concerns (Tier 1; 32% of the sample), a class at-risk for academic problems and somewhat at-risk for behavior problems (Tier 2; 37% of the sample), and a class with significant academic and behavior problems (Tier 3; 31%). Each class was predictive of end of year performance on the statewide achievement test, with the Tier 1 class performing significantly higher on the test than the Tier 2 class, which in turn scored significantly higher than the Tier 3 class. The results of this study indicated that distinct classes of children can be determined through brief screening measures and are predictive of later academic success. Further implications are discussed for prevention and intervention for students at risk for academic failure and behavior problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  7. Academic Advisee Motives for Pursuing Out-of-Class Communication with the Faculty Academic Advisor

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leach, Rebecca B.; Wang, Tiffany R.

    2015-01-01

    This study examined advisee communication motives for engaging in out-of-class communication (OCC) with the faculty academic advisor. Undergraduate students (n = 21) were interviewed about their motives for engaging in OCC with their faculty academic advisors. In a thematic analysis, six motives emerged for engaging in OCC with faculty academic…

  8. Academic Writing in Korea: Its Dynamic Landscape and Implications for Intercultural Rhetoric

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kim, Eun-Young Julia

    2017-01-01

    Previous studies on intercultural rhetoric have frequently drawn from examples from Asian writers, especially those of Chinese and Japanese origin, but relatively little information has surfaced in scholarly literature regarding L2 writers from Korea. To fill this gap, this article provides an overview of how academic writing is conceived and…

  9. Investigation of Academic Success, Self-Esteem and Academic Self-Concept in 4th Class Primary School Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Çetinkaya, Seher

    2017-01-01

    In Turkey due to changes in the age starting school implemented during the 2012-2013 academic year, children ages from 60 months to 84 months were subject to the same educational program in the same class. By the 2015-2016 academic year these children were at the end of 4th class. This research aimed to investigate the Turkish and mathematic…

  10. An International Journal's Attempts to Address Inequalities in Academic Publishing: Developing a Writing for Publication Programme

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lillis, Theresa; Magyar, Anna; Robinson-Pant, Anna

    2010-01-01

    Scholars around the world are under increasing pressure to publish in English, in Anglophone centre journals. At the same time, research on professional academic writing indicates that scholars from outside Anglophone centre contexts face considerable obstacles in getting their academic work published in such journals, relating to material and…

  11. Class Jumping into Academia: Multiple Identities for Counseling Academics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nelson, Mary Lee; Englar-Carlson, Matt; Tierney, Sandra C.; Hau, Julie M.

    2006-01-01

    Eleven counseling psychology and counselor education academics were interviewed regarding their experiences of progressing from lower-or lower-middle-class backgrounds to college and, further, to academic positions. Grounded theory method was used for data analysis, and consensual qualitative research methods were used for triangulation and data…

  12. Perspectives of EFL Doctoral Students on Challenges of Citations in Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jomaa, Nayef Jomaa; Bidin, Siti Jamilah

    2017-01-01

    Purpose: Citation is vital in academic writing but particularly challenging for novice writers who use English as a second or foreign language. While much is known about citations types and functions, scarce knowledge is available about what makes citing a complicated procedure. Hence, this study explores the difficulties in citing and integrating…

  13. Linking Adverbials in Academic Writing on Applied Linguistics by Chinese Doctoral Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lei, Lei

    2012-01-01

    The present paper reports an investigation into the use of linking adverbials in the academic writing of Chinese doctoral students. The learner corpus used in the present study is composed of 20 applied linguistics doctoral dissertations. We also compiled a control corpus of 120 published articles in six international journals of applied…

  14. Lexical Bundles and the Construction of an Academic Voice in Business Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mhedhbi, Malek

    2014-01-01

    Most previous studies on disciplinary academic writing focused on the structures in research articles or linguistic realizations of each move (Lau, 2004; Hyland, 2000). Few have been conducted to address the interpersonal aspect of disciplinary discourse texts. The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of lexical bundles' (LBs) awareness…

  15. Academic Writing at the Graduate Level: Improving the Curriculum through Faculty Collaboration

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bair, Mary A.; Mader, Cynthia E.

    2013-01-01

    This article describes a collaborative self-study undertaken to identify the source of academic writing difficulties among graduate students and find ways to address them. Ten faculty members in a college of education came together to define the problem and to analyze data gleaned from faculty and student surveys, course documents, course…

  16. Gender Differences in Academic Achievement: Is Writing an Exception to the Gender Similarities Hypothesis?

    PubMed

    Reynolds, Matthew R; Scheiber, Caroline; Hajovsky, Daniel B; Schwartz, Bryanna; Kaufman, Alan S

    2015-01-01

    The gender similarities hypothesis by J. S. Hyde ( 2005 ), based on large-scale reviews of studies, concludes that boys and girls are more alike than different on most psychological variables, including academic skills such as reading and math (J. S. Hyde, 2005 ). Writing is an academic skill that may be an exception. The authors investigated gender differences in academic achievement using a large, nationally stratified sample of children and adolescents ranging from ages 7-19 years (N = 2,027). Achievement data were from the conormed sample for the Kaufman intelligence and achievement tests. Multiple-indicator, multiple-cause, and multigroup mean and covariance structure models were used to test for mean differences. Girls had higher latent reading ability and higher scores on a test of math computation, but the effect sizes were consistent with the gender similarities hypothesis. Conversely, girls scored higher on spelling and written expression, with effect sizes inconsistent with the gender similarities hypothesis. The findings remained the same after controlling for cognitive ability. Girls outperform boys on tasks of writing.

  17. Strange Imports: Working-Class Appalachian Women in the Composition Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fedukovich, Casie

    2009-01-01

    Valerie Miner muses in "Writing and Teaching with Class:" "I've always carried that Miner suspicion that laboring with words is not real work . . . Should I be doing something useful?" (1993, 74). If working-class academics face uneasy negotiations between their disciplines and their home cultures, which may include deployment…

  18. Voices of Chinese Post-­80s Students in English Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Que, Hua; Li, Xuemei

    2015-01-01

    This study looks into the changing voice of Chinese Post-80s' students in English academic writing. Data were collected qualitatively through interviews with four Chinese Post-80s overseas graduate students and through an examination of their English essays with a focus on discursive features. Findings indicate that Chinese Post-80s' voice is…

  19. Tutor Feedback on Draft Essays: Developing Students' Academic Writing and Subject Knowledge

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Court, Krista

    2014-01-01

    Providing feedback on draft essays is an accepted means of enacting a social-constructivist approach to assessment, aligning with current views on the value of formative feedback and assessment for learning (AFL). However, the use of this process as a means of improving not only content but also students' academic writing skills has not been…

  20. EFL Students' Attitudes towards Self-Regulated Learning Strategies in Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Abadikhah, Shirin; Aliyan, Zahra; Talebi, Seyed Hassan

    2018-01-01

    The aim of the present study was to investigate EFL university students' attitude towards self-regulated learning strategies in writing academic papers. A further aim of the study was to compare the attitudes of two groups of university students (third and fourth years) in the employment of self-regulated learning strategies to find out whether…

  1. Academic performance in human anatomy and physiology classes: a 2-yr study of academic motivation and grade expectation.

    PubMed

    Sturges, Diana; Maurer, Trent W; Allen, Deborah; Gatch, Delena Bell; Shankar, Padmini

    2016-03-01

    This project used a nonexperimental design with a convenience sample and studied the relationship between academic motivation, grade expectation, and academic performance in 1,210 students enrolled in undergraduate human anatomy and physiology (HAP) classes over a 2-yr period. A 42-item survey that included 28 items of the adapted academic motivation scale for HAP based on self-determination theory was administered in class during the first 3 wk of each semester. Students with higher grade point averages, who studied for longer hours and reported to be more motivated to succeed, did better academically in these classes. There was a significant relationship between students' scores on the adapted academic motivation scale and performance. Students were more extrinsically motivated to succeed in HAP courses than intrinsically motivated to succeed, and the analyses revealed that the most significant predictor of final grade was within the extrinsic scale (introjected and external types). Students' motivations remained stable throughout the course sequence. The data showed a significant relationship between HAP students' expected grade and their final grade in class. Finally, 65.5% of students overestimated their final grade, with 29% of students overestimating by two to four letter grades. Copyright © 2016 The American Physiological Society.

  2. Extending the Principles of Intensive Writing to Large Macroeconomics Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Docherty, Peter; Tse, Harry; Forman, Ross; McKenzie, Jo

    2010-01-01

    The authors report on the design and implementation of a pilot program to extend the principles of intensive writing outlined by W. Lee Hansen (1998), Murray S. Simpson and Shireen E. Carroll (1999) and David Carless (2006) to large macroeconomics classes. The key aspect of this program was its collaborative nature, with staff from two specialist…

  3. Processfolio: Uniting Academic Literacies and Critical Emancipatory Action Research for Practitioner-Led Inquiry into EAP Writing Assessment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pearson, Jayne

    2017-01-01

    This article reports on the design and implementation of an alternative form of writing assessment in a UK English for Academic Purposes (EAP) pre-sessional course. The assessment, termed processfolio, was a response to research inquiry into how writing assessment in a local context negated student agency and inculcated disempowering models of…

  4. Making Sense of Power Relations in a Malaysian English-as-a-Second-Language Academic Writing Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Abraham, Alison

    2014-01-01

    The role of power in an English-as-a-second-language classroom has yet to be fully explored by an action research practitioner, especially in a Malaysian higher education setting. This study aims to contribute to this gap by working within an academic literacies perspective to teaching academic writing, which propagates the understanding of…

  5. Hip-Hop and a Hybrid Text in a Postsecondary English Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sanchez, Deborah M.

    2010-01-01

    This study explores the epistemology present in hip-hop music and its reflection in the writing of one African American student in a postsecondary transitional English class. An integration of hip-hop and academic literacy practices in the student's essay challenges the supremacy of a "standard" academic English and deficit perspectives about…

  6. Chronotype, class times, and academic achievement of university students.

    PubMed

    Enright, Tristan; Refinetti, Roberto

    2017-01-01

    Numerous studies over the years have documented an effect of human chronotypes on physiological and psychological processes. Studies evaluating the impact of an individual's chronotype on his/her academic achievement have indicated that morning chronotypes have an academic advantage over evening chronotypes. However, these studies did not account for the time of day in which the participants were being evaluated. The goal of the present study was to examine whether morning chronotypes do have an academic advantage over evening chronotypes when the time of day of classes and exams is taken into consideration. We obtained morningness-eveningness scores and course grades from 207 university students who took classes (and exams) at different times of the day. We confirmed that morning chronotypes attain better grades than evening chronotypes, although the association is weak (r 2 = 0.02). The difference persisted even after the time of day of classes and exams was taken into consideration. This is probably due to the fact that evening chronotypes are generally more sleep deprived than morning chronotypes as a result of the early schedule of most schools, which can impair their performance both early and late in the day.

  7. The Relationship among Strategic Writing Behavior, Writing Motivation, and Writing Performance with Young, Developing Writers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Graham, Steve; Harris, Karen R.; Kiuhara, Sharlene A.; Fishman, Evan J.

    2017-01-01

    Our study tested whether learning is shaped by fundamental cognitive and motivational forces in the academic domain of writing. We examined whether strategic writing behavior and motivation (attitudes toward writing and self-efficacy) made a statistically significant and unique contribution to the prediction of writing quality and number of words…

  8. Debating Values: Race, Class and Academic Achievement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Milton, Penny

    2008-01-01

    The relationships among race, class and academic achievement are complex, yet have been well documented in Canada for the last thirty years. Generations of students have experienced them--lowered expectations for achievement, gross generalizations about parents' backgrounds and aspirations, negative stereotypes of communities, and curricula that…

  9. Using Wikipedia and Conceptual Graph Structures to Generate Questions for Academic Writing Support

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Liu, Ming; Calvo, R. A.; Aditomo, A.; Pizzato, L. A.

    2012-01-01

    In this paper, we present a novel approach for semiautomatic question generation to support academic writing. Our system first extracts key phrases from students' literature review papers. Each key phrase is matched with a Wikipedia article and classified into one of five abstract concept categories: Research Field, Technology, System, Term, and…

  10. Self-Regulated Strategic Writing for Academic Studies in an English-Medium-Instruction Context

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hu, Jingjing; Gao, Xuesong

    2018-01-01

    This study explored the processes of utilization of resources in secondary students' self-regulated strategic writing for academic studies in an English as medium of instruction context in Hong Kong. Drawing on multiple data sources collected through the observation of lessons, stimulated recall and semi-structured interviews, the study examined…

  11. Enhancing the research and publication efforts of health sciences librarians via an academic writing retreat.

    PubMed

    Bullion, John W; Brower, Stewart M

    2017-10-01

    This case study describes the South Central Chapter of the Medical Library Association (SCC/MLA) initiative to develop an academic writing retreat for members who sought the necessary time and support to advance their research projects toward publication. SCC/MLA staged a dedicated writing retreat to coincide with the organization's 2012, 2013, and 2014 annual meetings. Each cohort met over two days to write and to workshop their peers' manuscripts. Organizers distributed an online survey one month after each retreat to evaluate attendees' perceptions. Three years' worth of writing retreats yielded fourteen peer-reviewed articles and one book chapter. Participants indicated that the retreat helped them meet or exceed their writing goals by offering protected time and a setting conducive to productivity. The format of the retreat is cost effective and easily adaptable for fellow professionals who wish to organize a formal event as a conference offering or simply support a writing group at their home institutions. In SCC/MLA, the retreat revitalized interest in writing and demystified the scholarly publication process.

  12. Academic Achievements and Satisfaction of the Clicker-Aided Flipped Business English Writing Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zhonggen, Yu; Guifang, Wang

    2016-01-01

    The flipped classroom has been achieving a great success in teaching innovation. This study, aiming to determine the effectiveness of the flipped model in business English writing course, combined the quantitative with the qualitative research methods. Participants were randomly selected from undergraduate students majoring in business English.…

  13. Cloud Computing Technologies in Writing Class: Factors Influencing Students' Learning Experience

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wang, Jenny

    2017-01-01

    The proposed interactive online group within the cloud computing technologies as a main contribution of this paper provides easy and simple access to the cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) system and delivers effective educational tools for students and teacher on after-class group writing assignment activities. Therefore, this study…

  14. Investigating the Reading-to-Write Processes and Source Use of L2 Postgraduate Students in Real-Life Academic Tasks: An Exploratory Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McCulloch, Sharon

    2013-01-01

    Existing studies of source use in academic student writing tend to i), focus more on the writing than the reading end of the reading-to-write continuum and ii), involve the use of insufficiently "naturalistic" writing tasks. Thus, in order to explore the potential of an alternative approach, this paper describes an exploratory case study…

  15. Learning autonomy in writing class: Implementation of project-based learning in english for spesific purposes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ayu Sukerti, G. N.; Yuliantini, Ny

    2018-01-01

    This research was aimed to analyze students’ attitude on learning autonomy through the implementation of project-based learning (PBL). Writing has been considered one of the most difficult competencies to master as it incorporates several integrated language skills. Thus, teaching writing in English for Specific Class posts a huge challenge as students often feel discouraged by the complex series of processes involved in producing a well-structured piece of writing. This research implemented PBL as the learning model to boost students’ learning outcomes and construct self-directed learning. Participants were 25 second semester students enrolled in a three-year undergraduate program in Informatics Management. The implementation of PBL in writing class contributed real advantages since it allowed students to collaboratively arrange outline in order to produce individual drafts and final essays. The study revealed that students were able to be involved in a more deep and autonomous learning as they helped each other during group discussion. The students autonomously engaged in the completion of the project in a more positive attitude. They also acquired more knowledge in the aspect of grammar and learned how to use language in proper context based on the feedbacks they got during revising their writing.

  16. Big Questions, Small Works, Lots of Layers: Documentary Video Production and the Teaching of Academic Research and Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Halbritter, Bump; Blon, Noah; Creighton, Caron

    2011-01-01

    Documentary movie making is not academic writing. Nor is it traditional academic research. However, I have found it to be a remarkable vehicle for teaching both of these things...each semester I am amazed and humbled by the creativity and sincerity that my students bring to their work.

  17. Using Systemic Functional Linguistics in Academic Writing Development: An Example from Film Studies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Donohue, James P.

    2012-01-01

    On film studies courses, students are asked to treat as objects of study the same films which they may more commonly experience as entertainment. To explore the role of academic writing in this, an action research project was carried out on a university film studies course using a systemic functional linguistics approach. This paper presents a key…

  18. The academic majors of students taking American soil science classes: 2004-2005 to 2013-2014 academic years

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brevik, Eric C.; Vaughan, Karen L.; Parikh, Sanjai J.; Dolliver, Holly; Lindbo, David; Steffan, Joshua J.; Weindorf, David; McDaniel, Paul; Mbila, Monday; Edinger-Marshall, Susan

    2017-04-01

    Many papers have been written in recent years discussing the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary aspects of soil science. Therefore, it would make sense that soil science courses would be taken by students in a wide array of academic majors. To investigate this, we collected data from eight different American universities on the declared academic majors of students enrolled in soil science courses over a 10 year time period (2004-2005 to 2013-2014 academic years). Data was collected for seven different classes taught at the undergraduate level: introduction to soil science, soil fertility, soil management, pedology, soil biology/microbiology, soil chemistry, and soil physics. Overall trends and trends for each class were evaluated. Generally, environmental science and crop science/horticulture/agronomy students were enrolled in soil science courses in the greatest numbers. Environmental science and engineering students showed rapid increases in enrollment over the 10 years of the study, while the number of crop science/ horticulture/ agronomy students declined. In the introduction to soil science classes, environmental science and crop science/ horticulture/ agronomy students were enrolled in the greatest numbers, while declared soil science majors only made up 6.6% of the average enrollment. The highest enrollments in soil fertility were crop science/ horticulture/ agronomy students and other agricultural students (all agricultural majors except crop science, horticulture, agronomy, or soil science). In both the soil management and pedology classes, environmental science and other agricultural students were the largest groups enrolled. Other agricultural students and students from other majors (all majors not otherwise expressly investigated) were the largest enrolled groups in soil biology/microbiology courses, and environmental science and soil science students were the largest enrolled groups in soil chemistry classes. Soil physics was the only class

  19. Using the Science Writing Heuristic in the General Chemistry Laboratory to Improve Students' Academic Performance

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Poock, Jason R.; Burke, K. A.; Greenbowe, Thomas J.; Hand, Brian M.

    2007-01-01

    The analysis describes the effects of using the science writing heuristic (SWH) in the general chemistry laboratory on the students' academic performance. The technique has found to be extremely important factor in a student's learning process and achievement in science.

  20. Development and Usability Test of an e-Learning Tool for Engineering Graduates to Develop Academic Writing in English: A Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lin, Chih-Chung; Liu, Gi-Zen; Wang, Tzong-I

    2017-01-01

    Many non-native English speaking (NNES) graduates are required to write academic papers in English; consequently, recent research in the past decade has been devoted to investigating the usefulness of genre-based Writing Instructions (GBWI) on learners' writing cultivation. There is little specific guidance, however, on how GBWI can be employed in…

  1. International EFL/ESL Master Students' Adaptation Strategies for Academic Writing Practices at Tertiary Level

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Singh, Manjet Kaur Mehar

    2017-01-01

    The present research provides insights into the different forms of adaptation strategies employed by international graduate students to overcome the challenges faced in the academic writing practices and gain access to their disciplinary communities of practice at Master's level. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured in-depth…

  2. Issues of International Students' Academic Adaptation in the ESL Writing Class: A Mixed-Methods Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Park, Eunjeong

    2016-01-01

    Despite the contribution to economic and social impact on the institutions in the United States, international students' academic adaptation has been always challenging. The study investigated international graduate students' academic adaptation scales via a survey questionnaire and explored how international students are academically adapted in…

  3. "I Just Started Writing": Toward Addressing Invisibility, Silence, and Mortality among Academically High-Achieving Black Male Secondary Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Everett, Sakeena

    2016-01-01

    Many Black male students in our nation's schools feel like teachers do not see them for who they are or who they hope to become. In an academic enrichment writing course, high-achieving Black male secondary students utilized metaphor to imagine new realities for themselves. This article examines a Black male student's narrative writing to capture…

  4. Perceptions and Writing Experiences of Nursing Students: A Mixed Methods Exploration of Writing Self-Efficacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sprenger, Lori

    2013-01-01

    The investigated research problem was the need to identify the facilitators and barriers to competent academic writing by examining writing self-efficacy and academic writing experiences of entry-level BSN students. The study's participants included entry-level bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) students in a Midwestern state. The mixed methods…

  5. Hidden Treasures in Theological Education: The Writing Tutor, the Spiritual Director, and Practices of Academic and Spiritual Mentoring

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yaghjian, Lucretia B.

    2013-01-01

    Mentoring is an important but often overlooked resource in theological education and students' academic and spiritual formation. This essay profiles the mentoring practices and postures of the writing tutor and the spiritual director as exemplars of academic and spiritual mentoring. An extended probe of this analogy affirms the integration of…

  6. "I Ain't Changing Anything": A Case-Study of Successful Generation 1.5 Immigrant College Students' Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Riazantseva, Anastasia

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this case-study was to understand the relationship between success in college and L2 academic writing of three Generation 1.5 Russian-speaking middle-class college students and to describe the factors that could have contributed to the levels of academic literacy that these students developed. The following research questions were…

  7. Using the First-Year English Class to Develop Scientific Thinking Skills

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McNamara, B. J.; Burnham, C.; Green, S.; Ball, E.; Schryer, A.

    2002-12-01

    This poster presents the preliminary results from an experimental approach to teaching first-year writing using the scientific method as an organizing theme. The approach presumes a close connection between the classical scientific method: observing, hypothesis forming, hypothesis testing, and generalizing from the results of the testing, and the writing process: inventing and prewriting, drafting, and revising. The project has four goals: 1. To introduce students to the relations between scientific method, academic inquiry, and the writing process; 2. To help students see that academic inquiry, the work of generating, testing, and validating knowledge and then applying that knowledge in real contexts, is actually a hybrid form of the scientific method; 3. To encourage students to connect the work they are doing in the writing classroom with the work they are doing in other classes so they can transfer the skills learned in one context to the other; and 4. To cause students who have previously been alienated by science and science teaching to reconsider their attitudes, and to see the powerful influence of science and scientific thinking in our world. In short, we are teaching science literacy in a humanities classroom. The materials we use include science-based reading and the kinds of writing typically required in science classes. The poster presents the basic premises of the project, samples of class materials, and preliminary results of a controlled pre- and post-test of student attitudes toward science and writing, analyzed especially according to gender and minority status. We also present insights by participating instructors including a female graduate teaching assistant who had been trained as a scientist and a male who had not.

  8. Linguistic Markers of Stance in Early and Advanced Academic Writing: A Corpus-Based Comparison

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Aull, Laura L.; Lancaster, Zak

    2014-01-01

    This article uses corpus methods to examine linguistic expressions of stance in over 4,000 argumentative essays written by incoming first-year university students in comparison with the writing of upper-level undergraduate students and published academics. The findings reveal linguistic stance markers shared across the first-year essays despite…

  9. EFL Doctoral Students' Conceptions of Authorial Stance in Academic Research Writing: An Exploratory Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chang, Peichin

    2016-01-01

    English as foreign language (EFL) writers are often found to have weaker control of their academic writing, among which presenting an effective authorial stance has been reported as particularly challenging (Hyland, 1998a; Schleppegrell, 2004). In particular, student writers tended to deploy a stronger stance and be less effective with tentative…

  10. On the Viable Linkages between Extroversion/Introversion and Academic Iranian EFL Learners' Writing Proficiency

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alavinia, Parviz; Hassanlou, Adel

    2014-01-01

    The current study was aimed at investigating the relationship between academic Iranian EFL learners' extroversion/introversion and their writing performance. The participants of the study were some 52 BA learners majoring in English language literature in Urmia and Tabriz state universities. The chosen sample comprised of both males and females…

  11. Mountains and Pit Bulls: Students' Metaphors for College Transitional Reading and Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Paulson, Eric J.; Armstrong, Sonya L.

    2011-01-01

    In this article, we describe an approach to uncovering learners' literacy-oriented conceptualizations while they are enrolled in transitional, or developmental, reading and writing classes in a college context. This approach entailed eliciting and then analyzing the metaphors for academic literacies produced by students in 15 sections of a…

  12. The Write Stuff

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Olson, Carol Booth; Scarcella, Robin; Matuchniak, Tina

    2016-01-01

    Expectations for high-level academic writing, especially in the Common Core era, have never been higher. Middle school and high school students are being asked to do close readings of complex texts and then respond in writing using academic discourse. This is a challenging task for many students, but perhaps none as great as for English language…

  13. Writing Class: How Class-Based Culture Influences Community College Student Experience in College Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Morris, Myla

    2016-01-01

    This study was designed to build on the existing research on teaching and learning in community college contexts and the literature of college writing in two-year schools. The work of Pierre Bourdieu formed the primary theoretical framework and composition theory was used to position this study in the literature of the college writing discipline.…

  14. Automated Writing Evaluation in an EFL Setting: Lessons from China

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tang, Jinlan; Rich, Changhua Sun

    2017-01-01

    This paper reports a series of research studies on the use of automated writing evaluation (awe) in secondary and university settings in China. The secondary school study featured the use of awe in six intact classes of 268 senior high school students for one academic year. The university study group comprised 460 students from five universities…

  15. Class Size and Academic Achievement in Introductory Political Science Courses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Towner, Terri L.

    2016-01-01

    Research on the influence of class size on student academic achievement is important for university instructors, administrators, and students. The article examines the influence of class size--a small section versus a large section--in introductory political science courses on student grades in two comparable semesters. It is expected that…

  16. The Effects of Using a Critical Thinking Graphic Organizer to Improve Connecticut Academic Performance Test Interdisciplinary Writing Assessment Scores

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Higgins, Patrick D.

    2012-01-01

    Effective communication skills are a vital component of student academic achievement and success, yet students often struggle with them. This study utilized an organizational writing graphic organizer based on a critical thinking model to determine the impact of its use on the persuasive writing scores of 9th-grade students. A sample of…

  17. Class Size Reduction and Academic Achievement of Low-Socioeconomic Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rollins, Sarah E.

    2013-01-01

    Concern about the academic and social well-being of public education in the United States has been at the forefront of education reform. Increased class sizes, amended curriculum standards, and accountability standards have guided the way toward ways to reduce class sizes to meet the demands put upon educators. This study investigated the…

  18. Effects of Web-Based Collaborative Writing on Individual L2 Writing Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bikowski, Dawn; Vithanage, Ramyadarshanie

    2016-01-01

    This study investigated the effect of repeated in-class web-based collaborative writing tasks on second language writers' (L2) individual writing scores. A pre-test post-test research model was used in addition to participant surveys, class observations, and teacher interviews. Participants included 59 L2 writers in a writing class at a large U.S.…

  19. Dialects, Gender, and the Writing Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shafer, Greg

    2007-01-01

    On the first day of English composition, students unleash a torrent of reasons why writing scared them as they write their opening day personal autobiographies. Most comments focus on reasons that have little to do with the craft or complexities of great writing. Numerous students bemoan their use of "substandard" English, thinking that their ways…

  20. Academic Writing in Context: Implications and Applications. Papers in Honour of Tony Dudley-Evans.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hewings, Martin, Ed.

    The papers in this volume were collected to honor T. Dudley-Evans on his retirement from the University of Birmingham. They explore a number of themes of current interest to those engaged in English language teaching and academic writing. The papers are: (1) Introduction (Martin Hewings); (2) Distance and Refined Selves: Educational Tensions in…

  1. The Effects of Stimulus Writing Modality To Produce Writing Fluency in the Primary Grades.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Duross, Christine; And Others

    An action research project set out to increase students' writing fluency and investigate whether writing fluency varies as a function of writing prompts and directions given to students. Subjects were 62 students in a first-grade class, a second-grade class, and a fifth/sixth-grade Special Day class (all in this class are learning disabled) in a…

  2. Writing for Publication.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brown, Bill

    1991-01-01

    Students at Hume-Fogg Academic High School in Nashville, Tennessee do every kind of writing, have won numerous writing awards, and have published everything from chapbooks to articles in national literary magazines. According to the creative writing teacher, students are first taught to write about things they know--to go back to their own…

  3. Simulation/Gaming in the EAP Writing Class: Benefits and Drawbacks.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Salies, Tania Gastao

    2002-01-01

    Describes an integrated use of simulation/gaming in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) class, analyzes benefits and drawbacks, and suggest how the technique could apply to other specific contexts. Explains how international students ran a simulation on gun control; discusses the debriefing process; and considers motivation, metacognitive…

  4. Why Do You Write? Creative Writing and the Reflective Teacher

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hains-Wesson, Rachael

    2013-01-01

    In this article, the author asserts that whether we write creatively or academically (or both) it takes time to understand the reasons why we "want" to write, and the more we write, the more we fully begin to appreciate why we have to write in the ?rst place. From an early age, nearly every day, Rachel Hains-Wesson actively participated in…

  5. The Value of Peer Feedback Opportunities for Students in Writing Intensive Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kennette, Lynne N.; Frank, Nichole M.

    2013-01-01

    The present study was conducted to examine the usefulness of peer feedback on APA-style research papers in a writing-intensive class. Subsequent to APA training, students were asked to review and provide feedback on a classmate's APA-style research report for both content and formatting. Performance on this research report was then compared to…

  6. Displaying Critical Thinking in EFL Academic Writing: A Discussion of Japanese to English Contrastive Rhetoric

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McKinley, Jim

    2013-01-01

    This article provides an examination of the literature on issues surrounding the problems Japanese university students face in learning critical argument in their English academic writing courses. Japanese students' critical thinking skills are criticized as not fostered in their university education, perhaps due to Confucian education ideals,…

  7. Teaching Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tomas, Z.; Kostka, I.; Mott-Smith, J. A.

    2013-01-01

    The authors of "Teaching Writing" draw on their years of teaching and their knowledge of theory and research to present major concepts in teaching L2 writing. These concepts encompass how cultural differences affect the writing class, planning instruction, text-based writing, writing strategies, modeling, and responding to student…

  8. Pain and Pleasure in Short Essay Writing: Factors Predicting University Students' Writing Anxiety and Writing Self-Efficacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martinez, Christy Teranishi; Kock, Ned; Cass, Jeffrey

    2011-01-01

    Since the inception of the Writing Across the Curriculum movement more than 30 years ago, scholars have explored ways of enhancing students' writing performance. Faculty members across disciplines are often challenged by students' resistance to writing; resistance that may stem from anxiety, poor academic performance, and lack of recognition that…

  9. Creative Writing Class as Crucible

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barron, Monica

    2007-01-01

    In this article, the author relates her experiences as creative writing teacher and her views as a teacher in the aftermath of Virginia Tech shooting. As a teacher who had taught writing and literature for twenty years, the author had received a great deal of submissions from her students about serial killers, rapists, slashers, and murderers and…

  10. "Writing My First Academic Article Feels Like Dancing around Naked": Research Development for Higher Education Lecturers Working in Further Education Colleges

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Turner, Rebecca; Brown, Tony; Edwards-Jones, Andrew

    2014-01-01

    Growing emphasis on research output has spawned initiatives to enhance writing practices, often targeted at groups less familiar with academic research practices. This paper discusses a collaborative writing group project for higher education lecturers working in further education colleges. Participants had previously undertaken funded pedagogic…

  11. Impact of Writing Proficiency and Writing Center Participation on Academic Performance

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bielinska-Kwapisz, Agnieszka

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: Given that there exists in the literature relatively little research into the effectiveness of writing centers at universities, the purpose of this paper is to show the impact of university writing centers on first-year business seminar student writing. Design/methodology/approach: This quantitative study involved 315 first-year…

  12. Lexical bundles in an advanced INTOCSU writing class and engineering texts: A functional analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alquraishi, Mohammed Abdulrahman

    The purpose of this study is to investigate the functions of lexical bundles in two corpora: a corpus of engineering academic texts and a corpus of IEP advanced writing class texts. This study is concerned with the nature of formulaic language in Pathway IEPs and engineering texts, and whether those types of texts show similar or distinctive formulaic functions. Moreover, the study looked into lexical bundles found in an engineering 1.26 million-word corpus and an ESL 65000-word corpus using a concordancing program. The study then analyzed the functions of those lexical bundles and compared them statistically using chi-square tests. Additionally, the results of this investigation showed 236 unique frequent lexical bundles in the engineering corpus and 37 bundles in the pathway corpus. Also, the study identified several differences between the density and functions of lexical bundles in the two corpora. These differences were evident in the distribution of functions of lexical bundles and the minimal overlap of lexical bundles found in the two corpora. The results of this study call for more attention to formulaic language at ESP and EAP programs.

  13. Bullshit in Academic Writing: A Protocol Analysis of a High School Senior's Process of Interpreting "Much Ado about Nothing"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smagorinsky, Peter; Daigle, Elizabeth Anne; O'Donnell-Allen, Cindy; Bynum, Susan

    2010-01-01

    This article reports a study of one high school senior's process of academic bullshitting as she wrote an analytic essay interpreting Shakespeare's "Much Ado about Nothing." The construct of bullshit has received little scholarly attention; although it is known as a common phenomenon in academic speech and writing, it has rarely been the subject…

  14. Writing the Ties that Bind: Service-Learning in the Writing Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cooper, David D.; Julier, Laura

    1995-01-01

    The Service Learning Writing Project at Michigan State University links service-learning and writing instruction. Students read and discuss American literary and historical texts, write academic analyses of ideas, and practice peer editing and revision in small workshops, while working in service placements in community and nonprofit…

  15. Scientific writing and editing: a new role for the library.

    PubMed Central

    Stephens, P A; Campbell, J M

    1995-01-01

    Traditional library instruction programs teach scientists how to find and manage information, but not how to report their research findings effectively. Since 1990, the William H. Welch Medical Library has sponsored classes on scientific writing and, since 1991, has offered a fee-based editing service for affiliates of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. These programs were designed to fill an educational gap: Although formal instruction was offered to support other phases of the scientific communication process, the medical institutions had no central resource designed to help scientists develop and improve their writing skills. The establishment of such a resource at Welch has been well received by the community. Attendance at classes has grown steadily, and in 1993 a credit course on biomedical writing was added to the curriculum. The editing service, introduced in late 1991, has generated more requests for assistance than can be handled by the library's editor. This service not only extends the library's educational outreach but also generates a revenue stream. The Welch program in scientific writing and editing, or elements of it, could provide a model for other academic medical libraries interested in moving in this new direction. PMID:8547910

  16. Writing in the Ether: A Collaborative Approach to Academic Research.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Winograd, David; Milton, Katherine

    The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the developmental stages of academic publication collaborations through both research on the collaborative process itself, as well as through analysis of the discovery process. Using the qualitative software package, NUD*IST, the teleconferencing system, FirstClass, and standard e-mail, the study…

  17. Teacher Scaffolding of Academic Language in an Advanced Placement U.S. History Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gritter, Kristine; Beers, Scott; Knaus, Robert W.

    2013-01-01

    This article examines teacher scaffolding of academic language in an Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH) course throughout a school year for one student who received a perfect score on the end of year APUSH exam. Data includes four months of observation of teacher instructional strategies to scaffold student writing and vignettes of…

  18. Academic Performance in Human Anatomy and Physiology Classes: A 2-Yr Study of Academic Motivation and Grade Expectation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sturges, Diana; Maurer, Trent W.; Allen, Deborah; Gatch, Delena Bell; Shankar, Padmini

    2016-01-01

    This project used a nonexperimental design with a convenience sample and studied the relationship between academic motivation, grade expectation, and academic performance in 1,210 students enrolled in undergraduate human anatomy and physiology (HAP) classes over a 2-yr period. A 42-item survey that included 28 items of the adapted academic…

  19. Relationship between Class Size and Students' Opportunity to Learn Writing in Middle School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tienken, Christopher H.; Achilles, Charles M.

    2009-01-01

    Class-size reduction (CSR) initiatives have demonstrated positive short- and long-term effects in elementary grades. Less is known about CSR influence on achievement in middle grades. Thus, we conducted a non-experimental, longitudinal, explanatory study of CSR influence on writing achievement of 3 independent cohorts of students (n = 123) in…

  20. Collaborative Writing Support Tools on the Cloud

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Calvo, R. A.; O'Rourke, S. T.; Jones, J.; Yacef, K.; Reimann, P.

    2011-01-01

    Academic writing, individual or collaborative, is an essential skill for today's graduates. Unfortunately, managing writing activities and providing feedback to students is very labor intensive and academics often opt out of including such learning experiences in their teaching. We describe the architecture for a new collaborative writing support…

  1. Metacognition in Student Academic Writing: A Longitudinal Study of Metacognitive Awareness and Its Relation to Task Perception, Self-Regulation, and Evaluation of Performance

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Negretti, Raffaella

    2012-01-01

    This article proposes a novel approach to the investigation of student academic writing. It applies theories of metacognition and self-regulated learning to understand how beginning academic writers develop the ability to participate in the communicative practices of academic written communication and develop rhetorical consciousness. The study…

  2. Reducing Unintentional Plagiarism amongst International Students in the Biological Sciences: An Embedded Academic Writing Development Programme

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Divan, Aysha; Bowman, Marion; Seabourne, Anna

    2015-01-01

    There is general agreement in the literature that international students are more likely to plagiarise compared to their native speaker peers and, in many instances, plagiarism is unintentional. In this article we describe the effectiveness of an academic writing development programme embedded into a Biological Sciences Taught Masters course…

  3. College Writing: A Personal Approach to Academic Writing. Third Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fulwiler, Toby

    The affirmation of individual creativity in writing is what sets this book apart from other process-oriented rhetorics. Conversational in tone, the book's third edition boasts a writer-to-writer perspective that will put students at ease. The book "walks" students through the main elements of writing from discovery and research to…

  4. Student-Teachers across the Curriculum Learn to Write Feedback: Does It Reflect on Their Writing?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cohen-sayag, Esther

    2016-01-01

    The study examined the connection between writing competency and writing feedback experiences through academic writing course for student-teachers across the curriculum. The aims of the course were to prepare student-teachers to their role as writing facilitators and to improve their writing. Experimental and control group differed in course plan…

  5. The Writing Crisis and How to Address It through Developmental Writing Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sacher, Cassandra L. O.

    2016-01-01

    Since high school students are failing to master writing proficiency, developmental writing programs at the college level have become increasingly necessary. This article explains the lack of readiness with which students are entering college and the workplace, examines the reasons students are having trouble writing, and describes elements of…

  6. Feminism and Cultural Studies in Composition: Locating Women and Men in College Writing Courses

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Perry, Merry G.

    2006-01-01

    Merry Perry teaches English courses (both writing and literature) where the majority of the students are white, middle class, and conservative. Perry begins the article by saying that in such an academic environment, her most challenging task is not teaching grammar, punctuation, or editing skills, but challenging these students to think about and…

  7. Research Leadership in Writing for Publication: A Theoretical Framework

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murray, Rowena; Steckley, Laura; MacLeod, Iain

    2012-01-01

    Academics experience difficulty in managing competing tasks, particularly in relation to writing for publication. In a study conducted on a writing retreat, analysis of data obtained from academic writers revealed that facilitative leadership provided at a writing retreat was central to managing task complexity and writing-related anxiety. The…

  8. Beyond the One-Hour Outreach Talk: Introducing a Reading and Writing Program into a High School Science Class

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ratay, Douglas L.; Schairer, Ashley; Garland, Catherine A.; Gomez-Martin, Cynthia

    We present a discussion of a newly implemented one-year program that brings high-level science reading and writing into a remedial high school science class. In the program, articles from publications such as Scientific American and Astronomy magazines are used to teach current science topics and to reinforce reading and writing skills. These skills are critical for general knowledge, literacy, and for passing state standardized tests. Members of the astronomy community act as "writing coaches" to help guide the students through the reading and writing process. This program illustrates one way that astronomers can become involved with underserved populations.

  9. Scaffolding Assignments: Analysis of Assignmentor as a Tool to Support First Year Students' Academic Writing Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Silva, Pedro

    2017-01-01

    There are several technological tools which aim to support first year students' challenges, especially when it comes to academic writing. This paper analyses one of these tools, Wiley's AssignMentor. The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework was used to systematise this analysis. The paper showed an alignment between the tools'…

  10. Whose Job Is It? Exploring Subject Tutor Roles in Addressing Students' Academic Writing via Essay Feedback

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Court, Krista; Johnson, Helen

    2016-01-01

    Strong arguments have been forwarded for embedding academic writing development into the UK higher education curriculum and for subject tutors to facilitate this development (Hyland, 2000; Lea & Street, 2006; Monroe, 2003; Wingate, 2006). This small-scale case study explores subject tutors' practices and beliefs with regard to the provision of…

  11. Creating a Macrostructure in Academic Writing: Contributions of Tutor-Tutee Interaction When Performing a Text Revision

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Horowitz, Rosalind; Wilburn, Marcy

    2017-01-01

    This article examines how students develop an effective macrostructure with supporting arguments in academic writing. We base the study on theory developed about macrostructures. The study focuses on components of macrostructure-building through tutor-tutee dialogic communication. We draw from work on the role of speech for and within written…

  12. Writing, Literacy and Technology: Toward a Cyborg Writing.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Olson, Gary A.

    1996-01-01

    Presents an interview with feminist social critic Donna Haraway about her call for "cyborg writing," writing that replaces the idea of an authoritative or dominant story with an acknowledgment of the wide range of narratives to be told in science, technology, and other areas. Also questions Haraway about activism for academics, particularly as it…

  13. Supporting the Thesis Writing Process of International Research Students through an Ongoing Writing Group

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Li, Linda Y.; Vandermensbrugghe, Joelle

    2011-01-01

    Evidence from research suggests writing support is particularly needed for international research students who have to tackle the challenges of thesis writing in English as their second language in Western academic settings. This article reports the development of an ongoing writing group to support the thesis writing process of international…

  14. The Relationship of Academic Self-Efficacy to Class Participation and Exam Performance

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Galyon, Charles E.; Blondin, Carolyn A.; Yaw, Jared S.; Nalls, Meagan L.; Williams, Robert L.

    2012-01-01

    This study examined the relationship of academic self-efficacy to engagement in class discussion and performance on major course exams among students (N = 165) in an undergraduate human development course. Cluster analysis was used to identify three levels of academic self-efficacy: high (n = 34), medium (n = 91), and low (n = 40). Results…

  15. Social Motives for Writing Psychology: Writing for and with Younger Readers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Vipond, Douglas

    1993-01-01

    Describes a cooperative writing project involving a college-level psychology class and a ninth-grade English class. Discusses different concepts of psychology held by the two student groups. Concludes with suggestions for improving writing skills and helping students become more authoritative writers. (CFR)

  16. Strategies to Advance College-Ready Writing Competencies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wang, Manhui Amy

    2013-01-01

    While many college students at two-year public colleges need Basic Writing classes before entering college-level writing courses, only 34% have successfully passed their Basic Writing classes (Ternes, 2008). Troyo (2000) maintained that the reason students failed in Basic Writing classes was that more research-based effective teaching strategies…

  17. Matching Vocabulary Learning Process with Learning Outcome in L2 Academic Writing: An Exploratory Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ma, Qing

    2013-01-01

    This exploratory case study of two undergraduates links vocabulary learning approaches with lexical quality measured in academic writing. Employing an array of qualitative data, it is shown that in a "semi-language-rich" learning context, Chinese learners may dispense with rote learning and engage in a more natural learning approach in which…

  18. Running Shoes, Auto Workers, and Labor: Business Writing Pedagogy in the Working-Class College.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mazurek, Raymond A.

    2002-01-01

    Considers how the introductory business writing course is appropriate for the development of critical literacy, especially for students at second-tier, working-class colleges. Notes that the opposition between labor and management offers rich opportunities for the critical examination of corporate rhetoric, opportunities that are as relevant in…

  19. Negotiating the Challenge of Collaborative Writing: Learning from One Writing Group's Mutiny

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nairn, Karen; Cameron, Jenny; Anakin, Megan; Juntrasook, Adisorn; Wass, Rob; Sligo, Judith; Morrison, Catherine

    2015-01-01

    With continuing pressure to publish or perish, interventions such as writing groups are increasingly part of the academic landscape. In this paper, we discuss our writing group's experiment with collaborative writing, which came unstuck as simmering concerns led to a mutiny within the group. The mutiny provided insights into tensions that are…

  20. The Effects of Class Size on Students' Academic Achievement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wilson, Claire

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this quantitative correlational research was to study the relationship between class size and students' academic achievement. Citywide language arts and math test scores for third and fifth grade students in four New York City public schools were examined using a variety of variables including (a) gender, (b) ethnicity, (c) grade…

  1. Nursing problem-based learning activity: song writing and singing.

    PubMed

    Chan, Zenobia C Y

    2014-08-01

    The function of song is not only to deliver individual's messages, but also to serve as a learning approach to facilitate students' learning. To observe the effectiveness of songs in facilitating students' learning, a Problem-based Learning (PBL) class with twenty students was divided into four groups with five students per group. Each group was asked to write a song based on two given scenarios, to sing the song out loud, and to participate in a follow-up focus group interview afterwards. The four songs reflected the students' understanding of academic knowledge and their perspectives toward the protagonists in the presented scenarios. Two songs are presented in this paper to demonstrate how the approach was carried out in the nursing PBL class. This paper aims to show the implication of song writing and singing in PBL and shed some light on teaching and learning. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Autobiographical Writing in the Technical Writing Course

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gellis, Mark

    2011-01-01

    Professionals in the workplace are rarely asked to write autobiographical essays. Such essays, however, are an excellent tool for helping students explore their growth as professionals. This article explores the use of such essays in a technical writing class.

  3. Inclusive Writing in a Psychology Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Parameswaram, Gowri

    2007-01-01

    Most college professors are looking for ways to make writing a positive experience for students. This is increasingly a challenge in our contemporary world, which tends to be very image-oriented. This short paper outlines ways in which student writing-projects can be designed encourage critical and innovative thinking in students. Inclusive…

  4. Mentoring disadvantaged nursing students through technical writing workshops.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Molly K; Symes, Lene; Bernard, Lillian; Landson, Margie J; Carroll, Theresa L

    2007-01-01

    Recent studies have identified a problematic gap for nursing students between terse clinical writing and formal academic writing. This gap can create a potential barrier to academic and workplace success, especially for disadvantaged nursing students who have not acquired the disciplinary conventions and sophisticated writing required in upper-level nursing courses. The authors demonstrate the need for writing-in-the-discipline activities to enhance the writing skills of nursing students, describe the technical writing workshops they developed to mentor minority and disadvantaged nursing students, and provide recommendations to stimulate educator dialogue across disciplines and institutions.

  5. Class attendance, peer similarity, and academic performance in a large field study.

    PubMed

    Kassarnig, Valentin; Bjerre-Nielsen, Andreas; Mones, Enys; Lehmann, Sune; Lassen, David Dreyer

    2017-01-01

    Identifying the factors that determine academic performance is an essential part of educational research. Existing research indicates that class attendance is a useful predictor of subsequent course achievements. The majority of the literature is, however, based on surveys and self-reports, methods which have well-known systematic biases that lead to limitations on conclusions and generalizability as well as being costly to implement. Here we propose a novel method for measuring class attendance that overcomes these limitations by using location and bluetooth data collected from smartphone sensors. Based on measured attendance data of nearly 1,000 undergraduate students, we demonstrate that early and consistent class attendance strongly correlates with academic performance. In addition, our novel dataset allows us to determine that attendance among social peers was substantially correlated (>0.5), suggesting either an important peer effect or homophily with respect to attendance.

  6. A Test of the Reciprocal-Effects Model of Academic Achievement and Academic Self-Concept in Regular Classes and Special Classes for the Gifted

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Preckel, Franzis; Schmidt, Isabelle; Stumpf, Eva; Motschenbacher, Monika; Vogl, Katharina; Schneider, Wolfgang

    2017-01-01

    According to the reciprocal-effects model (REM), prior academic self-concept (ASC) has a positive effect on subsequent achievement beyond what can be explained in terms of prior achievement and vice versa. The present study investigated the REM for students studying in special classes for the gifted compared to students studying in regular…

  7. Helping Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder Express Their Thoughts and Knowledge in Writing: Tips and Exercises for Developing Writing Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Geither, Elise; Meeks, Lisa

    2014-01-01

    When it comes to academic work, students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often have the required knowledge but struggle to get their thoughts down in writing. This is a practical guide to teaching and improving writing skills in students with ASD to meet academic writing standards and prepare for the increased expectations of higher education.…

  8. Rigor and academic achievement: Career academies versus traditional class structure

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kyees, Linda L.

    The purpose of this study was to determine if students who attended high school Career Academy classes, as part of Career and Technical Education, showed greater academic achievement than students who attended traditional high school classes. While all participants attended schools in the same school district, and were seeking the same goal of graduation with a standard diploma, the Career Academy students had the benefit of all classes being directed by a team of teachers who helped them connect their learning to their desired career through collaborative learning projects and assignments. The traditional high school classes taught each subject independent of other subjects and did not have specific connections to desired career goals of the students. The study used a causal-comparative research design and the participants included 1,142 students from 11th and 12th grades who attended 9 high schools in a diversely populated area of central Florida with 571 enrolled in the Career Academies and 571 enrolled in traditional classes. The 10th-grade FCAT scores served as the dependent variable. All students attended similar classes with similar content, making the primary variable the difference in academic gains between students participating in the Career Academy design and the traditional design classes. Using the Man-Whitney U Test resulted in the Career Academy group achieving the higher scores overall. This resulted in rejection of the first null-hypothesis. Further examination determined that the 10th-grade FCAT scores were greater for the average students group, which comprised the largest portion of the participant group, also resulted in rejection of the second null-hypothesis. The gifted and at-risk student group scores resulted in failure to reject the third and fourth null-hypotheses.

  9. Impact of Self-Regulatory Influences on Writing Course Attainment.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zimmerman, Barry J.; Bandura, Albert

    1994-01-01

    Using path analysis, studied the role of self-efficacy beliefs concerning academic attainment and regulation of writing, academic goals, and self-standards in writing-course attainment of 95 college freshmen. Different facets of perceived self-efficacy played a key role in writing-course attainment. (SLD)

  10. Blog-Integrated Writing with Blog-Buddies: EAP Learners' Writing Performance

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Asoodar, Maryam; Atai, Mahmood Reza; Vaezi, Shahin

    2016-01-01

    This article reports a mixed-method research probing the effect of utilizing a blog-buddy system on English for academic purposes learners' writing performance. Sixty Iranian undergraduate engineering students at Iran University of Science and Technology Virtual Campus participated in this study. Our analysis of the students' writings indicated…

  11. Teaching Writing for Keeps

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alber-Morgan, Sheila R.; Hessler, Terri; Konrad, Moira

    2007-01-01

    Proficiency with written expression is critical for students' academic success. Unfortunately, writing presents a challenge for both students and teachers. Recent data suggest that many students in U.S. schools fail to meet even the most basic writing standards. And even when students receive effective (i.e., evidence-based) writing instruction,…

  12. The College Writing Center: Best Practices, Best Technologies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moberg, Eric

    2010-01-01

    Lifelong learning is a must in our information age, especially in the worldwide recession that began in 2008. In order to gain the most from their education, adult learners in any subject, major, program, or school must master the basics of academic reading and academic writing. Towards this end, writing tutors and writing centers offer…

  13. Class attendance, peer similarity, and academic performance in a large field study

    PubMed Central

    Bjerre-Nielsen, Andreas; Mones, Enys; Lehmann, Sune; Lassen, David Dreyer

    2017-01-01

    Identifying the factors that determine academic performance is an essential part of educational research. Existing research indicates that class attendance is a useful predictor of subsequent course achievements. The majority of the literature is, however, based on surveys and self-reports, methods which have well-known systematic biases that lead to limitations on conclusions and generalizability as well as being costly to implement. Here we propose a novel method for measuring class attendance that overcomes these limitations by using location and bluetooth data collected from smartphone sensors. Based on measured attendance data of nearly 1,000 undergraduate students, we demonstrate that early and consistent class attendance strongly correlates with academic performance. In addition, our novel dataset allows us to determine that attendance among social peers was substantially correlated (>0.5), suggesting either an important peer effect or homophily with respect to attendance. PMID:29117190

  14. Peers and Academic Achievement: A Longitudinal Study on Selection and Socialization Effects of In-Class Friends

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fortuin, Janna; van Geel, Mitch; Vedder, Paul

    2016-01-01

    The present study was conducted to analyze whether in-class friends influence each other's grades, and whether adolescents tend to select friends that are similar to them in terms of academic achievement. During 1 academic year, 542 eighth-grade students (M age = 13.3 years) reported on 3 different occasions on their in-class friendship networks.…

  15. The Functions of Writing in an Elementary Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Florio, Susan; Clark, Christopher M.

    1982-01-01

    Describes an ethnographic study of writing in one elementary classroom that identified four functions of writing: writing to participate in community, writing to know oneself and others, writing to occupy free time, and writing to demonstrate academic competence. (HOD)

  16. Academic reflective writing: a study to examine its usefulness.

    PubMed

    Bowman, Marion; Addyman, Berni

    Reflection is widely regarded as important for learning from practice in Nursing. Academic reflective writing (ARW) is increasingly being used to assess reflective practice. However, there is currently scant literature on ARW, which is extremely complex, requiring students to link their own experiences to published literature. There are also concerns in the literature about the validity of ARW as a medium of assessment. In this paper, an exploratory discussion on ARW is illustrated with reference to the views of 8 self-selected students on a course for post-registered nurses. These students found ARW extremely challenging, and highlighted a range of difficulties associated with it. In conclusion, it is argued that the student experience of ARW warrants further investigation. In addition, it is suggested that either scaffolding should be put in place to facilitate the production of successful ARW, or alternatives should be explored.

  17. Key Writing Challenges of Practice-Based Doctorates

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    San Miguel, Caroline; Nelson, Cynthia D.

    2007-01-01

    Building on the increasing interest within English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in postgraduate literacy development, this article examines the complexities of writing research at the academic/professional interface. It analyses two literature reviews by professional doctorate students at an Australian university who were writing research in their…

  18. Queering College Writing: Writing Students' Learning of LGB Issues Using the Internet as an Instructional Tool

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Burnes, Theodore R.

    2007-01-01

    How do writing teachers use technology to help students learn about lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) issues? What is the nature of writing students' learning about LGB sexual orientations and academic writing when the Internet is used as a learning tool? Participants completed a questionnaire in which they reflected on a writing assignment…

  19. Teaching and Assessing Academic Writing via the Portfolio: Benefits for Learners of English as an Additional Language

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Romova, Zina; Andrew, Martin

    2011-01-01

    This paper examines the use of portfolios as pedagogical tools for developing academic writing. In particular, it considers the value of multi-drafting, where learners reflect on the learning of a text type as well as focusing on micro and macro aspects. The paper outlines a situated pedagogical approach, where students come to understand their…

  20. A Comparison of Single-Gender Classes and Traditional, Coeducational Classes on Student Academic Achievement, Discipline Referrals, and Attitudes toward Subjects

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Debra Messenger

    2010-01-01

    In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in single gender education. Emerging science has proven that boys and girls learn differently. This study compared fifth grade single-gender classes to fifth grade traditional, coeducational classes in the same urban middle school. The following were compared: students' academic achievement;…

  1. Tips on Teaching Writing.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Today's Education, 1982

    1982-01-01

    Techniques for stirring students' interest in writing include: (1) exposing them to eloquent language use; (2) group poetry-writing (each student writes one line of a class poem); and (3) adapting why-and-because outlines intended for teaching college writing for use by younger students. Suggestions for obtaining writing quantity and quality are…

  2. Helping Vocational and Academic Teachers Collaborate To Improve Students' Reading and Writing Skills: An Over-Time Inservice Activity.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schmidt, B. June; Beeken, Lois A.

    Staff development was provided for academic and vocational teachers interested in improving their students' reading and writing skills. The first step was to examine the need. Survey data collected from students and vocational program completers from Southern Regional Education Board-Vocational Education Consortium pilot site schools revealed a…

  3. A quarter-long exercise that introduces general education students to neurophysiology and scientific writing.

    PubMed

    Krilowicz, B I; Henter, H; Kamhi-Stein, L

    1997-06-01

    Providing large numbers of general education students with an introduction to science is a challenge. To meet this challenge, a quarter-long neurophysiology project was developed for use in an introductory biology course. The primary goals of this multistep project were to introduce students to the scientific method, scientific writing, on-line scientific bibliographic databases, and the scientific literature, while improving their academic literacy skills. Students began by collecting data on their own circadian rhythms in autonomic, motor, and cognitive function, reliably demonstrating the predicted circadian changes in heart rate, eye-hand coordination, and adding speed. Students wrote a journal-style article using pooled class data. Students were prepared to write the paper by several methods that were designed to improve academic language skills, including a library training exercise, "modeling" of the writing assignment, and drafting of subsections of the paper. This multistep neurophysiology project represents a significant commitment of time by both students and instructors, but produces a valuable finished product and ideally gives introductory students a positive first experience with science.

  4. The Infernal Business of Contract Cheating: Understanding the Business Processes and Models of Academic Custom Writing Sites

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ellis, Cath; Zucker, Ian Michael; Randall, David

    2018-01-01

    While there is growing awareness of the existence and activities of Academic Custom Writing websites, which form a small part of the contract cheating industry, how they work remains poorly understood. Very little research has been done on these sites, probably because it has been assumed that it is impossible to see behind their firewalls and…

  5. Accommodating Learning Styles in Prison Writing Classes.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Glasgow, Jacqueline N.

    1994-01-01

    Describes a developmental writing course taught in prison. Describes how the teaching styles took into account the presumed learning preferences of the African Americans in this group of inmates and resulted in a boost of both their self-confidence and the level of their writing. (SR)

  6. The Los Altos Writing Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kraft, Richard F.

    The intent of this guide is to encourage teachers to have students write, both formally and informally, on a systematic basis. Three types of writing are emphasized: (1) journal writing; (2) research paper writing; and (3) essay writing. The section on journal writing includes a handout for the class explaining the purpose for journal writing and…

  7. Assessment for Learning: Capturing the Interest of Diverse Students on an Academic Writing Module in Postgraduate Vocational Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Strauss, P.; Mooney, S.

    2017-01-01

    This article discusses the complexities surrounding the teaching of a critical thinking and academic writing module on a vocational postgraduate programme. Students enrolled on this programme are strongly industry focused and often fail to see the relevance of such a module, despite the fact that most are international students with English as…

  8. Gap between Self-Efficacy and College Students' Writing Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lichtinger, Einat

    2018-01-01

    This study explores the disparity between college students' self-efficacy beliefs regarding their writing skills and their teachers' perceptions of the latter. It also examines ways to improve the academic writing instruction provided by the institution, and the impact of a first-year introductory academic-writing course. A total of 151 third-year…

  9. Working with Disciplinary Artifacts: An Introductory Writing Studies Course for Writing Majors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ostergaard, Lori

    2015-01-01

    WRT 329: Introduction to Writing Studies is a course in Oakland University's (OU) Writing and Rhetoric major program that provides students with a survey of composition studies as an academic discipline. It includes an examination of the history, theories, research, curricula, and pedagogies associated with composition studies in the university.…

  10. Writing with Computers in ESL Classroom: Enhancing ESL Learners' Motivation, Confidence and Writing Proficiency

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hadi, Marham Jupri

    2013-01-01

    Researcher's observation on his ESL class indicates the main issues concerning the writing skills: learners' low motivation to write, minimum interaction in writing, and poor writing skills. These limitations have led them to be less confidence to write in English. This article discusses how computers can be used for the purpose of increasing…

  11. Teaching Process Writing in an Online Environment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carolan, Fergal; Kyppö, Anna

    2015-01-01

    This reflective practice paper offers some insights into teaching an interdisciplinary academic writing course aimed at promoting process writing. The study reflects on students' acquisition of writing skills and the teacher's support practices in a digital writing environment. It presents writers' experiences related to various stages of process…

  12. A Web-Based EFL Writing Environment as a Bridge between Academic Advisers and Junior Researchers: A Pilot Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reynolds, Barry Lee

    2013-01-01

    In the age of "publish or perish," publishing academic journal articles is a must, not only for professors but also for graduate students in Taiwan. Increasingly, Taiwanese research universities are requiring masters and PhD students to write theses and dissertations in English, with an added caveat for PhD students to publish two or…

  13. The Reluctant Academic: Early-Career Academics in a Teaching-Orientated University

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gale, Helen

    2011-01-01

    This paper is based on research into academic identities amongst early-career academics in a UK post-1992, teaching-orientated university. Literature around academic identity suggests five major academic roles: teaching, research, management, writing and networking. However, this appears to be a picture of an established mid-career academic in a…

  14. A Computer-Based Network for Writing Process Instruction of At-Risk Community College Students: A Second Year Evaluation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Balajthy, Ernest

    In its second year of operation (1988-1989 academic year), the Electronic Writing Center (EWC) of the Union County College in Cranford, New Jersey has expanded its capabilities and the amount of service it provides to at-risk students through the Computers in the Curricula Project. Major changes include: (1) increased numbers of classes and…

  15. Linguistically Diverse Students' Attitudes towards Writing in English

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bustamante, Analynn; Eom, Minhee

    2017-01-01

    This study investigated attitudes of linguistically diverse students towards writing in English in four different domains: general academic writing, writing in humanities, writing in science-related subjects (STEM), and writing in electronic communication. A total of 77 Hispanic bilingual/ELL adult students at an alternative high school in…

  16. Tell a Good Story Well: Writing Tips

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Randolph A.

    2013-01-01

    This chapter gives reasons why writing is important, summarizes general writing guidelines common to many academic disciplines, and provides specific writing guidelines that authors should use to make their manuscripts stronger and more likely to be acceptable to editors.

  17. The Carleton University Writing Tutorial Service.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Freedman, Aviva

    Carleton University's writing tutorial service is staffed by trained graduate students and provides free individual instruction for students having problems writing academic English. The students submit writing samples before the first session at which both student and tutor map out a strategy for improvement. Analysis of the tutors' perceptions…

  18. Improving Students' Chinese Writing Abilities in Taiwan with the "Conditioned Writing System"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Liu, Yuan-Chen; Lee, Wan-Chun; Huang, Tzu-Hua; Hsieh, Hsiao-Mei

    2012-01-01

    This research investigates students' performance while writing Chinese essays using an interactive online writing system. Participants include students from two seventh-grade classes of a junior high school in Taoyuan County, Taiwan. The experimental group uses the conditioned writing interactive online system, while the control group receives…

  19. Healing Classrooms: Therapeutic Possibilities in Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Batzer, Benjamin

    2016-01-01

    This article asks us to consider what the process of healing and composition pedagogy have to learn from each other. More specifically, it identifies how the therapeutic potential of writing, which has been largely neglected in the academy in recent years, can influence the ways we teach transferable writing skills. The article considers how…

  20. Exploring Undergraduate Disciplinary Writing: Expectations and Evidence in Psychology and Chemistry

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Moran, Katherine E.

    2013-01-01

    Research in the area of academic writing has demonstrated that writing varies significantly across disciplines and among genres within disciplines. Two important approaches to studying diversity in disciplinary academic writing have been the genre-based approach and the corpus-based approach. Genre studies have considered the situatedness of…

  1. Using sentence combining in technical writing classes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rosner, M.; Paul, T.

    1981-01-01

    Sentence combining exercises are advanced as a way to teach technical writing style without reliance upon abstractions, from which students do not learn. Such exercises: (1) give students regular writing practice; (2) teach the logic of sentence structure, sentence editing, and punctuation; (3) paragraph development and organization; and (4) rhetorical stance. Typical sentence, paragraph, and discourse level sentence combining exercises are described.

  2. Writing-to-Learn in High-School Chemistry: The Effects of Using The Science Writing Heuristic to Increase Scientific Literacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nurnberg, Denae

    2017-01-01

    Writing-to-Learn in High-School Chemistry: The Effects of Using the Science Writing Heuristic to Increase Scientific Literacy The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) as an instructional tool to improve academic achievement and writing in the context of scientific literacy. This…

  3. An Analytical Framework for Analysing Secondary EFL Writing Curriculum: Approaches for Writing and Preparation for Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Al-Hammadi, Fatima; Sidek, Harison Mohd

    2015-01-01

    Academic writing is perhaps the most important skill required in higher education learning for the purposes of academic communication, academic performance, as well as academic achievement and success. However, many studies carried out in an EFL context showed that the majority of students face difficulties and challenges in acquiring effective…

  4. Paperless Writing in World Literature I: Can Students See the Forest without Writing on the Trees?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hoffmann, Christine

    2010-01-01

    Electronic writing offers the opportunity to be creative, impromptu, personal, even improper--unstructured, in other words--while academic writing traps them, catches them up in, an impersonal, uncreative, unimaginative, structured, mechanical--and perhaps even ultimately noncommunicative--experience.

  5. Writing a Review Article: A Graduate Level Writing Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ogunsolu, Omotola O.; Wang, Jamie C.; Hanson, Kenneth

    2018-01-01

    Despite the importance of scientific writing in a chemists' professional career, their development as scientific writers is often neglected in undergraduate and graduate curricula. Among the courses that do encourage students to generate written documents like proposals, lab reports, or essays, the scientific community rarely benefits from the…

  6. Using Latent Class Analysis to Identify Academic and Behavioral Risk Status in Elementary Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    King, Kathleen R.; Lembke, Erica S.; Reinke, Wendy M.

    2016-01-01

    Identifying classes of children on the basis of academic and behavior risk may have important implications for the allocation of intervention resources within Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) models. Latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted with a sample of 517 third grade students. Fall screening scores in…

  7. The Differences in Academic Achievement between Single-Sex Education and Coeducation Classes in Fifth Grade

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Scoggins, Donna K.

    2009-01-01

    Single-sex education is an instructional innovation implemented to improve student academic achievement by teaching to the learning styles and interests of boys and/or girls. This ex post facto quantitative study examined the differences in academic achievement between single-sex education and coeducation classes on students' achievement in…

  8. Investigating Student Use and Value of E-Learning Resources to Develop Academic Writing within the Discipline of Environmental Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Taffs, Kathryn H.; Holt, Julienne I.

    2013-01-01

    The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in higher education to support student learning is expanding. However, student usage has been low and the value of e-learning resources has been under investigation. We reflect on best practices for pedagogical design of e-learning resources to support academic writing in environmental…

  9. Understanding the Influence of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Class on Inequalities in Academic and Non-Academic Outcomes among Eighth-Grade Students: Findings from an Intersectionality Approach.

    PubMed

    Bécares, Laia; Priest, Naomi

    2015-01-01

    Socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, and gender inequalities in academic achievement have been widely reported in the US, but how these three axes of inequality intersect to determine academic and non-academic outcomes among school-aged children is not well understood. Using data from the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K; N = 10,115), we apply an intersectionality approach to examine inequalities across eighth-grade outcomes at the intersection of six racial/ethnic and gender groups (Latino girls and boys, Black girls and boys, and White girls and boys) and four classes of socioeconomic advantage/disadvantage. Results of mixture models show large inequalities in socioemotional outcomes (internalizing behavior, locus of control, and self-concept) across classes of advantage/disadvantage. Within classes of advantage/disadvantage, racial/ethnic and gender inequalities are predominantly found in the most advantaged class, where Black boys and girls, and Latina girls, underperform White boys in academic assessments, but not in socioemotional outcomes. In these latter outcomes, Black boys and girls perform better than White boys. Latino boys show small differences as compared to White boys, mainly in science assessments. The contrasting outcomes between racial/ethnic and gender minorities in self-assessment and socioemotional outcomes, as compared to standardized assessments, highlight the detrimental effect that intersecting racial/ethnic and gender discrimination have in patterning academic outcomes that predict success in adult life. Interventions to eliminate achievement gaps cannot fully succeed as long as social stratification caused by gender and racial discrimination is not addressed.

  10. A Descriptive Study of First-Year College Students' Non-Academic Digital Literacy Practices with Implications for College Writing Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Amicucci, Ann N.

    2013-01-01

    In this qualitative research study, the author investigated first-year college students' non-academic digital literacy practices, the audiences for these practices, and students' preferences for enacting these practices in the first-year college writing classroom. Methods of data collection included surveying 177 students, conducting…

  11. Are Review Skills and Academic Writing Skills Related? An Exploratory Analysis via Multi Source Feedback Tools

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Razi, Salim

    2016-01-01

    Because students learn from each other as well as lecturers, it is important to create opportunities for collaboration in writing classes. Teachers now benefit from access to plagiarism detectors that can also provide feedback. This exploratory study considers the role of four review types, open and anonymous, involving the students themselves,…

  12. Determining the Effects of Using Different Writing Activities on the Academic Achievements Secondary School 7th Grade Students and Their Attitudes Towards the Course

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Uzoglu, Mustafa

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of the study is to determine the effects of using writing activities with different learning purposes by the secondary school 7th grade students on their academic achievement and attitudes towards the course. The study was carried out in a secondary school located in the centre of Erzurum in 2012-2013 academic year; the study is a…

  13. The Power of the Stage and the Dignity of the Academic Calling in Imperial Germany: The Writings of Max Weber on University Problems

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Minerva, 1973

    1973-01-01

    Contains Max Weber's writings on the problems of the German university in the face of political and bureaucratic authority and on the fundamental principles of university autonomy and academic freedom. (PG)

  14. Student Ratings of Instruction: Examining the Role of Academic Field, Course Level, and Class Size

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Laughlin, Anne M.

    2014-01-01

    This dissertation investigated the relationship between course characteristics and student ratings of instruction at a large research intensive university. Specifically, it examined the extent to which academic field, course level, and class size were associated with variation in mean class ratings. Past research consistently identifies…

  15. National Writing Project 2009 Annual Report

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    National Writing Project (NJ1), 2009

    2009-01-01

    Writing as a tool for thinking, learning, and communicating is crucial to academic and career success as well as to active citizenship in a democracy. This annual report of the National Writing Project features teachers of math, chemistry, art, history, and business who develop their students as writers. These educators employ writing to engage…

  16. Writing: A Necessary Tool

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Budig, Gene A.

    2006-01-01

    Faculty members at America's colleges and universities have long thought that an alarming number of high school graduates do not arrive on campus with the writing skills they need. Now leaders of major U.S. corporations are joining their academic colleagues in complaining about a serious deficiency in the writing skills of today's college…

  17. Does Completing an Enriched Writing Course Improve Writing Self-Efficacy of Talented Secondary Students?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Frank Webb, Anne; Vandiver, Beverly J.; Jeung, Stevie

    2016-01-01

    This study examined whether writing self-efficacy would change and have an effect on final course grade in 267 talented middle and high school students in the course of taking enriched 6-week writing classes. Confidence in writing increased across time within three courses, whereas approach to writing did not. Differences were found between…

  18. Writing Essays: Does Self-Efficacy Matter? The Relationship between Self-Efficacy in Reading and in Writing and Undergraduate Students' Performance in Essay Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Prat-Sala, Merce; Redford, Paul

    2012-01-01

    Self-efficacy beliefs have been identified as associated with students' academic performance. The present research assessed the relationship between two new self-efficacy scales (self-efficacy in reading [SER] and self-efficacy in writing [SEW]) and students' writing performance on a piece of assessed written coursework. Using data from first and…

  19. Predicting Faculty Intentions to Assign Writing in Their Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Trafimow, David; Ruckel, Lindsay M.; Stovall, Shelly; Raut, Yogesh J.

    2017-01-01

    Teachers who offer undergraduate courses agree widely on the importance of writing assignments to further undergraduate education. And yet, there is a great deal of variance among teachers in their writing assignments; some teachers assign no writing whatsoever. To determine the variables that influence the decisions of teachers about whether to…

  20. Teacher Aides, Class Size and Academic Achievement: A Preliminary Evaluation of Indiana's Prime Time.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lapsley, Daniel K.; Daytner, Katrina M.; Kelly, Ken; Maxwell, Scott E.

    This large-scale evaluation of Indiana's Prime Time, a funding mechanism designed to reduce class size or pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) in grades K-3 examined the academic performance of nearly 11,000 randomly selected third graders on the state mandated standardized achievement test as a function of class size, PTR, and presence of an instructional…

  1. The "Mentor Paper" Writing Assignment in One Community College Puente Class: Preliminary Report from a Participant Observer.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cazden, Courtney B.

    An educator participating in a community college Puente class as both participant and observer analyzes the structure and experience of one writing assignment representative of the program's objectives. The Puente program combines teaching, counseling, and mentoring to California community college students as a means of promoting learning,…

  2. Academic Jibberish

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Krashen, Stephen

    2012-01-01

    In this article, the author talks about academic jibberish. Alfie Kohn states that a great deal of academic writing is incomprehensible even to others in the same area of scholarship. Academic Jibberish may score points for the writer but does not help research or practice. The author discusses jibberish as a career strategy that impresses those…

  3. Teaching Writing in Graduate School

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sallee, Margaret; Hallett, Ronald; Tierney, William

    2011-01-01

    Graduate students are typically expected to know how to write. Those who write poorly are occasionally penalized, but little in-class attention is given to help students continue to develop and refine their writing skills. More often than not, writing courses at the graduate level are remedial programs designed for international students and…

  4. Understanding the Influence of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Class on Inequalities in Academic and Non-Academic Outcomes among Eighth-Grade Students: Findings from an Intersectionality Approach

    PubMed Central

    Bécares, Laia; Priest, Naomi

    2015-01-01

    Socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, and gender inequalities in academic achievement have been widely reported in the US, but how these three axes of inequality intersect to determine academic and non-academic outcomes among school-aged children is not well understood. Using data from the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten (ECLS-K; N = 10,115), we apply an intersectionality approach to examine inequalities across eighth-grade outcomes at the intersection of six racial/ethnic and gender groups (Latino girls and boys, Black girls and boys, and White girls and boys) and four classes of socioeconomic advantage/disadvantage. Results of mixture models show large inequalities in socioemotional outcomes (internalizing behavior, locus of control, and self-concept) across classes of advantage/disadvantage. Within classes of advantage/disadvantage, racial/ethnic and gender inequalities are predominantly found in the most advantaged class, where Black boys and girls, and Latina girls, underperform White boys in academic assessments, but not in socioemotional outcomes. In these latter outcomes, Black boys and girls perform better than White boys. Latino boys show small differences as compared to White boys, mainly in science assessments. The contrasting outcomes between racial/ethnic and gender minorities in self-assessment and socioemotional outcomes, as compared to standardized assessments, highlight the detrimental effect that intersecting racial/ethnic and gender discrimination have in patterning academic outcomes that predict success in adult life. Interventions to eliminate achievement gaps cannot fully succeed as long as social stratification caused by gender and racial discrimination is not addressed. PMID:26505623

  5. Academic Writing, Genres and Philosophy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Peters, Michael A.

    2008-01-01

    This paper examines the underlying genres of philosophy focusing especially on their pedagogical forms to emphasize the materiality and historicity of genres, texts and writing. It focuses briefly on the history of the essay and its relation to the journal within the wider history of scientific communication, and comments on the standardized forms…

  6. The family, neuroscience, and academic skills: An interdisciplinary account of social class gaps in children's test scores.

    PubMed

    Potter, Daniel; Mashburn, Andrew; Grissmer, David

    2013-03-01

    Current explanations of social class gaps in children's early academic skills tend to focus on non-cognitive skills that more advantaged children acquire in the family. Accordingly, social class matters because the cultural resources more abundant in advantaged families cultivate children's repertories and tool kits, which allow them to more easily navigate social institutions, such as schools. Within these accounts, parenting practices matter for children's academic success, but for seemingly arbitrary reasons. Alternatively, findings from current neuroscience research indicate that family context matters for children because it cultivates neural networks that assist in learning and the development of academic skills. That is, children's exposure to particular parenting practices and stimulating home environments contribute to the growth in neurocognitive skills that affect later academic performance. We synthesize sociological and neuroscience accounts of developmental inequality by focusing on one such skill-fine motor skills-to illustrate how family context alters children's early academic performance. Our findings support an interdisciplinary account of academic inequality, and extend current accounts of the family's role in the transmission of social inequality. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Using Multimodal Writing to Motivate Struggling Students to Write

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Darrington, Brett; Dousay, Tonia

    2014-01-01

    One of the reasons that many secondary students fail English classes is because they are not motivated to write. This literature review was conducted to look into the use of multimodal works to increase the motivation for struggling students to write. Change theory was used to evaluate the benefits of multimodal works compared to more traditional…

  8. Using a Systemic Functional Genre-Based Approach to Promote a Situated View of Academic Writing among EFL Pre-Service Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Correa, Doris; Echeverri, Sandra

    2017-01-01

    This article reports partial results of a qualitative study which explored the gains and challenges encountered by two groups of English as a foreign language pre-service teachers from a public university in Medellin, Colombia, in developing a situated view of academic writing through a systemic functional genre-based instructional unit. The unit…

  9. The writing approaches of secondary students.

    PubMed

    Lavelle, Ellen; Smith, Jennifer; O'Ryan, Leslie

    2002-09-01

    Research with college students has supported a model of writing approaches that defines the relationship between a writer and writing task along a deep and surface process continuum (Biggs, 1988). Based on that model, Lavelle (1993) developed the Inventory of Processes in College Composition which reflects students' motives and strategies as related to writing outcomes. It is also important to define the approaches of secondary students to better understand writing processes at that level, and development in written composition. This study was designed to define the writing approaches of secondary students by factor analysing students' responses to items regarding writing beliefs and writing strategies, and to compare the secondary approaches to those of college students. A related goal was to explore the relationships of the secondary writing approaches to perceived self-regulatory efficacy for writing (Zimmerman & Bandura, 1994), writing preferences, and writing outcomes. The initial, factor analytic phase involved 398 junior level high school students (11th grade) enrolled in a mandatory language arts class at each of three large Midwestern high schools (USA). Then, 49 junior level students enrolled in two language arts classes participated as subjects in the second phase. Classroom teachers administered the Inventory of Processes in College Composition (Lavelle, 1993), which contained 72 true-or-false items regarding writing beliefs and strategies, during regular class periods. Data were factor analysed and the structure compared to that of college students. In the second phase, the new inventory, Inventory of Processes in Secondary Composition, was administered in conjunction with the Perceived Self-Regulatory Efficacy for Writing Inventory (Zimmerman & Bandura, 1994), and a writing preferences survey. A writing sample and grade in Language Arts classes were obtained and served as outcome variables. The factor structure of secondary writing reflected three

  10. '95 or Bust: Studying Writing in an Urban District as the Class of '95 Heads toward a High Risk, Statewide Graduation Test.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Buddemeier, Richard E.; Raivetz, Mark J.

    In December 1993, children who were in grade 3 in the Trenton Public Schools (New Jersey) in 1985-86 will take a high-risk writing proficiency test to determine whether they will graduate from high school. An emerging study of the writing of the Class of 1995 in Trenton is described as students move toward that test. The activity of studying…

  11. Dyslexia, Authorial Identity, and Approaches to Learning and Writing: A Mixed Methods Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kinder, Julianne; Elander, James

    2012-01-01

    Background: Dyslexia may lead to difficulties with academic writing as well as reading. The authorial identity approach aims to help students improve their academic writing and avoid unintentional plagiarism, and could help to understand dyslexic students' approaches to writing. Aims: (1) To compare dyslexic and non-dyslexic students' authorial…

  12. Beyond "Write-Talk-Revise-(Repeat)": Using Narrative to Understand One Multilingual Student's Interactions around Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pomerantz, Anne; Kearney, Erin

    2012-01-01

    This paper offers a narrative framework for understanding how multilingual graduate students make sense of the continuous and frequently contradictory talk they engage in as they write. It illustrates how attention to the telling, form, and content of the stories such students relate about their ongoing interactions around academic writing can…

  13. You Can't Expect Kids to Love Writing if They Never Get the Opportunity to Write.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Deckert, Andrew J.

    1988-01-01

    Seniors in two basic English classes learn to write vivid prose by recording conversations before concentrating on the conventions of writing. After the writers express themselves, they begin to see the value of the rules of writing. (MLF)

  14. Peer Feedback Practice in EFL Tertiary Writing Classes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nguyen, Ha Thi

    2016-01-01

    Peer feedback plays a pivotal role in stimulating students' participation in L2 writing, which has the potential to develop students' writing skills. The concept of metacognition has also been examined to facilitate learner writers in their learning process. As such, this study drawing upon the concept of metacognition explores the implementation…

  15. Writing II for 2nd Year EFL Student Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Abdallah, Mahmoud M. S.

    2015-01-01

    Writing is a very important skill that should be mastered properly by university students, especially pre-service language teachers (e.g. EFL student teachers). In order to present their ideas efficiently in the context of their academic study, they have to be trained well on how to write meaningful pieces (e.g. essays, academic reports,…

  16. The Influence of Students' L1 and Spoken English in English Writing: A Corpus-Based Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Prihantoro

    2016-01-01

    Academic writing requires both style and grammatical correctness; however, efforts in improving the quality of English academic writing by non-native students have been focused on grammar. Structures observed in this study were grammatically correct, but considered unnatural in academic writing genre. This research involves a group of non-native…

  17. The Effect of Keyboard-Based Word Processing on Students with Different Working Memory Capacity during the Process of Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Van Der Steen, Steffie; Samuelson, Dianne; Thomson, Jennifer M.

    2017-01-01

    This study addresses the current debate about the beneficial effects of text processing software on students with different working memory (WM) during the process of academic writing, especially with regard to the ability to display higher-level conceptual thinking. A total of 54 graduate students (15 male, 39 female) wrote one essay by hand and…

  18. International Multilingual Student Writers' (Re)Negotiation of Their Languages and Literacies Practices in a First-Year Multilingual Composition Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Prikhodko, Maria Y.

    2017-01-01

    This qualitative case study explores how five multilingual student writers (re)negotiate their multilingual literacies histories with emergent U.S. academic writing conventions as part of a first-year multilingual composition (FYMC) class. In pursuit of examining this (re)negotiation, first, I define multilingual literacies as nomadic (Ciolfi…

  19. Interrupted Trajectories: The Impact of Academic Failure on the Social Mobility of Working-Class Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Byrom, Tina; Lightfoot, Nic

    2013-01-01

    Higher education (HE) is often viewed as a conduit for social mobility through which working-class students can secure improved life-chances. However, the link between HE and social mobility is largely viewed as unproblematic. Little research has explored the possible impact of academic failure (in HE) on the trajectories of working-class students…

  20. Breaking the Rules in Writing Class.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nelson, James R.

    1994-01-01

    Describes the methods by which one teacher breaks the rules in the writing classroom. Claims that bending procedures often makes students more likely to reason for themselves, find their own voices, and respond as thinkers and creators. (HB)

  1. Incorporating A Structured Writing Process into Existing CLS Curricula.

    PubMed

    Honeycutt, Karen; Latshaw, Sandra

    2014-01-01

    Good communication and critical thinking are essential skills for all successful professionals, including Clinical Laboratory Science/Medical Laboratory Science (CLS/MLS) practitioners. Professional programs can incorporate writing assignments into their curricula to improve student written communication and critical thinking skills. Clearly defined, scenario-focused writing assignments provide student practice in clearly articulating responses to proposed problems or situations, researching and utilizing informational resources, and applying and synthesizing relevant information. Assessment rubrics, structured feedback, and revision writing methodologies help guide students through the writing process. This article describes how a CLS Program in a public academic medical center, located in the central United States (US) serving five centrally-located US states has incorporated writing intensive assignments into an existing 11-month academic year using formal, informal and reflective writing to improve student written communication and critical thinking skills. Faculty members and employers of graduates assert that incorporating writing intensive requirements have better prepared students for their professional role to effectively communicate and think critically.

  2. Academic Vocabulary, Writing and English for Academic Purposes: Perspectives from Second Language Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Coxhead, Averil

    2012-01-01

    This article focuses on vocabulary and writing at university level from the perspectives of 14 English as an additional language students studying at a New Zealand university. The students individually carried out an integrated reading and writing task and then participated in an interview which focused on their language learning background and…

  3. Learning to Write Like a Scientist: A Writing-Intensive Course for Microbiology/Health Science Students †

    PubMed Central

    Grzyb, Kimi; Snyder, Wesley; Field, Katharine G.

    2018-01-01

    Learning the tools and conventions of expert communication in the sciences provides multiple benefits to bioscience students, yet often these skills are not formally taught. To address this need, we designed a writing-intensive microbiology course on emerging infectious diseases to provide upper-division students with science-specific writing skills along with disciplinary course content. The course followed the guidelines of our university’s Writing Intensive Curriculum (WIC) program. Students wrote a press release, a case study, a controversy/position paper, and a grant prospectus, and revised drafts after feedback. To assess the course, in 2015 and 2016 we administered pre-post surveys and collected writing samples for analysis. Students reported on their experience, training, skills, and knowledge before taking the course. They then rated the extent to which the assignments, lectures, in-class activities, and writing activities contributed to their attainment of the learning outcomes of the course. Students entering the class were inexperienced in tools of science writing and the specific genres covered by the class. Their confidence levels rose in both skills and knowledge. Feedback from instructors was cited as most helpful in the majority of the areas where students reported the most gains. The survey provided evidence that discipline-specific knowledge had been acquired through writing activities. Teaching science writing by allowing the students to write “fiction” (e.g., a case report about a fictional patient) was effective in maintaining a high level of interest, both in learning the conventions of the genre and in seeking out detailed information about emerging infectious diseases. Both the course structure and the specific assignments would be useful at other institutions to teach science writing. PMID:29904515

  4. Artful Language: Academic Writing for the Art Student

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Apps, Linda; Mamchur, Carolyn

    2009-01-01

    The task of writing about the process of making and contextualising art can be overwhelming for some graduate students. While the challenge may be due in part to limited time and attention to the practice of writing, in a practice-based arts thesis there is a deeper issue: how the visual and written components are attended to in a manner that…

  5. The Use of Basic Writing Materials in ESL Writing Classes.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    England, Lizabeth

    Similarities between the weaknesses found among English as a first language students and English as a second language (ESL) students suggest the need to use basic writing materials with English as a second language students. Prewriting materials should be chosen in an effort to teach students some criteria for analyzing, evaluating, and…

  6. Writing in the Elementary Classroom.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Perrin, Robert

    Twenty-six teachers at a suburban school near Terre Haute, Indiana, responded to a survey to determine the activities used to teach writing in their classrooms. The results suggest the following: (1) writing in elementary classes concentrates heavily on "creative" writing and responses to literature, and should be broadened to include expository…

  7. Eight-Year Latent Class Trajectories of Academic and Social Functioning in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

    PubMed

    DuPaul, George J; Morgan, Paul L; Farkas, George; Hillemeier, Marianne M; Maczuga, Steve

    2017-09-15

    We examined trajectories of academic and social functioning in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to identify those who might be at risk for especially severe levels of academic and social impairment over time. We estimated a series of growth mixture models using data from two subsamples of children participating in the NIMH Collaborative Multisite Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) including those with at least baseline and 96-month data for reading and mathematics achievement (n = 392; 77.3% male; M age = 7.7; SD = 0.8) or social skills ratings from teachers (n = 259; 74.9% male; M age = 7.6; SD = 0.8). We compared latent trajectories for children with ADHD to mean observed trajectories obtained from a local normative (i.e., non-ADHD) comparison group (n = 289; 80.6% male; M age = 9.9; SD = 1.1). Results indicated six latent trajectory classes for reading and mathematics and four classes for teacher social skills ratings. There was not only a relationship between trajectories of inattention symptoms and academic impairment, but also a similarly strong association between trajectory classes of hyperactive-impulsive symptoms and achievement. Trajectory class membership correlated with socio-demographic and diagnostic characteristics, inattention and hyperactive-impulsive symptom trajectories, externalizing behavior in school, and treatment receipt and dosage. Although children with ADHD display substantial heterogeneity in their reading, math, and social skills growth trajectories, those with behavioral and socio-demographic disadvantages are especially likely to display severe levels of academic and social impairment over time. Evidence-based early screening and intervention that directly address academic and social impairments in elementary school-aged children with ADHD are warranted. The ClinicalTrials.gov identifier is NCT00000388.

  8. In Search of the "Write" Way.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Irwin, Glenn, Ed.

    1981-01-01

    The 17 articles in this journal issue focus on writing and writing instruction. The articles discuss the following: (1) the NorthEast Texas, Texas Hill Country, and University of Arizona writing projects; (2) the necessity of dealing with truth in the writing class, not as a concept to be defined, but as an act that creates and recreates…

  9. Successful Writing: Five Roadblocks to Overcome

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    King, Kathleen P.

    2013-01-01

    This article provides essential strategies to be more successful in one of the major roles in academia: writing. Most academics struggle with roadblocks in their writing process. We are forever battling to complete research articles, manuscripts, grant proposals or other documents. The strategies and perspective shared here help overcome several…

  10. National and State Writing Tests: The Writing Process Betrayed

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schuster, Edgar H.

    2004-01-01

    State academic standards broadly support the writing process, including the planning (prewriting), drafting, revising, editing, and publishing (sharing) stages. There is also widespread recognition that a valuable part of the process is conferencing, either between teacher and student, student and student (often referred to as peer feedback), or…

  11. What Do Education Students Think about Their Ability to Write Essays?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Quintero, Gisela Consolación

    2018-01-01

    The present study reflects the results obtained from a diagnosis carried out with Education students concerning the writing of academic essays. The objective was to identify the perceptions that Comprehensive Education students have about their ability to write academic essays. A descriptive cross-sectional research study was conducted at a single…

  12. NAEP 1996 Trends in Writing: Fluency and Writing Conventions. Holistic and Mechanics Scores in 1984 and 1996.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ballator, Nada; Farnum, Marisa; Kaplan, Bruce

    Supplementary to "NAEP 1996 Trends in Academic Progress," this report describes two aspects of writing for which change has been measured since 1984: writing fluency as determined by holistic scoring; and mastery of the conventions of written English as determined by mechanics scoring. The introduction discusses the layout and means of…

  13. Using PELA to Predict International Business Students' English Writing Performance with Contextualised English Writing Workshops as Intervention Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wong, Caroline; Delante, Nimrod Lawsin; Wang, Pengji

    2017-01-01

    This study examines the effectiveness of Post-Entry English Language Assessment (PELA) as a predictor of international business students' English writing performance and academic performance. An intervention involving the implementation of contextualised English writing workshops was embedded in a specific business subject targeted at students who…

  14. Black males' self-perceptions of academic ability and gifted potential in advanced science classes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rascoe, Barbara Jean

    The purpose of this study was to examine gifted Black males' self-perceptions of academic ability and gifted potential in science. Major concerns were to determine how these self-perceptions of academic ability and gifted potential influenced gifted Black males' capacity to compete in advanced science classes and to determine how science teachers may have influenced participants' self-perceptions of academic ability and gifted potential. This study required an approach that would allow an interpretive aspect for the experiences of gifted Black males in advanced science classes. An intrinsic qualitative case study design with a critical theory framework was used. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, which were audiotaped and transcribed. Each participant was interviewed twice and each interview averaged 45 minutes. The purposeful sample consisted of nine gifted high school Black males between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. The constant comparative method was used to analyze the data. The categories of gifted Black males' self-perceptions of academic ability and gifted potential included gifted high achievers, gifted 'could do better' high achievers, gifted 'could do better' situational nonachievers, and gifted 'could do better' underachievers. Gifted Black male participants' perceptions regarding their science teachers' influence on their self-perceptions of academic ability and gifted potential included validation, reinforcement, and enhancement. These participants' perceptions regarding how science teachers' influenced their academic performance in science included science teachers' content knowledge, science teachers' skills to make science challenging and engaging, and a safe learning environment. The conclusions of this study described competing power dynamics of science teachers and gifted Black males' interactions in the science learning environment. The discussion also included a summary of relationships among the emergent themes

  15. From Proposal Writing to Data Collection to Presentation: Physical Oceanography Laboratory Class Students Explore the Fundamentals of Science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buijsman, M. C.; Church, I.; Haydel, J.; Martin, K. M.; Shiller, A. M.; Wallace, D. J.; Blancher, J.; Foltz, A.; Griffis, A. M.; Kosciuch, T. J.; Kincketootle, A.; Pierce, E.; Young, V. A.

    2016-02-01

    To better prepare first-year Department of Marine Science MSc students of the University of Southern Mississippi for their science careers, we plan to execute a semester-long Physical Oceanography laboratory class that exposes the enrolled students to all aspects of interdisciplinary research: writing a proposal, planning a cruise, collecting and analyzing data, and presenting their results. Although some of these aspects may be taught in any such class, the incorporation of all these aspects makes this class unique.The fieldwork will be conducted by boat in the Rigolets in Louisiana, a 13-km long tidal strait up to 1 km wide connecting the Mississippi Sound with Lake Pontchartrain. The students have the opportunity to collect ADCP, CTD, multibeam sonar, sediment and water samples.A second novel characteristic of this class is that the instructor partnered with the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, a not for profit environmental advocacy group. The foundation will give an hour-long seminar on the natural history of the study area and its environmental problems. This information provides context for the students' research proposals and allows them to formulate research questions and hypotheses that connect their research objectives to societally relevant issues, such as coastal erosion, salt water intrusion, and water quality. The proposal writing and cruise planning is done in the first month of the 3.5-month long semester. In the second month two surveys are conducted. The remainder of the semester is spent on analysis and reporting. Whenever possible we teach Matlab for the students to use in their data analysis. In this presentation, we will report on the successes and difficulties associated with teaching such a multi-faceted class.

  16. Multi-Draft Composing: An Iterative Model for Academic Argument Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eckstein, Grant; Chariton, Jessica; McCollum, Robb Mark

    2011-01-01

    Post-secondary writing teachers in composition and English as a second language (ESL) writing programs are likely familiar with multi-draft composing. Both composition and ESL writing programs share nearly identical multi-draft models despite the very unique and different cultures of each group. We argue that multi-draft composing as it is…

  17. Writing Laboratory Exercises To Be Used with a Writing and Research Guide.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alicna, Elaine; And Others

    Intended to facilitate a broader emphasis on creative writing in American high school English classes, this manual offers a number of writing laboratory exercises. The exercises are divided into five categories: (1) library skills, including reference book know how, and using the parts of books; (2) critical reading skills, including…

  18. Academic Success Foundation: Enhancing Academic Integrity through Mobile Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hanbidge, Alice Schmidt; Mackenzie, Amanda; Sanderson, Nicole; Scholz, Kyle; Tin, Tony

    2017-01-01

    How do we close the gap between the lack of academic experience incoming students have--with the expectation that students know the rules of writing and taking exams? Academic integrity (AI) is essential in post-secondary academia yet insufficient time is allocated to teaching and practicing its concepts. Talks at orientation, lectures in the…

  19. Partners in Crime: Integrating Forensic Science and Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hein, Erik

    2006-01-01

    Forensic science lends itself to many academic areas. Aside from the science itself, writing plays a major role in the investigation process as well as in the courtroom. It is paramount that students learn how to write proficiently when recording results or writing evaluations and reports, just as forensic scientists do. This can also be done…

  20. Adolescents' Use of Academic Language in Historical Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shen, Ting

    2011-01-01

    Despite its importance of academic language, research on academic language is often limited to academic vocabulary and focused on the English language learners. Informed by systemic functional linguistics, this study examined adolescents' use of academic language and the relationships between its use and students' reading ability and their writing…

  1. Queer Theory in the Undergraduate Writing Course.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Koski, Fran F.

    Teachers committed to breaking the silence on lesbian and gay issues in college-level writing classes can consult a growing body of literature by teachers similarly committed. None of this literature, however, has yet identified ways to bring readers in "queer" theory to the undergraduate writing class. Examining the work of four…

  2. High School Students' Attitudes and Beliefs on Using the Science Writing Heuristic in an Advanced Placement Chemistry Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Putti, Alice

    2011-01-01

    This paper discusses student attitudes and beliefs on using the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) in an advanced placement (AP) chemistry classroom. During the 2007 school year, the SWH was used in a class of 24 AP chemistry students. Using a Likert-type survey, student attitudes and beliefs on the process were determined. Methods for the study are…

  3. Effects of Academic Service Learning in Drug Misuse and Addiction on Students’ Learning Preferences and Attitudes Toward Harm Reduction

    PubMed Central

    Kabli, Noufissa; Liu, Ben; Seifert, Tricia

    2013-01-01

    Objective. To examine academic service-learning pedagogy on student learning and perceptions of drug misuse and addiction. Design. Third- and fourth-year pharmacology students were exposed to an academic service-learning pedagogy that integrated a community service experience with lectures, in-class discussions and debates, group projects, a final paper, and an examination. Reflective writing assignments throughout the course required students to assimilate and apply what they had learned in the classroom to what they learned in their community placement. Assessment. Changes in students’ responses on pre- and post-course survey instruments reflected shifts toward higher-order thinking. Also, subjective student-learning modalities shifted toward learning by writing. Students’ perspectives and attitudes allowed improved context of issues associated with drug misuse and harm reduction models. Conclusion. Academic service-learning pedagogy contributes to developing adaptable, well-rounded, engaged learners who become more compassionate and pragmatic in addressing scientific and social questions relating to drug addiction. PMID:23610481

  4. First Graders Can Write: Focus on Communication.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Milz, Vera E.

    1980-01-01

    Among the various methods used by a classroom teacher to encourage writing in her first grade class are letter writing, writing a book, writing notes to each other, and keeping journals. The desire to communicate is the primary motivating factor in the development of both oral and written language. (JN)

  5. Resistance and Invention: Becoming Academic, Remaining Other

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brooks, Spirit; Franklin-Phipps, Asilia; Rath, Courtney

    2018-01-01

    In this paper, we take an unsanctioned academic network, a writing group, as a site of inquiry into both the broad given-ness of the norms of the neoliberal academy and our simultaneous compliance with and resistance to these norms. We choose to comply because we are invested in becoming academics; we continue to research and write for conferences…

  6. Translanguaging and the Writing of Bilingual Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Velasco, Patricia; García, Ofelia

    2014-01-01

    This article makes the case for using translanguaging in developing the academic writing of bilinguals. It reviews the emerging literature on learning and teaching theories of translanguaging and presents theoretical understandings of biliteracy development and specifically on the teaching of writing to bilingual learners. The article analyzes…

  7. Intentional Implementation: A Self-Study Examining and Evaluating Instructional Implementation of Digital Tools to Foster Academic Writing in the English Secondary Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Alcoser, Michelle Elaine

    2017-01-01

    This self-study examines the planning, practices, policies, and procedures present in a blended learning classroom environment to develop academic writing with tenth and eleventh grade public high school students. Digital technology is a prevalent and powerful force intertwined with most aspects of the human experience in the twenty-first century.…

  8. The Impact of Explicit Timing, Immediate Feedback, and Positive Reinforcement on the Writing Outcomes of Academically and Behaviorally Struggling Fifth-Grade Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Grünke, Matthias; Sperling, Marko; Burke, Mack D.

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of a multicomponent intervention on the length and quality of stories written by fifth graders who were academically and behaviorally struggling with particular problems during writing demands. Difficulties in text production are often prevalent at the beginning of middle/secondary education as…

  9. Using Collaborate Writing Groups in Undergraduate Courses to Improve Scientific Writing Skills and Confidence

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maclachlan, J. C.; Feist, S.

    2016-12-01

    Communication of primary scientific research is an aspect of undergraduate teaching that rarely researches platforms outside of the classroom. One method to encourage the dissemination of scientific findings to an international audience is the implementation of Collaborative Writing Groups (CWG). This paper will discuss the development, implementation and successful results of two Collaborative Writing Group creating within two different senior undergraduate classes offered at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada through discussion of the implementation of the assignment coupled with challenges and opportunities the process provided. A key to the successful implementation of the CWG is a detailed timeline for the students to follow with achievable goals throughout the process. The eight-week process began with students creating groups and choosing a topic of interest. As groups form it became apparent the diversity of academic skills and interest within the classroom made selecting a research project all group members could agree on difficult. Throughout the course students were given time to not only review their colleagues writing but also have discussions on particularly challenging aspects of their research and help in providing solutions. While the timeline for this project was ambitious it was necessary to allow time for effective feedback on the scientific writing from both the students and the instructional team. Overall this process has produced 11 peer-reviewed undergraduate student written papers within two special editions of the journal Cartographica published by the University of Toronto Press (Maclachlan and Lee, 2015). The papers topics are quite diverse including: the modelling of glacier melt in Iceland; a look into the effects of urban sprawl; and an exploration of the spatial characteristics of dunes in southern Ontario. This encouragement of dissemination to an international audience will create an experience that promotes self

  10. Academic Writing Partnerships: The DIY Version

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stivers, Jan; Cramer, Sharon F.

    2013-01-01

    Despite the challenges of heavy workloads, family responsibilities, and differences in work styles, two senior faculty members used collaboration to reenergize their scholarly efforts; the results include increased research and publication (three joint articles and a book) as well as a new enjoyment of the research and writing process. This…

  11. Dyslexia, authorial identity, and approaches to learning and writing: a mixed methods study.

    PubMed

    Kinder, Julianne; Elander, James

    2012-06-01

    Dyslexia may lead to difficulties with academic writing as well as reading. The authorial identity approach aims to help students improve their academic writing and avoid unintentional plagiarism, and could help to understand dyslexic students' approaches to writing. (1) To compare dyslexic and non-dyslexic students' authorial identity and approaches to learning and writing; (2) to compare correlations between approaches to writing and approaches to learning among dyslexic and non-dyslexic students; (3) to explore dyslexic students' understandings of authorship and beliefs about dyslexia, writing and plagiarism. Dyslexic (n= 31) and non-dyslexic (n= 31) university students. Questionnaire measures of self-rated confidence in writing, understanding of authorship, knowledge to avoid plagiarism, and top-down, bottom-up and pragmatic approaches to writing (Student Authorship Questionnaire; SAQ), and deep, surface and strategic approaches to learning (Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students; ASSIST), plus qualitative interviews with dyslexic students with high and low SAQ scores. Dyslexic students scored lower for confidence in writing, understanding authorship, and strategic approaches to learning, and higher for surface approaches to learning. Correlations among SAQ and ASSIST scores were larger and more frequently significant among non-dyslexic students. Self-rated knowledge to avoid plagiarism was associated with a top-down approach to writing among dyslexic students and with a bottom-up approach to writing among non-dyslexic students. All the dyslexic students interviewed described how dyslexia made writing more difficult and reduced their confidence in academic writing, but they had varying views about whether dyslexia increased the risk of plagiarism. Dyslexic students have less strong authorial identities, and less congruent approaches to learning and writing. Knowledge to avoid plagiarism may be more salient for dyslexic students, who may benefit from

  12. The Evolution of a Writing Program.

    PubMed

    White, Bonnie J; Lamson, Karen S

    2017-07-01

    Scholarly writing is required in nursing, and some students are unable to communicate effectively through writing. Faculty members may struggle with the grading of written assignments. A writing team, consisting of a nursing faculty member, the school of nursing library liaison, and members from academic support services, implemented strategies including workshops, handouts, and use of exemplars to improve student writing and to provide support to faculty. Few students sought help from the writing team. An online writing center within the existing learning management system was developed to address nursing students' and faculty's scholarly writing needs. The writing center includes guides, tutorials, and exemplars. Anecdotal evidence indicates the use of the writing center during afternoons and evenings and prior to due dates of written assignments. Online writing resources were used more frequently than face-to-face support. Further research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(7):443-445.]. Copyright 2017, SLACK Incorporated.

  13. Opportunities to Write: An Exploration of Student Writing during Language Arts Lessons in Norwegian Lower Secondary Classrooms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Blikstad-Balas, Marte; Roe, Astrid; Klette, Kirsti

    2018-01-01

    Research suggests that student development as writers requires a supportive environment in which they receive sustained opportunities to write. However, writing researchers in general know relatively little about the actual writing opportunities embedded in students' language arts lessons and how students' production of texts in class is framed.…

  14. Teaching Technical Writing: Focusing on Process.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Santelmann, Patricia Kelly

    In preparing students for business writing, a technical writing class should foster (1) a sensitivity to audience and an understanding of the business or technical organizational audience, (2) analytical problem solving that precedes any but the simplest writing task, (3) understanding of the patterns of organization that make information clear to…

  15. Learning to Write in Middle School?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lawrence, Joshua Fahey; Galloway, Emily Phillips; Yim, Soobin; Lin, Alex

    2013-01-01

    Despite the emphasis on increasing the frequency with which students engage in analytic writing, we know very little about the "writing diet" of adolescents. Student notebooks, used as a daily record of in-class work, provide one source of evidence about the diversity of writing expectations that students face. Through careful…

  16. The Student Writing Toolkit: Enhancing Undergraduate Teaching of Scientific Writing in the Biological Sciences

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dirrigl, Frank J., Jr.; Noe, Mark

    2014-01-01

    Teaching scientific writing in biology classes is challenging for both students and instructors. This article offers and reviews several useful "toolkit" items that improve student writing. These include sentence and paper-length templates, funnelling and compartmentalisation, and preparing compendiums of corrections. In addition,…

  17. Writing for publication: institutional support provides an enabling environment.

    PubMed

    Kramer, Beverley; Libhaber, Elena

    2016-04-18

    Due to the excessive service delivery loads in public hospitals supported by academic institutions in developing environments, researchers at these institutions have little time to develop scientific writing skills or to write up their research. It is imperative to expand the writing skills of researchers and train the next generation of health sciences academics in order to disseminate research findings. This study reports on the implementation of approaches for writing and publication and the extent of support to staff suffering from the overload of service delivery and of heavy teaching duties. Workshops in scientific writing and writing retreats were initiated and were offered to all staff. Feedback from participants of the writing skills workshops indicated that the workshops provided an injection of confidence and proficiency. Protected writing time resulted in 132 papers submitted to journals and 95 in preparation from 230 participants of the writing retreats over a two year period. Staff commended the off-site, collegial environment, which also supported future collaboration with new-found colleagues. This enabling environment facilitates not only the development of writing skills per se, but also the dissemination of the generated scientific knowledge. In addition, the training in writing skills of this generation will be of value in the training of future cohorts in countries with similar health care deliverables.

  18. Engaging Students in a Large-Enrollment Physics Class Using an Academically Focused Social Media Platform

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gavrin, Andy; Lindell, Rebecca

    2017-03-01

    There are many reasons for an instructor to consider using social media, particularly in a large introductory course. Improved communications can lessen the sense of isolation some students feel in large classes, and students may be more likely to respond to faculty announce-ments in a form that is familiar and comfortable. Furthermore, many students currently establish social media sites for their classes, without the knowledge or participation of their instructors. Such "shadow" sites can be useful, but they can also become distributors of misinformation, or venues for inappropriate or disruptive discussions. CourseNetworking (CN) is a social media platform designed for the academic environment. It combines many features common among learning management systems (LMS's) with an interface that looks and feels more like Facebook than a typical academic system. We have recently begun using CN as a means to engage students in an introductory calculus-based mechanics class, with enrollments of 150-200 students per semester. This article presents basic features of CN, and details our initial experiences and observations.

  19. Writing To Learn in Science: A Curriculum Guide.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chatel, Regina G.

    This curriculum guide supports and gives structure to engaging students in writing-to-learn activities in science classes by delineating writing outcomes and assessment. The guide is structured according to the beliefs that students need models, revision is the key to successful writing, writing is a tool for demonstrating learning, and writing is…

  20. Cognitive Components of Developmental Writing Skill

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Decker, Scott L.; Roberts, Alycia M.; Roberts, Kristin L.; Stafford, Allison L.; Eckert, Mark A.

    2016-01-01

    A significant number of studies have examined the cognitive components of basic academic skills, which has led to major changes in both teaching and early identification assessment practices. However, the majority of previous research has focused solely on reading. This study examines the cognitive components of academic writing skills across…

  1. The Word Writing CAFE: Assessing Student Writing for Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leal, Dorothy J.

    2005-01-01

    The Word Writing CAFE is a new assessment tool designed for teachers to evaluate objectively students' word-writing ability for fluency, accuracy, and complexity. It is designed to be given to the whole class at one time. This article describes the development of the CAFE and provides directions for administering and scoring it. The author also…

  2. Critical Thinking through Writing: Expressing Scientific Thought and Process in a Deaf Classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Manjarrez, Leslie

    Within Deaf classrooms there is often a disconnect between academic areas and writing curriculums that develop in both common and academic language, where often classrooms focus solely on writing as a skill rather than as a method for producing language through an academic area. This work focuses on the development of academic language in ASL and English print of science. The curriculum is written to be implemented as a bilingual academic curriculum to support Deaf and Hard of Hearing students in various self contained classroom settings. Lessons are conducted in three Units, A B and C. Unit A focuses on research, thought and writing of preparatory materials in small groups. Unit B is comprised of procedural lessons on conducting x experiments and the evaluation of those experiments through mathematics. Unit C is a group of lessons that ties together Units A and B through writing and peer teaching as a method of concluding the work and presenting information in an effective manner. The success of the project was evaluated on the basis of student work, rubrics, and final works from the students. The results showed promise in aspects of Critical Thinking, writing development, and expression of new concepts in both ASL and English.

  3. Relevance in Basic Composition: Writing Assignments for Technical Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tichenor, Stuart

    Generally, students in vocational and technical colleges are in writing classes because they must be, not because they want to be. As a rule, students in basic composition classes have been more or less continually exposed to writing classes since middle school where they been asked to keep journals, read articles and short stories, and write…

  4. The Handbook of Scholarly Writing and Publishing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rocco, Tonette S.; Hatcher, Tim; Creswell, John W.

    2011-01-01

    "The Handbook of Scholarly Writing and Publishing" is a groundbreaking resource that offers emerging and experienced scholars from all disciplines a comprehensive review of the essential elements needed to craft scholarly papers and other writing suitable for submission to academic journals. The authors discuss the components of different types of…

  5. A Mother Re-Envisions Her Daughter's Writing.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hardymon, Betsy L.

    1991-01-01

    Examines several pieces of writing (class assignments as well as writing done outside of school) by the author's 10-year-old daughter. Notes the different kinds of learning promoted in them, and maintains that school writing assignments should be as "real" as possible. (SR)

  6. Creating Tension in Writing.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Folta, Bernarr

    This paper discusses the rationale and teaching methods for a six-week unit, for a high school freshman English Class, on perception, semantics, and writing, which places special focus on developing tension in student writing. The first four objectives of the course focus on perception and the next two focus on semantics. The seventh…

  7. Implementing Keyword and Question Generation Approaches in Teaching EFL Summary Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chou, Mu-hsuan

    2012-01-01

    Summary writing has been considered an important aspect of academic writing. However, writing summaries can be a challenging task for the majority of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Research into teaching summary writing has focused on different processes to teach EFL learners. The present study adopted two methods--keyword and…

  8. Subjectivity Matters: Using Gerda Lerner's Writing and Rhetoric to Claim an Alternative Epistemology for the Feminist Writing Classroom

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ryan, Kathleen J.

    2006-01-01

    In this article, the author argues the common assumption among teachers that the traditional academic essay is the most appropriate sustained writing activity for students. As a feminist, the author believes that the traditional academic essay considers a positivist, patriarchal epistemology that governs beliefs about knowledge and teaching…

  9. Using Writing in Mathematics to Deepen Student Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Urquhart, Vicki

    2009-01-01

    Writing is the ability to compose text effectively for different purposes and audiences. When many of us reflect on our own school experiences, we recall writing in English and history classes, but not in mathematics. Math classes previously relied on skill-building and conceptual understanding activities. Today, teachers are realizing that…

  10. Technical writing practically unified through industry

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Houston, L. S.

    1981-01-01

    General background details in the development of a university level technical writing program, based upon the writing tasks of the student's occupations, are summarized. Objectives and methods for unifying the courses of study with the needs of industry are discussed. Four academic course divisions, Industries Technologies, in which preparation and training are offered are: Animal, Horticulture, Agriculture, and Agricultural Business. Occupational competence is cited as the main goal for these programs in which technical writing is to be practically unified through industry. Course descriptions are also provided.

  11. Thesis Writing Challenges for Non-Native MA Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sadeghi, Karim; Shirzad Khajepasha, Arash

    2015-01-01

    Writing in a second (L2)/foreign language is generally a challenging activity, and writing an MA thesis, as an example of academic enterprise, can be daunting when done in a language in which the writer is not fully competent. The challenge such a genre of writing poses for L2 writers has not been properly addressed. To fill in the gap in this…

  12. Scaffolding for Second Language Writers: Producing an Academic Essay.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cotterall, Sara; Cohen, Robin

    2003-01-01

    Describes how a group of intermediate learners of English were guided through the process of producing their first academic essays in English. The approach applied the concept of scaffolding to the academic writing process by proving flexible support for the learners throughout the writing of their essays. (Author/VWL)

  13. From Diagnosis to Prognosis: What Instructors Know about Their Students' Writing Apprehension

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Apawu, David Dankwa; Anani, Gifty Edna

    2017-01-01

    Different students enter institutions of higher learning with varying degrees of writing apprehension. The apprehension ranges from anxiety from writing tasks to avoiding courses that involve a lot of writing. For many universities, the writing centers or academic writing courses are meant to equip students to be able to deal with the high writing…

  14. [A practical guide for writing an original scientific article].

    PubMed

    Rosenberg, Jacob; Burcharth, Jakob; Pommergaard, Hans-Christian

    2014-06-30

    Writing scientific articles is an integrated part of being a medical doctor at academic institutions, and the demand for publishing scientific work has increased during recent years. The discipline of writing scientific articles can be troublesome and complicated, especially for young inexperienced researchers. This article is a guide to structuring and writing an original scientific article.

  15. What Do Writers in Industry Write?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Locker, Kitty O.

    Noting that one of the biggest factors in motivating students in technical writing classes is to convince them that they will need to write in their future jobs, this paper offers evidence for use by teachers in persuading students of the importance of developing their writing skills. The first part of the paper presents refutations of some of the…

  16. Genre and Second-Language Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Paltridge, Brian

    2014-01-01

    The term "genre" first came into the field of second-language (L2) writing and, in turn, the field of English for specific purposes (ESP) in the 1980s, with the research of John Swales, first carried out in the UK, into the introduction section of research articles. Other important figures in this area are Tony Dudley-Evans, Ann Johns…

  17. Students and the Teacher's Perceptions on Incorporating the Blog Task and Peer Feedback into EFL Writing Classes through Blogs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Huang, Hsin-Yi Cyndi

    2016-01-01

    With the availability of Web 2.0 technologies, blogs have become useful and attractive tools for teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in their writing classes. Learners do not need to understand HTML in order to construct blogs, and the appearance and content can be facilitated via the use of photos, music, and video files (Vurdien,…

  18. Knowing, Learning, and Writing: Patterns in Students' Understanding of Academic Work.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kurfiss, Joanne Gainen

    The paper describes four major patterns that emerge in studies of college student intellectual development. Quotations from students' writing about their epistemological beliefs and quotations from professors' writing concerning their courses and students are related to the four patterns. Characteristics of student writing associated with each…

  19. Borrowing Brainpower--Sharing Insecurities. Lessons Learned from a Doctoral Peer Writing Group

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wegener, Charlotte; Meier, Ninna; Ingerslev, Karen

    2016-01-01

    Academic writing is a vital, yet complex skill that must be developed within a doctoral training process. In addition, becoming an academic researcher is a journey of changing sense of self and identity. Through analysis of a group session, we show how the feedback of peers addresses questions of structure and writing style along with wider issues…

  20. Integrating Academic Information into Developmental Writing Courses.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Troiano, Edna M.; Draus, Julia

    In 1983, Charles County Community College (CCCC) initiated a project to infuse academic information from the sciences, humanities, and social sciences into developmental courses. The reorganization assignments related to 27 topics that promoted academic examination and cultural literacy while at the same time drawing from students' own…

  1. The Relationship between Academic Averages of Primary School Science and Technology Class and Test Sub-Test Scores of Placement Test of Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Guzeller, Cem Oktay

    2012-01-01

    In this research, the relationship between written exam scores of science and technology class of 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, project, participation in class activities and performance work, year-end academic success point averages and sub-test raw scores of LDT science of 6th, 7th and 8th grades. Academic success point averages were used as…

  2. Mini-Thesis Writing Course for International Graduate Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wyatt-Brown, Anne M.

    An approach to teaching academic writing to foreign graduate students at the University of Florida is described. The course combines general and technical writing assignments to sharpen students' critical thinking skills while improving their organizational techniques and editing strategies. Assignments are designed to help students discover the…

  3. A Longitudinal Study in Learning Preferences and Academic Performance in First Year Medical School.

    PubMed

    Hu, Yenya; Gao, Hong; Wofford, Marcia M; Violato, Claudio

    2017-12-18

    This is a longitudinal study of first year medical students that investigates the relationship between the pattern change of the learning preferences and academic performance. Using the visual, auditory, reading-writing, and kinesthetic inventory at the beginning of the first and second year for the same class, it was found that within the first year, 36% of the class remained unimodal (single) modality learners (SS), 14% changed from unimodal to multimodality learners (SM), 27% changed from multimodality to unimodal modality learners (MS) and 21% remained as multimodality learners (MM). Among the academic performance through subsequent didactic blocks from Clinical Anatomy, Cell and Subcellular Processes to Medical Neuroscience during first year, the SM group made more significant improvement compared to the SS group. Semi-structured interview results from the SM group showed that students made this transition between the Clinical Anatomy course and the middle of the Medical Neuroscience course, in an effort to improve their performance. This study suggests that the transition from unimodal to multimodality learning among academically struggling students improved their academic performance in the first year of medical school. Therefore, this may be considered as part of academic advising tools for struggling students to improve their academic performances. Anat Sci Educ. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.

  4. Writing Bytes: Articulating a Techno-Critical Pedagogy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shovlin, Paul W.

    2010-01-01

    This dissertation examines how "modern literacy" and "contemporary writing" are increasingly influenced by technology from a critical pedagogical perspective. The study develops a definition of literacy that takes into account a reliance on technology, particularly computers, in our writing classes and writing lives. With a focus on one particular…

  5. The art of scientific writing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gad-El-Hak, Mohamed

    2015-11-01

    The humanities teach students how to learn and communicate. Science teaches why everything works. Engineering teaches how to make things work. But scientists and engineers need to communicate their ideas amongst themselves as well as to everyone else. A newly developed technical writing course is outlined. In the class, offered to senior undergraduate and beginning graduate students, we read numerous short novels, essays, and op-eds. Some of the reading materials are technical but many are not. The students also have weekly writing assignments. When the first assignment is returned to the students with a grade of 20-30%, their first reaction is, ``how come I did not receive my usual 80-90%?'' I retort, ``you reach that level only when your essay is ready to be published in The New York Times.'' What is emphasized in the class is the process of creating something to write about, researching that something, expressing ideas coherently and comprehensibly, then endlessly editing the essay. The elective class has been offered three times thus far, all of its available seats are always filled, the students' evaluations have been outstanding, and the improvements in the students' ability to write by the end of the semester is quite impressive.

  6. A Guide to Writing Academic Portfolios for Radiologists.

    PubMed

    Thomas, John V; Sanyal, Rupan; O'Malley, Janis P; Singh, Satinder P; Morgan, Desiree E; Canon, Cheri L

    2016-12-01

    The academic educator's portfolio is a collection of materials that document academic performance and achievements, supplementing the curriculum vitae, in order to showcase a faculty member's most significant accomplishments. A decade ago, a survey of medical schools revealed frustration in the nonuniform methods of measuring faculty's medical education productivity. A proposed solution was the use of an academic educator's portfolio. In the academic medical community, compiling an academic portfolio is always a challenge because teaching has never been confined to the traditional classroom setting and often involves active participation of the medical student, resident, or fellow in the ongoing care of the patient. Diagnostic radiology in addition requires a knowledge base that encompasses basic sciences, imaging physics, technology, and traditional and molecular medicine. Teaching and performing research that involves this complex mix, while providing patient care that is often behind the scenes, provides unique challenges in the documentation of teaching, research, and clinical service for diagnostic radiology faculty. An academic portfolio is seen as a way to explain why relevant academic activities are significant to promotions committee members who may have backgrounds in unrelated academic areas and may not be familiar with a faculty member's work. The academic portfolio consists of teaching, research, and service portfolios. The teaching portfolio is a collection of materials that document teaching performance and documents the educator's transition to a more effective educator. A research portfolio showcases the most significant research accomplishments. The service portfolio documents service responsibilities and highlight any service excellence. All portfolios should briefly discuss the educator's philosophy, activities, methods used to implement activities, leadership, mentoring, or committee roles in these respective areas. Recognizing that academic

  7. Affective and Social Factors in a Project-Based Writing Course

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kathpalia, Sujata Surinder; Heah, Carmel

    2011-01-01

    Much of the work in academic writing has focused on the cognitive rather than the affective and social aspects involved in project-based writing. Emphasis in past research has been on skills and processes of writing rather than on affective factors such as motivation, attitudes, feelings or social factors involving intrapersonal and interpersonal…

  8. Doing Academic Writing Differently: A Feminist Bricolage

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Handforth, Rachel; Taylor, Carol A.

    2016-01-01

    This article emerged as the product of a collaboration between two individuals at different stages of our academic careers, one a beginning researcher and the other a senior academic. Written as an experimental "bricolage", the article weaves together two main threads to chart our engagements with feminist research and with writing…

  9. The Effects of Synchronous Text-Based Computer-Mediated Communication Tasks on the Development of L2 and Academic Literacy: A Mixed Methods Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Li, Jinrong

    2012-01-01

    The dissertation examines how synchronous text-based computer-mediated communication (SCMC) tasks may affect English as a Second Language (ESL) learners' development of second language (L2) and academic literacy. The study is motivated by two issues concerning the use of SCMC tasks in L2 writing classes. First, although some of the alleged…

  10. Using Criterion in an English for Academic Purposes Course

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cookson, Simon; Hunter, Simon; Jackson, Daniel; Sick, James

    2005-01-01

    English for Academic Purposes (EAP Writing) is a compulsory course for English literature and language students at Obirin University. The first semester focuses on expository writing, typical of the TOEFL[R] writing exam. The second semester focuses on writing about literature. To facilitate their writing all students are provided with a user…

  11. Understanding the processes of writing papers reflectively.

    PubMed

    Regmi, Krishna; Naidoo, Jennie

    2013-07-01

    This paper explores the writing of research papers using reflective frameworks. Reflective practice is integral to professional education and development. However, healthcare students, academics and practitioners have given limited attention to how to write reflectively. In addition, there are limited resources on the practical aspects of writing papers reflectively. The following major databases were searched: PubMed, Medline, King's Library, Excerpta Medica Database, Department of Health database, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. The searches were conducted using 'free text' and 'index' terms. Only relevant papers published in English were reviewed and scrutinised. Unpublished reports, internal publications, snowballing from the reference lists and personal contacts were also included in the search. This is a review paper that critiques the frameworks used for reflective practice. Writing papers reflectively is a complex task. Healthcare professionals and researchers need to understand the meaning of reflection and make appropriate use of reflective frameworks. Demystifying the process of reflectively writing papers will help professionals develop skills and competencies. IMPLICATION FOR RESEARCH/PRACTICE: This article provides a practical guide to reflection and how nursing and allied healthcare students, academics and practitioners can practise it. The paper identifies four generic stages in frameworks: description, assessment, evaluation and action, which are illustrated by annotated 'skeletal' examples. It is hoped that this will assist the process of reflective practice, writing and learning.

  12. Writing Self-Efficacy and Written Communication Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mascle, Deanna DeBrine

    2013-01-01

    Writing is an essential professional skill. The goal of writing instruction in business communication classes is to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to successfully meet future writing challenges. However, many writers struggle to transfer skills and knowledge from one context to another. The primary reason for this struggle is that…

  13. Get Started and Write: Advice for New Faculty

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, M. Cecil

    2017-01-01

    This paper describes several strategies for organizing, collaborating on, persisting in, and funding professional writing activities that can benefit new tenure track faculty members. Establishing and maintaining a regular program of academic writing is essential to a successful career in higher education, but initiating and maintaining a program…

  14. Academic Achievement Differences between Title I Students Enrolled in Music Classes and Title I Students Who Are Not

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McDaniel, Brian

    2011-01-01

    Purpose. The purpose of the study was to determine academic achievement differences between those Title I students enrolled in music classes and Title I students who are not enrolled in music classes. A second purpose was to determine educators' perceptions regarding the educational justice implications of excluding nonproficient Title I students…

  15. CORBEH CLASS [Contingencies for Learning Academic and Social Skills] Program for Acting-Out Children. Manual for Teachers. First Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hops, Hyman; And Others

    A program which describes contingencies for learning academic and social skills (CLASS) is explained to involve an educational consultant training teachers of acting-out first and second graders to reinforce desired academic and social behaviors. Examined are the pre-intervention procedures of initial identification of acting-out students,…

  16. "Righting" the Writing Problem.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shaughnessy, Michael F.; Eastham, Nicholas

    The problem of college students' writing skills or lack thereof is generally agreed upon in academia. One cause is the inordinate amount of multiple choice/true false/fill in the blank type of tests that students take in high school and college. Not only is there is a dearth of actual classes in writing available, few students recognize the need…

  17. Reading and Writing Connections in the Language Arts.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ediger, Marlow

    Reading and writing are interrelated. What has been read provides material for writing. This paper focuses on reading endeavors that provide subject matter for writing. The paper first recommends reading poetry to the class and states that the teacher should have ready for use an anthology of children's literature. Children can write poems for…

  18. Basic English Writing: An Experimental Course Structure against Semantic Misinterpretation in Undergraduate Student Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    In, Fan-yu; Liao, Hui-Chuan

    2008-01-01

    Course designs for Basic English Writing classes vary from one course to another. The objective of this study was to investigate the semantic misinterpretation of English words found in the English compositions written by native-Chinese-speaking undergraduate students and to overcome if such a barrier occurred in the process of writing. First,…

  19. Eustace Tilley Comes to Class

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Arin, Jennifer

    2009-01-01

    Of all the reasons to use "The New Yorker" in a college writing class, the most compelling may be that its articles go beyond--well beyond--the five-paragraph model. Why, oh why, did that paradigm become such a fixture in composition courses? Students in the author's writing classes invariably suppose they can compose a quick introduction, add…

  20. Writing in Disguise: Academic Life in Subordination.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Caesar, Terry

    This book presents a series of personal essays in which the author analyzes and dramatizes the significance of subordination in academic life. Academic life is examined in terms of issues (such as sexual harassment) and structures (such as the figure of the dissertation director) but especially in terms of texts. The book looks at the stream of…

  1. The influence of habitus in the relationship between cultural capital and academic achievement.

    PubMed

    Gaddis, S Michael

    2013-01-01

    Scholars routinely use cultural capital theory in an effort to explain class differences in academic success but often overlook the key concept of habitus. Rich, longstanding debates within the literature suggest the need for a closer examination of the individual effects of cultural capital and habitus. Drawing upon the writings of Pierre Bourdieu, I use a longitudinal dataset to examine the effects of multiple operationalizations of cultural capital on academic achievement and the mediating effects of habitus. Using first difference models to control for time-invariant unobserved characteristics, I find that typical operationalizations of cultural capital (i.e. high-arts participation and reading habits) have positive effects on GPA that are completely mediated through habitus. These results stress the importance of habitus in the relationship between cultural capital and academic achievement for disadvantaged youth. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Hidden Voices: L2 Students' Compensatory Writing Strategies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stockall, Nancy; Villar Cole, Corinna

    2016-01-01

    This qualitative research study examines how 12 undergraduate second-language learners understood the concept of citations in academic writing. The following questions guided this study: What are the participants' beliefs about citing research? How do students conceive the role and function of citations in their writing assignments? How do they…

  3. Found Poetry: Creating Space for Imaginative Arts-Based Literacy Research Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Patrick, Lisa D.

    2016-01-01

    This theoretical position article inquires into poetic methodologies in literacy research and argues for the inclusion of poetry in social science research writing. The unconventional use of poetry in research writing challenges the traditionally accepted role prose plays in academic writing. Research poetry is written from and about research…

  4. Practices of Effective Writing Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gadd, Murray; Parr, Judy M.

    2017-01-01

    This study analyses the practices of nine New Zealand teachers of upper primary and middle-school students (N = 210) whose classes had consistently shown gains in writing far greater than normative expectations. Data from observations of three writing lessons and related interviews with each teacher, plus interviews with three focus students after…

  5. The role of sex, self-perception, and school bonding in predicting academic achievement among middle class African American early adolescents.

    PubMed

    Eisele, Heather; Zand, Debra H; Thomson, Nicole Renick

    2009-01-01

    To date, little research has addressed within-group variables as predictors of academic achievement among middle-class African American youth. The present study helped fill this gap by investigating the role of sex, self-perceptions, and school bonding as predictors of academic success among 174 middle class early adolescent boys (n = 91) and girls residing in a large Midwestern city. Results of a path analysis indicated that gender identity fully mediated the relationship between biological sex and adolescents' perceptions of peer acceptance. Perceptions of peer acceptance were positively related to perceptions of behavior, which, in turn, were related to school bonding. School bonding was then related to academic achievement. The findings are discussed within the context of helping educators to better meet students' educational needs.

  6. A Program for Improving Undergraduate Psychology Students' Basic Writing Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fallahi, Carolyn R.; Wood, Rebecca M.; Austad, Carol Shaw; Fallahi, Hamid

    2006-01-01

    We examined the effects of in-class writing instruction, practice, peer review, and feedback on writing skills of undergraduates enrolled in a general psychology course. We rated writing for grammar, writing style, mechanics, and American Psychological Association referencing style. Significant differences emerged on the 4 writing skill domains (p…

  7. What a Difference a Writing Centre Makes: A Small Scale Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yeats, Rowena; Reddy, Peter; Wheeler, Anne; Senior, Carl; Murray, John

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: Academic writing is often considered to be a weakness in contemporary students, while good reporting and writing skills are highly valued by graduate employers. A number of universities have introduced writing centres aimed at addressing this problem; however, the evaluation of such centres is usually qualitative. The paper seeks to…

  8. Writing in the University: Education, Knowledge and Reputation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hyland, Ken

    2013-01-01

    This paper challenges the widespread view that writing is somehow peripheral to the more serious aspects of university life--doing research and teaching students. It argues that universities are about writing and that specialist forms of academic literacy are at the heart of everything we do: central to constructing knowledge, educating students…

  9. Citation Practices of Postgraduate Students Writing Literature Reviews

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Badenhorst, Cecile

    2018-01-01

    Writing a literature review requires highly sophisticated academic literacies. Many postgraduate students find this genre a challenge. While there is a growing awareness of the need for explicit pedagogy to support students writing this genre, many pedagogical interventions fail to move beyond a focus on citations as a stylistic convention or as a…

  10. Reading and Thinking through Writing in General Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bennet, James R.; Hodges, Karen

    1986-01-01

    Describes a writing based course in freshman world literature and summarizes tests, writing assignments, and class activities used in teaching "The Odyssey,""Metamorphoses,""Hamlet," and other works. (JG)

  11. Middle School Students' Writing and Feedback in a Cloud-Based Classroom Environment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zheng, Binbin; Lawrence, Joshua; Warschauer, Mark; Lin, Chin-Hsi

    2015-01-01

    Individual writing and collaborative writing skills are important for academic success, yet are poorly taught in K-12 classrooms. This study examines how sixth-grade students (n = 257) taught by two teachers used Google Docs to write and exchange feedback. We used longitudinal growth models to analyze a large number of student writing samples…

  12. Write from the Start: Writing to Learn Science.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rillero, Peter; And Others

    1996-01-01

    Describes the Write Now approach that allows teachers to transform the first few minutes of class into a powerful learning experience by helping students reflect on the previous day's lessons and encouraging them to construct their own knowledge of the concepts being studied. Discusses Quasar questions, reviewing responses, constructing…

  13. Descriptive Writing: A Thematic Unit.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Joanna J.

    This thematic unit for teaching descriptive writing is organized around 10 days of lesson plans. The unit begins by asking key questions about descriptive writing and providing information on grade level, ability level, number of lessons and length of classes, and prior knowledge students should have. It also offers a unit rationale and key…

  14. Using the Word Processor in Writing Groups.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Melia, Josie

    Writing groups can use word processors or microcomputers in many different types of writing activities. Four hour-long sessions at a word processor with the help of a skilled word processing tutor have been found to be sufficient to provide a working knowledge of word processing. When two or three students enrolled in a writing class are assigned…

  15. Academic and Social Functioning Associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Latent Class Analyses of Trajectories from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade.

    PubMed

    DuPaul, George J; Morgan, Paul L; Farkas, George; Hillemeier, Marianne M; Maczuga, Steve

    2016-10-01

    Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are known to exhibit significantly lower academic and social functioning than other children. Yet the field currently lacks knowledge about specific impairment trajectories experienced by children with ADHD, which may constrain early screening and intervention effectiveness. Data were analyzed from a nationally representative U.S. cohort in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K) for 590 children (72.7 % male) whose parents reported a formal diagnosis of ADHD. Children's math, reading, and interpersonal skills were assessed at 5 time points between kindergarten and fifth grade. Growth mixture model analyses indicated 4 latent trajectory classes for reading, 8 classes for math, and 4 classes for interpersonal skills. Membership in reading and math trajectory classes was strongly related; overlaps with interpersonal skills classes were weaker. Trajectory class membership was correlated with demographic characteristics and behavioral functioning. Children with ADHD display substantial heterogeneity in their reading, math, and interpersonal growth trajectories, with some groups of children especially likely to display relatively severe levels of academic and social impairment over time. Early screening and intervention to address impairment, particularly reading difficulties, among kindergarten students with ADHD is warranted.

  16. Writing in the Discipline of Anthropology--Theoretical, Thematic and Geographical Spaces

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reynolds, Judith

    2010-01-01

    Writing in different academic disciplines is not only different in superficial ways but in deeper ways that are connected to the history and characteristics of each discipline. Although many writing theorists now understand writing in this way, little has been written about these connections in specific disciplines, and even less about student…

  17. That Way Be Monsters: Myths and Bugaboos about Teaching Personal Writing.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bloom, Lynn Z.

    Many traditionally held academic views of personal writing have myths embedded in them. These myths include: (1) anything written in the first person singular is autobiographical; (2) personal writing can only exist in an expressionist classroom and is often uncritical and unproblematic; (3) student personal writing is a dying genre, and college…

  18. In Pursuit of the Muse: Librarians Who Write.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chepesiuk, Ron

    1991-01-01

    This article profiles six librarians in academic and public libraries who discuss how they balance their dual careers as authors and librarians. The influence of librarianship on their writing is described, the influence of writing on their careers in librarianship is considered, and the problems of finding time for both careers is discussed. (LRW)

  19. The Author's I: Adolescents Mediating Selfhood through Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McLean, Cheryl A.

    2012-01-01

    This article looks across two ethnographic case studies on immigrant youth literacy practices in order to understand how two 10th-grade, Caribbean immigrant, high-school students use discourses of academic writing to mediate selfhood. Drawing on the concept of writing as ecology and Black Diaspora theory, the study asked the question: How do…

  20. Social Perspective Taking: A Benefit of Bilingualism in Academic Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hsin, Lisa; Snow, Catherine

    2017-01-01

    The task of writing arguments requires a linguistic and cognitive sophistication that eludes many adults, but students in the US are expected to produce texts that articulate and support a claim--simple written arguments--starting in the fourth grade. Students from language-minority homes likewise must learn to produce such writing, despite their…

  1. Embedding Academic Writing Instruction into Subject Teaching: A Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wingate, Ursula; Andon, Nick; Cogo, Alessia

    2011-01-01

    The benefits of embedding the teaching of writing into the curriculum have been advocated by educators and researchers. However, there is currently little evidence of embedded writing instruction in the UK's higher education context. In this article, we present a case study in which we report the design, implementation and evaluation of an…

  2. [Use of cyber library and digital tools are crucial for academic surgeons].

    PubMed

    Tomizawa, Yasuko

    2010-10-01

    In addition to busy clinical work, an academic surgeon has to spend a lot of time and efforts in writing and submitting articles to scientific journals, teaching young surgical trainees to write an article, organizing and updating his/her academic performances in the curriculum vitae, and writing research grant applications. The use of cyber library and commercially available computer software is useful in saving time and effort.

  3. Queering the Writing Center

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Denny, Harry

    2010-01-01

    Composition classrooms and writing centers are spaces where negotiation of academic, social, cultural, and political identities are ubiquitous, yet research has not produced adequate theory and practice to help tutors and writers navigate identity production and its politics. This article seeks to begin conversations that might lead to better…

  4. Taking a Closer Look at Your Informational Writing Instruction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Beschorner, Beth; Hall, Anna H.

    2018-01-01

    When students write informational text, they have the opportunity to engage with meaningful topics, become curious about the world, learn domain-specific knowledge, and use academic vocabulary. Given the possibilities for learning through writing informational text, it is important for teachers to reflect on and improve their informational writing…

  5. Citation Behaviors Observed in Japanese EFL Students' Argumentative Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kamimura, Taeko

    2014-01-01

    Effective use of outside source texts is one of the key components of successful academic writing. This study aims at clarifying Japanese university EFL students' citation behaviors in producing argumentative writing. Twenty-six Japanese university EFL students wrote an argumentative essay. Their essays were analyzed quantitatively by six…

  6. Class Notes for "Class-Y-News."

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stuart, Judy L.

    1991-01-01

    A self-contained class of students with mild to moderate disabilities published a monthly newsletter which was distributed to students' families. Students became involved in writing, typing, drawing, folding, basic editing, and disseminating. (JDD)

  7. Incorporating Process-Based Writing Pedagogy into First-Year Learning Communities: Strategies and Outcomes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barnhisel, Greg; Stoddard, Evan; Gorman, Jennifer

    2012-01-01

    This article reports a study that examines the efforts of one school--Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania--to improve student writing in first-year learning communities by promoting so-called process-based writing pedagogy outside of writing classes. Administrators encouraged instructors of subject-matter classes to integrate the…

  8. Keys to Improving Writing in the Primary Grades.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bassett, Diane; DeVine, Denise; Perry, Nancy; Rueth, Catherine

    This action research describes a program for improving writing skills. The targeted population consisted of first and third graders in two middle class communities in the southern suburbs of Chicago. The need for improvement in writing skills was documented through observation checklists, writing samples, and surveys. Data revealed a need for…

  9. Writing in a Foreign Language as a Science of Writing or "Grammatology"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Escandón, Arturo

    2014-01-01

    The present paper explores the issue of writing in a foreign language as a pedagogic process that may produce a radical subjective transformation. Drawing on Bernstein's notions of the "pedagogic device" and "discursive gap," the paper explores the epistemic make-up of language and the way it has been normalised by academic and…

  10. Attitudes of the Preparatory Class Students towards the Writing Course and Their Attitude-Success Relationship in Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Paker, Turan; Erarslan, Ali

    2015-01-01

    This study aims to explore the attitudes of Turkish EFL students towards the writing course at university and to investigate the relationship between students' attitudes and their overall proficiency in writing. The participants were 782 students from various departments in the pre-intermediate, intermediate and upper-intermediate levels in a…

  11. Writing Together: Gender's Effect on Collaboration.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rehling, Louise

    1996-01-01

    Analyzes the behaviors of over 60 student groups in professional writing classes. Finds gender-related effects on collaboration: tendencies to stereotype men as technical experts and to self-segregate into gendered working teams. Suggests new perspectives on the role of gender for collaborative groups in professional writing classrooms. (PA)

  12. Exploring Engineering instructors' views about writing and online tools to support communication in Engineering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Howard, Sarah K.; Khosronejad, Maryam; Calvo, Rafael A.

    2017-11-01

    To be fully prepared for the professional workplace, Engineering students need to be able to effectively communicate. However, there has been a growing concern in the field about students' preparedness for this aspect of their future work. It is argued that online writing tools, to engage numbers of students in the writing process, can support feedback on and development of writing in engineering on a larger scale. Through interviews and questionnaires, this study explores engineering academics' perceptions of writing to better understand how online writing tools may be integrated into their teaching. Results suggest that writing is viewed positively in the discipline, but it is not believed to be essential to success in engineering. Online writing tools were believed to support a larger number of students, but low knowledge of the tools limited academics' understanding of their usefulness in teaching and learning. Implications for innovation in undergraduate teaching are discussed.

  13. Writing for Physics Mastery.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Weber, Stephen W.

    A study examined the effectiveness of incorporating writing as a tool to master the concepts of physics. Subjects were students in the three traditional physics classes and one non-math or conceptual physics class at East High School in Rockford, Illinois. The instructor tried a variety of methods--students wrote criticisms of Carl Sagan videos,…

  14. Some technical writing skills industry needs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Smith, F. R.

    1981-01-01

    It is suggested that engineers and other technical students be taught three classes of skills in technical writing. First, "Big Picture Things", which includes: the importance of clear writing, the wide scope of writing, the wide scope of writing tasks that will be faced in industry, and the principles of organization of technical materials such as; how to analyze, classify, partition, and interpret. Second, "Writing Procedures", which encompasses: how to get words on paper efficiently and team-write. Third, "Writing Details", in which two considerations are important: how to achieve precision in the use of language and the aspects of style. Three problems in style are cited: the problem of sentence transition, overuse of attributive adjectives, and verbosity in paragraph structure. The most important thing in technical writing is considered to be functionality, economy and clarity.

  15. Writing for Television: Academic Potential Realized: From Course to Program to Major.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sedlak, Valerie F.

    The new Writing for Television Program at Morgan State University (suggested by Warner Brothers at a summer seminar) has added new courses each semester: (1) basic 200-level courses in the "Fundamentals of Writing for Television" and "Introductory Script Writing"; (2) more specialized 300-level courses in "Episodic…

  16. Academic Biliteracies: Multilingual Repertoires in Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Palfreyman, David M., Ed.; van der Walt, Christa, Ed.

    2017-01-01

    Research on academic literacy within higher education has focused almost exclusively on the development of academic literacy in English. This book is unique in showing how students use other languages when they engage with written academic content--whether in reading, discussing, or writing--and how increasingly multilingual higher education…

  17. A Classification of Genre Families in University Student Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gardner, Sheena; Nesi, Hilary

    2013-01-01

    As demand for English-medium higher education continues to grow internationally and participation in higher education increases, the need for a better understanding of academic writing is pressing. Prior university wide taxonomies of student writing have relied on intuition, the opinions of faculty, or data from course documentation and task…

  18. "Argument!" Helping Students Understand What Essay Writing Is About

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wingate, Ursula

    2012-01-01

    Argumentation is a key requirement of the essay, which is the most common genre that students have to write. However, how argumentation is realised in disciplinary writing is often poorly understood by academic tutors, and therefore not adequately taught to students. This paper presents research into undergraduate students' concepts of argument…

  19. Writing Groups in Teacher Education: A Method to Increase Scholarly Productivity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Page, C. Steven; Edwards, Susan; Wilson, Judi H.

    2012-01-01

    Writing groups have been used in a variety of academic disciplines to support and encourage faculty in their scholarly endeavors. This article gives an overview of the impact a writing group within a Teacher Education department at a teaching institution had on scholarly output over a two year period. The structure of the writing group is shared…

  20. Increasing Writing Self-Efficacy of Adult Learners: Different Approaches, Different Results

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Plakhotnik, Maria S.; Rocco, Tonette S.

    2016-01-01

    To help graduate students with academic writing, a college of education at a large university implemented a new service, Writing Support Circles. Based on the results of the first series of this service, we changed its design. The purpose of this article is to share how changes in the design affected these adult learners' writing self-efficacy and…