Sample records for student academic writing
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EXPLORING THE TERTIARY EFL STUDENTS' ACADEMIC WRITING COMPETENCIES
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Aunurrahman Aunurrahman
2017-05-01
Full Text Available For tertiary English as a Foreign Language (EFL students, academic writing is not an easy task. It requires knowledge of the academic writing genres with their particular linguistic features. Moreover, academic writing demands good critical thinking. This research aims to explore the students' academic writing competencies that also focus on critical thinking. The research involved thirty-six first-year tertiary EFL students from a regular class of a private university in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The source for data collection was the students’ texts. Three texts were selected and the students were categorized into low, medium, and high levels of writing achievement. The text analysis utilized functional grammar rooted in systemic functional linguistics (Emilia, 2014. The analysis shows that the students, regardless of their levels of writing achievement, have little control over the schematic structure and linguistic features of an argumentative writing. The text analysis also shows that the students’ texts have some limitations as regards their critical thinking capacity. Still, a few examples of academic language were detected in the texts. The findings suggest that the lecturer should incorporate explicit teaching and cooperative learning activities to alleviate the students' difficulties and develop their academic writing and critical thinking capacity.
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GUIDED USE OF WRITING PROMPTS TO IMPROVE ACADEMIC WRITING IN COLLEGE STUDENTS
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Lina Marcela Trigos Carrillo
2011-12-01
Full Text Available The paper presents empirical data supporting the hypothesis that the systematic and guided use of academic writing prompts is a successful instructional strategy to improve the academic writing in Spanish of college students, mainly during their first semesters. A combined methodology, with pre- and post-tests, was used in this research project conducted from July 2009 to June 2010. The participants were freshmen students of different disciplines of the Human Sciences in a private university in Bogota, Colombia. The aim of this research project was twofold. First, it sought to identify the difficulties students faced in the writing process of academic texts when they are related to real communicative contexts. Second, it involved the design and application of the guided and systematic use of writing prompts for academic writing in a sequence called "The Cognitive Pedagogical Model of Writing for Higher Education". The results show empirical evidence supporting the use of writing prompts designed with specific academic purposes to improve the academic writing level of college students in their first stages of study. However, further research is needed to consolidate the results presented here.
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Writing apprehension and academic procrastination among graduate students.
Onwuegbuzie, A J; Collins, K M
2001-04-01
Academic procrastination has been associated with both fear of failure and task aversiveness. Researchers have reported that most undergraduate and graduate students delay academic tasks. Among the latter, a large proportion report procrastination in writing term papers. Such procrastination may originate from and lead to anxiety about writing so the present purpose was to investigate the relationship between scores on Daly and Miller's 1975 Writing Apprehension Test and on the two dimensions, i.e., fear of failure and task aversiveness, of Solomon and Rothblum's 1984 Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students. Participants were 135 graduate students of varied disciplinary backgrounds. Correlations between writing apprehension and academic procrastination stemmed from fear of failure (29) and task aversiveness (.41). Implications are discussed.
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Designing a Website to Support Students' Academic Writing Process
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…
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International student adaptation to academic writing in higher education
Tran, Ly Thi
2013-01-01
Academic writing is a key practice in higher education and central to international students' academic success in the country of education. International Student Adaptation to Academic Writing in Higher Education addresses the prominent forms of adaptation emerging from international students' journey to mediate between disciplinary practices, cultural norms and personal desires in meaning making. It introduces new concepts that present different patterns of international student adaptation including surface adaptation, committed adaptation, reverse adaptation and hybrid adaptation. Drawing on
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EFL Academic writing. What should Dutch business communication students learn?
Meurs, Frank van; Hendriks, B.C.; Planken, B.C.; Barasa, S.N.; Groot, E.B. de; Nederstigt, U.; Arnhem, M. van; Smakman, D.
2016-01-01
Many Dutch university students are expected to read and write academic research papers in English. In this article, we discuss a number of areas of EFL academic writing that are relevant for first-year Dutch business communication students. These students need to become familiar with quantitative
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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.
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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…
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Writing by Academics: A Transactional and Systems Approach to Academic Writing Behaviours
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…
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Angst about Academic Writing: Graduate Students at the Brink
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…
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Designing Academic Writing Analytics for Civil Law Student Self-Assessment
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…
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How to Write (Even) Better Academic Student Reports and Papers
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Prætorius, Thim
2017-01-01
and Content of an Academic Report/Paper covers the seven required parts that make up an academic piece of work. That is, introduction (e.g., setting the hook), theory and/or literature review (e.g., which literature to you draw on and contribute to), methods (how did you study the research question), findings......Writing good academic papers or reports that demonstrate academic rigour is not necessarily easy for university students (or academics for that matter). Common problems include lacking academic rigour when studying the research problem and difficulties in identifying literature and using theo-ry...... students write methods before theory but doing so means you need to operationalize theory before you have introduced it. The second theme, Gen-eral Tips and Tricks, provide rules of thumb (e.g., that you should kill your darlings), writing style and argumentation hints (e.g., use direct voice) and layout...
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Using gamification to develop academic writing skills in dental undergraduate students.
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.
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Student Beliefs and Attitudes about Authorial Identity in Academic Writing
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…
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Syahriah Madjid
2017-10-01
Full Text Available The purpose of this research is for helping students to improve their academic writing skills by changing the existing strategies which were considered ineffective at solving this kind of problem. This research was about how to improve student’s academic writing skills through contextual teaching and learning. The clientele of this research was the students of Civil Engineering Department of Bosowa University of Makassar. To gain the final result in this research there are three periods were needed. The result for the first period is only 26.67% or only 8 from 30 students could pass the standard qualifying. The students which passed the standard qualifying becomes 80% from 30 students in next period and in the final period the result was already succeeded, all of the students could pass the standard qualifying. Those experiments prove that this research showed that contextual teaching and learning effects can be used in helping students improve their academic writing skills. This research recommends the lecturer to conduct intensive training in the process of planning to write, the evaluation of sources of references, and the development of writing based on academic writing strategy.
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Plagiarism, Intertextuality and Emergent Authorship in University Students' Academic Writing
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Celia Helen Thompson
2009-08-01
Full Text Available Issues of plagiarism, intertextuality and authorial presence in academic writing are fundamental to the teaching and learning activities of all university lecturers and their students. Knowing how to assist students, particularly those who speak English as an additional language (EAL, to develop a sense of text/knowledge ownership and authorial presence in the creation of discipline-based scholarly texts can be especially challenging. Clarifying what is encompassed by the notion of ‘common knowledge’ is also central to this process. The aim of this paper is to explore the political and intertextual nature of text/knowledge construction and emergent student authorship through the analysis of interviews and written assignments from two EAL students, together with interview data from lecturers from relevant disciplinary fields. Drawing on the work of Bakhtin, Kristeva and Penrose and Geisler, I conclude by suggesting that it is by engaging with, rather than fearing, intertextual connections, that we can create a dialogic pedagogy for academic writing that will enable students to articulate an authoritative authorial identity of their own. The importance of lecturer intervention during the drafting stages of text production is also emphasised. Keywords: plagiarism; intertextuality; emergent authorship; academic writing
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Moves Analysis on Abstracts Written by the Students in Academic Writing Class
Ajeng Setyorini
2017-01-01
This paper contains analysis results on abstracts written by students in Academic Writing course. The analysis includes analyses on moves and linguistic features. The analysis aims at finding out how the abstract writing structures of the English Education students are in the Academic Writing course. The abstract analysis also includes the analysis on the use of the linguistic features in the abstracts. The analysis uses a qualitative research approach. There are totally 10 abstracts that are...
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NEGOTIATING INTO ACADEMIC DISCOURSES: TAIWANESE AND U.S. COLLEGE STUDENTS IN RESEARCH WRITING
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Yichun Liu
2008-12-01
Full Text Available Cross-national, or cross-cultural, studies of academic writing have moved beyond contrastive rhetoric’s textual focus to broad concerns of students’ first-and second-language literacy development. However, we remain in the dark as to how, in a micro view, students initiate into academic discourses in cross-national contexts. Situating our study in first-year writing courses in a Taiwanese and a U.S. university, we examined students’ negotiation acts when they struggled to enter into social science discourses. Our study reveals that students in both institutions negotiated with academic writing at metacognitive, textual, and contextual levels. They brought rhetorical values, such as writing as a display of knowledge or writing grounded in evidential research, into their writing that they acquired in high school. Further, teachers’ expectations, their new perceptions of research and writing, and their dreams and experiences all came into play in their writing.
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Collaborative Writing to Enhance Academic Writing Development through Project Work
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…
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Embedded academic writing support for nursing students with English as a second language.
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.
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Nancy Chiuh @ Noemi
2015-12-01
Full Text Available When students begin their undergraduate studies, they will need to adjust to the demands of the undergraduate studies with regard to academic English at university level. Dudley-Evans & St. John (1998, p.37 maintain that “their English tuition up to the tertiary level will generally have been in the area of General English, and is unlikely to have included specific preparation for study at university level…” Barker (2000, p.8, in his study on first year students’ perception of writing difficulties, found that the students “come to realise during first semester that they are not adequately prepared for the writing demands required at university”. Pecorari (as cited in Phakiti & Li, 2011 found that Asian ESL students had problems in academic writing; “the students begin their aca-demic writing from ‘copying’ which implies a lack of training in academic writing and arouses accusations of plagiarism in their writing” (p.232. Being an English-medium public university in Malaysia, MARA University of Technology (UiTM poses challenges to both its students and instructors, as a good command of English is essential. In its attempt to equip its undergraduate students with language skills, UiTM has introduced credit-bearing English courses. This paper presents the findings from a research project to identify the academic writing needs of first-year Diploma in Public Administration students in UiTM Sabah. A total of 110 Diploma in Public Administration students and six instructors responded to the questionnaires. The research examined the students’ and instructors’ perceptions of the importance of academic writing skills the students need in order to complete their undergraduate programmes, assessment of the students’ academic writing skills, and the difficulty of academic writing skills. The findings indicated that there was consistency of response between the students and instructors. The follow-up interviews and focus groups with
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Students' Perceptions of Academic Writing as a Mode of Communication
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…
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Applying Cultural Project Based Learning to Develop Students' Academic Writing
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…
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Moves Analysis on Abstracts Written by the Students in Academic Writing Class
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Ajeng Setyorini
2017-09-01
Full Text Available This paper contains analysis results on abstracts written by students in Academic Writing course. The analysis includes analyses on moves and linguistic features. The analysis aims at finding out how the abstract writing structures of the English Education students are in the Academic Writing course. The abstract analysis also includes the analysis on the use of the linguistic features in the abstracts. The analysis uses a qualitative research approach. There are totally 10 abstracts that are analyzed. These are then called as the data. Data obtained is analyzed using genre analysis approach. Results of analysis on the 10 abstracts showed that some of the abstracts are written using 5 kinds of moves. All of the abstracts are found using Purpose Move and Method Move. Meanwhile, Situation Move is found in 5 abstracts. 8 abstracts are identified using Result Move. Conclusion Move is found in 5 abstracts. The results also show that all of the abstract writers use pronouns ‘the writer’ and ‘the researcher’. The use of personal pronoun ‘she’ is also found in 1 abstract. Hedges used in abstracts written by students in Academic Writing course vary from modal auxiliary verbs, adjectival, adverbial, nominal to Approximates of degree.
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Academic Writing for Graduate-Level English as a Second Language Students: Experiences in Education
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…
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International Graduate Students' Academic Writing Practices in Malaysia: Challenges and Solutions
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,…
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Graduate Students' Needs and Preferences for Written Feedback on Academic Writing
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…
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Error Analysis in Academic Writing: A Case of International Postgraduate Students in Malaysia
Fatemeh Amiri; Marlia Puteh
2017-01-01
This paper examines the different types of writing errors performed by 16 international postgraduate students undertaking an intensive English course at a public university in Malaysia. It was mandatory for international postgraduate students who obtained less than IELTS Band 6 to undertake an Intensive English Course (IEC) offered by the University, prior to entering their respective faculties’ academic programs. The students were required to write a 3-5 page term paper assignment on a topic...
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Error Analysis in Academic Writing: A Case of International Postgraduate Students in Malaysia
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Fatemeh Amiri
2017-08-01
Full Text Available This paper examines the different types of writing errors performed by 16 international postgraduate students undertaking an intensive English course at a public university in Malaysia. It was mandatory for international postgraduate students who obtained less than IELTS Band 6 to undertake an Intensive English Course (IEC offered by the University, prior to entering their respective faculties’ academic programs. The students were required to write a 3-5 page term paper assignment on a topic related to their field of study. Mixed methodology approach was employed to examine and analyze corpus of students’ term papers. The errors in the term papers were identified and classified accordingly. The results of the study revealed that four most common English language errors committed by the participants were sentence structure, articles, punctuation and capitalization. This study also shed light on the manner in which students assumed the rules of English to that of their native language. Such insight is useful for both instructors and students because it provides significant information on the building blocks experienced by English language learners in academic writing.
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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.
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M. Ali Ghufron
2017-04-01
Full Text Available Most of students in English Education Department of IKIP PGRI Bojonegoro frequently consider that academic writing, in term of writing scientific paper, is not easy task to do. The result of their academic writing performance at preliminary research indicated that they achieved low scores in writing a scientific article. Consequently, they are not motivated in academic writing. For this case, I used Research Paper Writing Instructional Materials as sources in teaching and learning. This research investigatedwhether the use of Research Paper Writing Instructional Materials can improve students‘ academic writing andhow class situation is when Research Paper Writing Instructional Materials are used as a source of teaching and learning process. This is a Classroom Action Research (CAR which is conducted at the fourth semester students of English Education Department of IKIP PGRI Bojonegoro in the academic year of 2014/2015. This research was done in two cycles. Each cycle consisted of four steps: Planning, Acting, Observing, and Reflecting. The qualitative data were collected through observation and interview. The quantitative data were collected through test. The research findings revealed that the use of Research Paper Writing Instructional Materialscan improve students‘ academic writing and improve students‘ motivation in academic writing class.Derived from the findings, it can be concluded that the use of Research Paper Writing Instructional Materialscan improve students‘ academic writing and class situation. Therefore, it is recommended for the lecturers to use Research Paper Writing Instructional Materialsas it can improve students‘ academic writing as well as class situation.
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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.
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Stories Are Like Water: An Academic Writing Workshop for Nurses.
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.
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EFL Students' Attitudes towards Self-Regulated Learning Strategies in Academic Writing
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…
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Voices of Chinese Post-80s Students in English Academic Writing
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…
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Supporting the development of postgraduate academic writing skills in South African universities
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Schulze, Salome
2017-06-01
Full Text Available The ability to write according to the conventions and forms of disciplinary academic writing is essential to success at university. Meeting the demands of quality academic writing is a challenge to the increasing number of English Second Language (ESL students worldwide, from undergraduate to postgraduate level, who choose to study and publish in English. In particular, postgraduate students in South African universities struggle with the rigours of dissertation writing. Drawing on Lave and Wenger’s (1991 theory of collaborative learning in a community of practice (CoP, an exploratory, qualitative inquiry was undertaken to examine the support given by six selected South African higher education institutions (HEIs to promote the development of academic writing skills among master’s and doctoral students. Data were gathered from a purposeful sample of 10 expert informants through interviews, email communication, and scrutiny of institutional websites. Findings deal with academic writing skills as the core competence necessary for full participation in the academic CoP; the nature of postgraduate student engagement with core members of the CoP, such as supervisors and language experts; and the availability and efficacy of a range of intra-organisational resources, including informal and formal peer interaction with those who have more expertise in writing, books, manuals, visual representations, and technological tools, to develop academic writing among postgraduate students. Based on the findings, recommendations are made for ways in which institutions can strengthen, enrich, and extend the CoP to support academic writing skills of ESL postgraduate students.
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Potential of Mobile Learning in Teaching of ESL Academic Writing
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…
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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…
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Mentoring disadvantaged nursing students through technical writing workshops.
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.
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Academic Writing : Examples from BUV
Engdahl, Ingrid
2016-01-01
This guide is an introduction to academic writing that describes features of scientific writing that are recommended for students in Teacher Education Programmes and in Child and Youth Studies. It includes a style guide, how to structure your text, and an APA Publication Manual for referencing, as well as guides for writing an outline for a study, advice for serving as opponent(s) and respondent(s) and an agenda for a thesis/examining seminar.
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DESIGNING ACADEMIC WRITING COURSE IN RUSSIA: FOCUS ON CONTENT
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Elina S. Chujkova
2015-01-01
Full Text Available The aim of the study is to find the ways to adapt the content of Academic Writing course to Russian educational needs.Methods. The methods involve both – theoretical and empirical. Theoretical methods: the analysis of the teaching materials by English-speaking and Russianspeaking researchers in the field of EAP (English for Academic Purposes writing, modeling, systematisation. Empirical methods: observation, interview, questioning, students’ needs analysis; longitudinal pedagogical experiment; methods of mathematical statistics.Results. Syllabus design starts with the course objectives that are quite specific with reference to writing academically in English in Russia. The author examines cultural factors that make motivation to use English for academic purposes (EAP wane. One of them is teaching the subject which has application different from that in English-speaking countries. The author concludes that the experimental results of students’ expectations may contribute to the Academic Writing course design. They may alter both content and sequencing the material. Two main areas of academic writing application are writing for science and teaching others to write in English. The article provides a list of possible genres that vary depending on students’ professional needs.Scientific novelty. Further, developing the idea the researcher discusses three basic sources for the choice of the course material, i.e. foreign teaching EFL writing sources, printed works of Russian scholars devoted to teaching academic writing and, finally, needs analysis conducted with the Russian language students. The article provides an overview of these three sources and illustrates the main positions with the examples.Practical significance. Theoretical framework and findings may serve as a basis for organising a course of Academic Writing. For instance, a specially developed set of lectures is strongly recommended as the introduction to practice. Firstly, a
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Perceptions of Challenges in Writing Academically: Iranian Postgraduate Students’ Perspectives
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Sedigheh Shakib Kotamjani
2017-05-01
Full Text Available Academic writing skills are essential tools that postgraduate students reading for their doctoral degree have to master to be able to produce dissertations, research reports and academic assignments of quality in the course of their studies; and publish research-based articles in established journals. This paper discusses the perceptions of a group of Iranian postgraduate students pursuing their doctoral degrees at UPM (Universiti Putra Malaysia on the challenges they face in writing academically. They provided the data for this paper via their responses to a survey. The findings indicate that these postgraduate students perceived some academic writing skills to be more challenging than the others. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of the findings; and recommendations on how the situation can be improved.
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Linking Adverbials in Academic Writing on Applied Linguistics by Chinese Doctoral Students
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…
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Tutor Feedback on Draft Essays: Developing Students' Academic Writing and Subject Knowledge
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…
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Embedding the Teaching of Academic Writing into Anthropology Lectures
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…
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Improving Academic Writing in Nursing Education
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…
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Writing an academic essay: a practical guide for nurses.
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.
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Mentor Texts and the Coding of Academic Writing Structures: A Functional Approach
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Wilder Yesid Escobar Alméciga
2014-10-01
Full Text Available 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 presented through a triangulated needs analysis. Through promoting awareness of international standards of writing as well as fostering an understanding of the inherent structures of academic texts, a methodology intended to increase academic writing proficiency was explored. The study suggests that mentor texts and the coding of academic writing structures can have a positive impact on the production of students’ academic writing.
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Providing Electronic Writing Resources for Academic Purposes: Issues of Control and Flexibility.
Bruce, Nigel
2001-01-01
Reviews "Academic Writing: An Interactive Language Based CD-ROM for Teaching Academic Writing Skills to University Students." Suggests language teachers in the tertiary sector are required to accommodate the specific disciplinary needs of their students, and that it is rare for most commercial textbooks to find their way into an English for…
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Translanguaging in English Academic Writing Preparation
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…
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Student-Teachers across the Curriculum Learn to Write Feedback: Does It Reflect on Their Writing?
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…
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Applying Cultural Project Based Learning to Develop Students’ Academic Writing
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Lulus Irawati
2015-06-01
Full Text Available 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 article aims to elaborate the application of a cultural project based learning to develop students’ ability in academic writing. This descriptive qualitative research was conducted in Academic Writing class consisting of 20 students of the fourth semester. The students were divided into some groups, each consisting of 4-5 people assigned to make a cultural project within 6 weeks, in the form of essay. Each member of the groups has to create his/ her own essay and then compile the essays to be a mini-journal. Therefore, one group has one mini-journal consisting of 4-5 essays. To check the content of mini-journal, the lecturer also asked the groups to present in front of the class to get some suggestions, feedback, or comments.
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The Development of Students' Writing Skills by Teaching Critical Thinking
久保田, 祐歌
2011-01-01
The purpose of this paper is to present some approaches to teaching critical thinking to college students for developing their Japanese academic writing skills. By examining the literature of critical thinking and writing, this paper shows the following. (1)How philosophy faculty can teach critical thinking skills to their own students the way they can improve their skills necessary for writing argumentative essays. (2)By what class and curriculum students' academic writing skills can be fost...
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Using Web 2.0 technologies and collaborative work in teaching academic writing
Jekiel, Mateusz
2014-01-01
Paper presented at YLMP 2014 Teaching academic writing to ESL learners can be a difficult task: students are usually unfamiliar with academic style, have difficulties in producing a structured piece of writing and get easily discouraged by an examoriented approach, having to use old school pen and paper with no access to technology. Indeed, the gap between everyday writing tasks and the exam is significant: access to online dictionaries, linguistic corpora and academic articles, as well a...
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Writing II for 2nd Year EFL Student Teachers
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,…
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How to measure PhD. students' conceptions of academic writing - and are they related to well-being?
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Kirsti Lonka
2014-02-01
Full Text Available This study investigated PhD students’ conceptions of writing and how they saw themselves as writers. The Writing Process Questionnaire was created to analyse PhD students’ ideas of academic writing. In addition, it was of interest, what the relation between conceptions of writing and the PhD students’ well-being was. The participants were 669 PhD students from a major Finnish university who volunteered to fill in a questionnaire. The present study covered scales for measuring six distinct theoretical constructs that were created by forming sum variables of 26 questions: Blocks, Procrastination, Perfectionism, Innate ability, Knowledge transforming, and Productivity. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA was used to verify the six-dimension construct. Exhaustion, stress, anxiety and lack of interest all correlated positively with Blocks, Procrastination, and Perfectionism, and negatively with Productivity. Confirmatory factor analysis conducted by LISREL confirmed the six-factor structure of the writing scale. In conclusion, there is good evidence that the questionnaire is a reliable and valid tool, and it captures some essential aspectsof academic writing process and its emotional dimensions.
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Main Ingredients for Success in L2 Academic Writing: Outlining, Drafting and Proofreading.
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.
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Main Ingredients for Success in L2 Academic Writing: Outlining, Drafting and Proofreading.
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Rosa Munoz-Luna
Full Text Available 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 (unconsciously 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.
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Chinese students' writing in English implications from a corpus-driven study
Leedham, Maria
2014-01-01
Chinese students are the largest international student group in UK universities today, yet little is known about their undergraduate writing and the challenges they face. Drawing on the British Academic Written English corpus - a large corpus of proficient undergraduate student writing collected in the UK in the early 2000s - this study explores Chinese students' written assignments in English in a range of university disciplines, contrasting these with assignments from British students. The study is supplemented by questionnaire and interview datasets with discipline lecturers, writing tutors and students, and provides a comprehensive picture of the Chinese student writer today. Theoretically framed through work within academic literacies and lexical priming, the author seeks to explore what we know about Chinese students' writing and to extend these findings to undergraduate writing more generally. In a globalized educational environment, it is important for educators to understand differences in writing st...
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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…
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Mustafa Onur KAN
2016-12-01
Full Text Available The overall aim of this research is to evaluate opinions of students completing master thesis in the field of Turkish education about academic writing and process of forming thesis. The study has been devised using phenomenological design within the qualitative research methods. The study group of research is consisted of 9 participants completed master thesis in the field of Turkish education at Mustafa Kemal University Instıtute of Social Sciences in 2015. In this study, semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher was used to collect data. In order to ensure the reliability of the scope and structure, table of specification was constituted and expert views were consulted. For analyzing data descriptive analysis method was used. According to results of the research, it was obtained that participants experience various diffuculties in writing the basic sections of the thesis. In addition, it was seen that participants can not benefit enough from the studies written in foreign language. Participants reported that they find themselves more enough about academic writing and process of forming thesis after postgraduate education, but also they stated that academic writing courses should take part in program.
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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…
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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…
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Gap between Self-Efficacy and College Students' Writing Skills
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…
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What Do Education Students Think about Their Ability to Write Essays?
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…
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"Argument!" Helping Students Understand What Essay Writing Is About
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…
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Citation Practices of Postgraduate Students Writing Literature Reviews
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…
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Main Ingredients for Success in L2 Academic Writing: Outlining, Drafting and Proofreading
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
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Van der Steen, Steffie; Samuelson, Dianne; Thomson, Jennifer M.
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
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Academic voice: On feminism, presence, and objectivity in writing.
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.
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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…
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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.…
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Self-efficacy and Its Relation to ESL Writing Proficiency and Academic Disciplines
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Saeid Raoofi
2017-07-01
Full Text Available Writing is an essential skill for academic development within any disciplinary area. Despite the rapidly growing body of research on the various aspects of second language writing, research on writing self-efficacy remains scarce. This study investigated the relationship the between writing self-efficacy and writing proficiency in English as a second language. In this cross-sectional study, 304 Malaysian undergraduate students completed a writing self-efficacy questionnaire. The participants’ writing proficiency was assessed using two different writing tasks. The results showed that there was a significant difference in writing self-efficacy among the three writing proficiency groups. It was also found that science students had significantly higher writing self-efficacy than those in social sciences. Limitations of the study and Implications for second language writing instruction are also discussed.
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On using verbs appropriately in academic English writing
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Khrabrova Valentina Evgenievna
2016-12-01
Full Text Available The article is concerned with English action verbs as key elements of academic English writing. Due to cognitive and semantic characteristics, verbs in the predicate function, by contrast with deverbative suffixal nouns and adjectives as parts of nominal predicates, convey the meaning of written message more concisely. The article is provided with verb classifications aimed at systematizing the information about verbs and developing a conscious approach to choosing verbs in the writing process. Syntactic transformation, limitation of passive voice forms, substitution of action verbs for stative verbs, adjectives and nouns entail perfecting the second language student writing skills.
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Citation Behaviors Observed in Japanese EFL Students' Argumentative Writing
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…
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Reynolds, Barry Lee
2015-01-01
Lack of knowledge in the conventional use of vocabulary and multiword patterns in one's respective field of expertise causes Taiwanese students to produce academic writing that is markedly "non-nativelike." This is because Taiwanese students are first and foremost second language readers and often have difficulty "picking up…
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Writing Abilities Longitudinally Predict Academic Outcomes of Adolescents with ADHD
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
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Main Ingredients for Success in L2 Academic Writing: Outlining, Drafting and Proofreading
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 undergradua...
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O'Brien, Orna; Dowling-Hetherington, Linda
2013-01-01
This paper discusses the design and delivery of support for academic writing skills development. The paper also presents a case study of such support on an undergraduate, part-time degree programme at University College Dublin (UCD). Elton (2010) suggests that the approach to academic writing is discipline dependent and that neither specialists in academic writing nor practising academics in a discipline can separately provide students with the necessary support to develop the ability to writ...
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Teaching academic writing to first year university students: a case ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
Corporate Edition
draws on a set of theories including development of student writing (Coffin et al., 2003), teacher feedback practices .... higher education, this group is generally made of students who may have experience of different ..... writing an essay for instance, you'll make sure that your title is short and really attractive” ..... PhD Thesis.
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Reading, Writing & Rings: Science Literacy for K-4 Students
McConnell, S.; Spilker, L.; Zimmerman-Brachman, R.
2007-12-01
Scientific discovery is the impetus for the K-4 Education program, "Reading, Writing & Rings." This program is unique because its focus is to engage elementary students in reading and writing to strengthen these basic academic skills through scientific content. As science has been increasingly overtaken by the language arts in elementary classrooms, the Cassini Education Program has taken advantage of a new cross-disciplinary approach to use language arts as a vehicle for increasing scientific content in the classroom. By utilizing the planet Saturn and the Cassini-Huygens mission as a model in both primary reading and writing students in these grade levels, young students can explore science material while at the same time learning these basic academic skills. Content includes reading, thinking, and hands-on activities. Developed in partnership with the Cassini-Huygens Education and Public Outreach Program, the Bay Area Writing Project/California Writing Project, Foundations in Reading Through Science & Technology (FIRST), and the Caltech Pre-College Science Initiative (CAPSI), and classroom educators, "Reading, Writing & Rings" blends the excitement of space exploration with reading and writing. All materials are teacher developed, aligned with national science and language education standards, and are available from the Cassini-Huygens website: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/edu-k4.cfm Materials are divided into two grade level units. One unit is designed for students in grades 1 and 2 while the other unit focuses on students in grades 3 and 4. Each includes a series of lessons that take students on a path of exploration of Saturn using reading and writing prompts.
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How to incorporate academic writing pedagogy in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.
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.
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Academic Writing in the Business School: The Genre of the Business Case Report
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…
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Academic Boot Camp for the Writing of Psychology Research Reports
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…
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UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TRANSFER OF ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS ACROSS TIME
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Tharwat EL-Sakran
2017-03-01
Full Text Available This study investigates university students' perceptions towards an English for advanced academic writing purposes (AAW course taught in a private university in the United Arab Emirates. It probes into the relevance of the skills taught to the students' academic disciplines. Data was gathered through a short survey administered to students who successfully completed the course. The transferability of skills was measured in light of some of the learning objectives of the AAW stated in its syllabus. Findings indicated positive students' attitudes towards the AAW course. They also revealed that some learning outcomes did transfer to students' writing tasks in their major courses. However, transfer of these skills was more noticeable in some university disciplines (e.g. English more than others (e.g. Business Administration. Detailed explanations of reasons and contexts for skill transfer are presented. This research concludes with some pedagogical recommendations and suggestions for course improvement and further research.
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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…
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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…
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Reading and writing academic practices in the phonoaudiology program at the University of Cauca
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Pilar Mirely Chois-Lenis
2010-09-01
Full Text Available This article presents some results of an investigation aimed to characterize the academic literacy practices that are developed in the Phonoaudiology program at the University of Cauca. In this descriptive study, a sample of 24 students was taken from those in the last semester of the first academic period of 2009, who answered a survey of 26 multiple choice questions. The results indicate that the academic moment for which the students write and read the most is for the courses, who develop these practices primarily to be assessed and predominantly read and write their own lecture notes and the materials prepared by their faculty, to the detriment of scientific articles or papers for publication. It is expected, from these results, to generate reflexion processes and actions that qualify the practices of academic literacy within the program for the benefit of academic and professional performance of their students and graduates.
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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…
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Mentor Texts and the Coding of Academic Writing Structures: A Functional Approach
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…
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THE STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC WRITING SKILL AFTER IMPLEMENTING BLENDED LEARNING USING FACEBOOK
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Dwi Sulisworo
2016-12-01
Full Text Available Almost all students use smartphone for their daily activities. Nowadays, the student’s literacy on information technology is very good, but sometimes it has not been considered in school learning. One of the essential competencies of undergraduate school is academic writing skill. There is a gap between the student competencies and the learning strategy in certain learning subjects. The aim of this research is to examine the effectiveness of blended mobile learning activity using Facebook to improve student writing skill. This research used timed essay examination to measure the writing skill after one semester learning activity using this strategy and student satisfaction responses to learning. There were four aspects used as criteria of writing skill: ideas, organization, wording, and flavor. The results showed that this learning approach had shown good results in some aspects, particularly in improving the skill of shaping ideas and organizing the ideas into written form. The uses of various learning strategies that make students more active and centered on students tend to increase the ability of students to search for new ideas creatively. Among others, the positive aspect is the students have the knowledge and understanding of new concepts that can support the idea of writing in the aspect of idea and various choices of words.
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Diction and Expression in Error Analysis Can Enhance Academic Writing of L2 University Students
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…
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Approaches Reflected in Academic Writing MOOCs
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…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Boitumelo T. Ramoroka
2014-04-01
Full Text Available The ability to cite sources appropriately is an important feature of academic writing. Academic writers are expected to integrate ideas of others into their texts and take a stance towards the reported material as they develop their arguments. Despite this importance, research has shown that citation presents considerable difficulties for students, particularly non-native English speakers. Such difficulties include using citations effectively in writing and understanding them in reading, expressing one’s voice and signalling citations in writing so that there is a clear distinction between one’s ideas and those derived from source materials. This study investigates the types of reporting verbs used by students to refer to the work of others and the extent to which they evaluate the work of others in their writing. It draws from a corpus of approximately 80 000 words from essays written by students in two departments at the University of Botswana (Botswana. The findings show that students used more informing verbs, associated with the neutral passing of information from the source to the reader, without interpreting the information cited, compared with argumentative verbs (which signify an evaluative role. The results of the study underscore the importance of teaching reporting verbs in the English for academic purposes classroom and making students aware of their evaluative potential.
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WHY MUSLIM STUDENTS PLAGIARIZE IN WRITING ENGLISH TEXTS
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Wakhid Nashruddin
2015-12-01
Full Text Available Reasons for copy-pasting someone else’s works has attracted attention from many sides that copy-pasting activities, or more popular with term plagiarism, have been considered as a threat for academic life. It also happens at the case of muslim students, in which Islam teaches the students to be honest and not to steal from others. For understanding why it happens, this exploration is conducted. The students of English Department of IAIN Syekh Nurjati Cirebon have to write many of their assignments in English. The result of my observations, the quality of the students’ writing is not good enough. One of the cases found is the copy-paste works, or plagiarism. Using interviews instrument, I try to figure out why students of English Department of IAIN Syekh Nurjati Cirebon. There are at least three reasons behind why students act plagiarism; ignorance on the quotation and citation rules, poor writing skills, and the need of instant writing result. This paper tries to explore these reasons. Keywords: copy-paste, plagiarism, writing in English
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Laura Colombo
2016-09-01
Full Text Available This study explored faculty conceptions about reading and writing, the student body, reasons for student low-performance as well as their declared teaching practices aimed at helping students to better understand readings and write academic texts. The objective was to understand what type of professors´ conceptions contributed with a more inclusive attitude towards first-year students. Content analysis from data gathered from in-depth interviews indicates that professors who acknowledged the complexity of the reading and writing processes tend to be more inclusive and to use reading and writing to teach and not just to evaluate. Those who taught writing courses tended to consider writing as a general skill, transferable to other contexts and spheres of knowledge. Less-inclusive teachers, explaining why they did not offer guidance or proposed remedial solutions, claimed that students should already have mastered academic reading and writing when entering the university and that teaching these skills implied being overprotective and not allowing them to mature.
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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…
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The Space Between: Pedagogic Collaboration between a Writing Centre and an Academic Department
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…
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Detection of Common Errors in Turkish EFL Students' Writing through a Corpus Analytic Approach
Demirel, Elif Tokdemir
2017-01-01
The present study aims to explore Turkish EFL students' major writing difficulties by analyzing the frequent writing errors in academic essays. Accordingly, the study examined errors in a corpus of 150 academic essays written by Turkish EFL students studying at the Department of English Language and Literature at a public university in Turkey. The…
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Writing Characteristics of Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder: A Meta-Analysis
Graham, Steve; Fishman, Evan J.; Reid, Robert; Hebert, Michael
2016-01-01
Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD) frequently experience significant difficulty mastering basic academic skills. This meta-analysis focuses on one specific potential area of learning difficulties for these students: namely, writing. To identify the extent and depth of the potential writing challenges faced by students…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Miguel Zabalza Beraza
2013-01-01
Full Text Available Writing in the University is a basic necessity and a long-range educational purpose. One of the basic characteristics of the university context is that it requires writing both as a tool of communication and as a source of intellectual stimulation. After establishing the basic features of academic writing, this article analyzes the role of writing for students (writing to learn and for teachers (write to plan, to reflect, to document what has been done. The article also discusses the contributions of writing for both students and teachers together: writing to investigate. Finally, going beyond what writing is as academic tool, we conclude with a more playful and creative position: writing for pleasure and enjoyment.
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Academic Dishonesty: Behaviors, Sanctions, and Retention of Adjudicated College Students
Olafson, Lori; Schraw, Gregory; Kehrwald, Nicholas
2014-01-01
Academic dishonesty, also known as academic misconduct, includes a variety of actions such as plagiarism, cheating on tests using text messaging or concealed notes, exchanging work with other students, buying essays from students or on the Internet, and having other students write examinations (Diekhoff, LaBeff, Shinohara, & Yasukawa, 1999;…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Laura Colombo
2016-09-01
Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2016v69n3p115 This study explored faculty conceptions about reading and writing, the student body, reasons for student low-performance as well as their declared teaching practices aimed at helping students to better understand readings and write academic texts. The objective was to understand what type of professors´ conceptions contributed with a more inclusive attitude towards first-year students. Content analysis from data gathered from in-depth interviews indicates that professors who acknowledged the complexity of the reading and writing processes tend to be more inclusive and to use reading and writing to teach and not just to evaluate. Those who taught writing courses tended to consider writing as a general skill, transferable to other contexts and spheres of knowledge. Less-inclusive teachers, explaining why they did not offer guidance or proposed remedial solutions, claimed that students should already have mastered academic reading and writing when entering the university and that teaching these skills implied being overprotective and not allowing them to mature.
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Horton, E. Gail; Diaz, Naelys
2011-01-01
Although writing is of great importance to effective social work practice, many students entering social work education programs experience serious academic difficulties related to writing effectively and thinking critically. The purpose of this article is to present an introductory social work course that integrates Writing Across the Curriculum…
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Bambang Eko Siagianto
2017-01-01
Abstracts: Sub-ordinate conjunction is very confusing to comprehend by students. In using sub-ordinate conjunction, students usually had errors. The purpose of this research to analyze whether or not the students are able to use sub-ordinate conjunction in sentence writing, to classify kinds of sub-ordinate conjunction that was often misused by students in sentence writing The research was done at the grade XII of SMA N 2 Metro in second semester of the academic year 2013/2014. The predicted ...
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Khairul Zakaria Muhamad
2018-01-01
Full Text Available There is lack of studies on the use of metadiscourse markers; especially amongst international students studying in Malaysia and Malaysia are receiving scores of international students particularly from the Middle East annually. This study involves a textual analysis of students’ academic writing where the metadiscourse markers in 50 Arab IIUM students’ academic texts were identified and analyzed. The findings of this study indicated that Arab writers had a greater inclination for the deployment of the interactive markers (Total counts = 919 than interactional ones (Total counts = 592 as there was a higher percentage of interactive metadiscourse (60.8% usage than the interactional ones (39.2%. It might be useful for English language teachers to integrate cultural considerations within their syllabus with regard to metadiscourse markers in order to prepare relevant materials based on their students’ needs as well as to develop the students’ awareness of the importance of these linguistic features.
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Mustafa Onur KAN; Fatma Nur GEDİK
2016-01-01
The overall aim of this research is to evaluate opinions of students completing master thesis in the field of Turkish education about academic writing and process of forming thesis. The study has been devised using phenomenological design within the qualitative research methods. The study group of research is consisted of 9 participants completed master thesis in the field of Turkish education at Mustafa Kemal University Instıtute of Social Sciences in 2015. In this study, semi-structured int...
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STUDENT TEAMS-ACHIEVEMENT DIVISION TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL
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Sri Wahyuni
2015-09-01
Full Text Available Acquiring writing skill needs a lot of practices, and to produce a piece of writing needs a long process; hence, the appropriate method of the teaching and learning is very important to help students master writing skill. This article aims at reporting a research on the implementation of Student Teams-Achievement Division (STAD as an alternative teaching method to improve students’ writing skill. Through Classroom Action Research design, the researcher did the research at fourth semester students of English Education study program of STAIN Kediri in academic year 2012-1013. The research procedures are planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting. The findings show that the implementation of STAD can improve the students’ writing skill which were indicated by the high percentage of the students’ active involvement and positive response on the implementation, and the students’ product of writing in which all of writing components can achieve good level in marking scheme as the minimum level.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Grace H. Wang
2013-11-01
Full Text Available This paper argues that the development of academic writing proficiency may require both explicit metalinguistic awareness (MA and extensive reading (ER of academic texts. Specifically, it argues that: (a there may be a connection between explicit MA and the development of writing skills; (b there is a connection between ER and the development of writing skills, but academic ER may be required for development of academic writing skills; (c there may be a connection between explicit MA and the development of reading skills, which may be exploited for the development of academic ER skills, which in turn supports the development of academic writing skills.
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THE STRATEGY OF USING PERSUASIVE ESSAY IN ENGLISH FOR MEDICAL ACADEMIC WRITING
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Ellie Setyo Wahyuni
2014-06-01
Full Text Available Writing persuasive essay has the purpose of providing some techniques in organizing the idea and constructing the sentences in coherence. The content of this essay contains the health issue and medical terms. The students of medical faculty are expected to make a good persuasive essay in order to find out the recommendation solution of a health problem through the strategies (1 brainstorming (2 mapping (3 the 5 W’s (4 setting thesis statement (5 providing fact, statistic, and example (5 conclusion. The techniques have improved the student writing as the essays have been evaluated and given positive input on the content and development of paragraphs. This academic writing aims to give some practices for the Medical Faculty students of Hang Tuah University in order to produce a good persuasive essay in term of coherence, sentence structure, and organization.
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Code Glosses in Academic Writing: The Comparison of Iranian and Native Authors
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Mahdi Dehghan
2016-01-01
Full Text Available One of the challenges of academic writing is the creation of a structurally and communicatively well-organized and coherent text. Metadiscourse enables authors of journal articles to achieve this goal by raising the writers‘ awareness about discourse features which can contribute to a better academic content production. Also, L1 background has always been a hot topic in applied linguistics and native versus non-native comparisons have been of particular interest in this field. The purpose of this study was to see whether native English speakers and Iranians use code glosses as a sub-category of metadiscourse similarly in their academic writings. To this end, the introduction section of 30 journal articles written by native and Iranian non-native English authors were investigated and the number of code-glosses in each group was counted and analyzed. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to answer the research question of this study. The result of data analysis revealed that there was no significant difference between the frequency count of code glosses used by Iranian and native English authors. This study can have pedagogical implications for EAP course designers as well as academic writing instructors and students.
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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…
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Concordancers and Dictionaries as Problem-Solving Tools for ESL Academic Writing
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…
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EXPLORING THE BEST WAYS TO SUPPORT FIRST YEAR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS
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Rossana Perez del Aguila
2014-12-01
Full Text Available ABSTRACT: This article presents the findings of an action research project carried out in 2012 with 12 first-year university students taking ‘Education Studies’ in a university in England. The aim of the project was to explore the best ways to support students’ academic writing skills. The literature review highlights the challenges students encounter when trying to learn the discourse of adiscipline; and in the light of this examination, a reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of my own practice provides the context for carrying out an action research project. The teaching intervention was assessed using the following methods of data collection: questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with students, and content analysis of my own feedback on student’s final assignments. The outcomes of the research demonstrate that students’ difficulties with their academic writing are related to their struggle to understand specialized concepts, theories and methods of the discipline.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Eny Winarti
2014-02-01
Full Text Available From the experience of joining the boards in the students’ research report defence, teaching education research methodology, and classroom action research, the researcher indicated that students had challenges related with the logic of research methods and academic research writing. These findings encouraged the researcher to study the courses that have potential in helping students writing their research reports. To study the courses, the researcher analysed related documents, such as syllabi and lesson plans. The researcher also interviewed teachers and students to clarify the relevance of the syllabi and the classroom learning. The results of the study indicated that logic, academic writing, statistics, research methodology, and classroom action research had the potential of helping the students write their research report. The researcher also indicated that the content of the courses should have been more helpful. The fact, however, was that the students still had challenges understanding the materials after taking the courses. Further study about this fact is then recommended.
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Lundström, Mats; Åström, Maria; Stolpe, Karin; Björklund, Lasse
2016-01-01
The writing of student theses is an important activity at universities and is expected to demonstrate the students' academic skills. In the teacher-education programme, examiners from different academic disciplines are involved in supervising and examining student theses. Moreover, different subject disciplines have different traditions concerning…
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Preparing Graduate Students for Non-Academic Careers
Woolf, Lawrence
2014-03-01
One of the primary topics discussed at the conference concerned career development, since most graduate students will not have the academic careers of their advisors. Goals included reviewing the primary functions of physicists in industry, evaluating how students are currently prepared for these careers, and identifying how to fill gaps in preparation. A number of non-academic physicists provided insight into meeting these goals. Most physics graduate programs in general do not purposely prepare students for a non-academic career. Strategies for overcoming this shortcoming include advising students about these careers and providing training on broadly valued professional skills such as written and verbal communication, time and project management, leadership, working in teams, innovation, product development, and proposal writing. Alumni and others from industry could provide guidance on careers and skills and should be invited to talk to students. Academic training could also better prepare students for non-academic careers by including engineering and cross disciplinary problem solving as well as incorporating software and toolsets common in industry.
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Teaching academic writing to first year university students: A case ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
The purpose of this paper is to critically examine to what extent feedback practices - as part of the strategies used in assessment of student work - are meaningful to the expected learning process. The study draws on a set of theories including development of student writing (Coffin et al., 2003), teacher feedback practices ...
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Latha Rajendra Kumar
2011-06-01
Full Text Available Background: The main purpose of the present study was to further investigate study processes, learning styles, and academic achievement in medical students. Methods: A total of 214 (mean age 22.5 years first and second year students - preclinical years - at the Asian Institute of Medical Science and Technology (AIMST University School of Medicine, in Malaysia participated. There were 119 women (55.6% and 95 men (44.4%. Biggs questionnaire for determining learning approaches and the VARK questionnaire for determining learning styles were used. These were compared to the student’s performance in the assessment examinations. Results: The major findings were 1 the majority of students prefer to study alone, 2 most students employ a superficial study approach, and 3 students with high kinesthetic and read-write scores performed better on examinations and approached the subject by deep approach method compared to students with low scores. Furthermore, there was a correlation between superficial approach scores and visual learner’s scores. Discussion: Read-write and kinesthetic learners who adopt a deep approach learning strategy perform better academically than do the auditory, visual learners that employ superficial study strategies. Perhaps visual and auditory learners can be encouraged to adopt kinesthetic and read-write styles to enhance their performance in the exams.
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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…
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Linguistic Markers of Stance in Early and Advanced Academic Writing: A Corpus-Based Comparison
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…
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Fostering Topic Knowledge: Essential for Academic Writing
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…
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Peer-Formativity: A Framework for Academic Writing
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…
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THE STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC WRITING SKILL AFTER IMPLEMENTING BLENDED LEARNING USING FACEBOOK
Dwi Sulisworo; Triwati Rahayu; Rifai Nur Akhsan
2016-01-01
Almost all students use smartphone for their daily activities. Nowadays, the student’s literacy on information technology is very good, but sometimes it has not been considered in school learning. One of the essential competencies of undergraduate school is academic writing skill. There is a gap between the student competencies and the learning strategy in certain learning subjects. The aim of this research is to examine the effectiveness of blended mobile learning activity using Facebook to ...
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Drafting and acting on feedback supports student learning when writing essay assignments.
Freestone, Nicholas
2009-06-01
A diverse student population is a relatively recent feature of the higher education system in the United Kingdom. Consequently, it may be thought that more "traditional" types of assessment based around essay writing skills for science undergraduates may be of decreasing value and relevance to contemporary students. This article describes a study in which the process of feedback on, and associated redrafting of, an essay was closely supervised to improve essay writing skills and subsequent exam performance. The results of this study show that students can significantly improve their learning and academic performance, as assessed by final examination mark, by a process that more closely mimics a "real-world" situation of review and redrafting. Additionally, the data show that students benefit from feedback only when this is used appropriately by the student. The article also discusses the continuing importance and relevance of essay writing skills so that writing, and acting upon feedback to do with that writing, remains an integral part of the process of learning.
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Promoting critical thinking and academic writing skills in nurse education.
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.
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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,…
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Exploring the Relationship between Writing Apprehension and Writing Performance: A Qualitative Study
Badrasawi, Kamal J. I.; Zubairi, Ainol; Idrus, Faizah
2016-01-01
Writing skill is seen as a cornerstone of university students' success in both academic and career life. This qualitative study was conducted to further explore the teachers' and students' perceptions on the relationship between writing apprehension and writing performance, contributing factors of writing apprehension, and strategies to reduce…
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Kallestinova, Elena
2017-01-01
The paper discusses argument pedagogy for graduate and professional students with learning disabilities (LD) in the context of academic writing. To understand the nature and types of writing problems that graduate and professional students with LD experience, the author presents results of a university-wide survey with the students who did and did…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Bambang Eko Siagianto
2017-02-01
Full Text Available Abstracts: Sub-ordinate conjunction is very confusing to comprehend by students. In using sub-ordinate conjunction, students usually had errors. The purpose of this research to analyze whether or not the students are able to use sub-ordinate conjunction in sentence writing, to classify kinds of sub-ordinate conjunction that was often misused by students in sentence writing The research was done at the grade XII of SMA N 2 Metro in second semester of the academic year 2013/2014. The predicted research findings are; the students cannot divide or difference the type of sub-ordinate conjunction well, and they often errors using it in sentences.The result of the students test in using sub-ordinate conjunction in sentence writing proves that most of the students at the grade XII of SMA N 2 Metro used the list of words “after, then, when, because” on their sentence writing. The students found these words easier to be used as conjunction especially sub-ordinate conjunction in their sentence writing than other conjunction. While, for other list of words doesn’t used by the students because the students cannot adapted the words in their sentence writing. The most familiar sub-ordinate conjunction seems to be “before and since” (each of them is gained by 22 students = 91,6%, but the students are unfamiliar with the other words in sub-ordinate conjunction mainly “till and unless” (each of the is gained by 13 students = 54,1%. The other sub-ordinate conjunctions are quite familiar for them.
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Student displays of academic competence in the international university
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Kristiansen, Elisabeth Dalby
that there may be a connection, on the one hand between students' orientation to language as a relevant ressource for displaying academic competence and the project report as the sole product of the students' project, and on the other hand between the orientation to multimodal resources for displaying academic......The study presents an ethnomethodologically founded understanding of academic competence as situated social practices displayed in and through social interaction. The project uses Conversation Analysis as a method for describing such displays of competence. The project describes the conversational...... phenomenon of the 'Writing aloud Voice' (WAV) and describes how students use WAV sequences to demonstrate their knowledge of and ability to use certain academic conventions for formulating research questions. This constitutes one method for displaying academic competence. The project also describes...
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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…
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Karasu, H. Pelin
2017-01-01
Support services provide an essential role for hearing-impaired students attending public schools, in terms of improving their language and academic skills. In this study, the writing skills of hearing-impaired students enrolled in public schools were evaluated, and the relationship between the writing scores, audiological variables and…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
John Hamilton
2016-07-01
Full Text Available The requirement for commencing higher education students to apply principles of attribution in their early academic writing frequently creates frustration both for students and academic teaching staff. Teachers often provide information on the necessity of attribution, and considerable detail on the mechanics of how to reference, and express frustration at the failure of some students to demonstrate this in their writing. In turn, many students appear overwhelmed and confused by the expectations placed on them as early academic writers. This paper explores these expectations and questions current assessment practices, advocating a longer period of formative learning before students are required to competently and accurately apply attribution principles and referencing conventions in their writing. Using the threshold concept framework (Meyer & Land, 2005, it suggests viewing attribution as a ‘conceptual gateway’ through which students must pass in becoming academic writers, and explores some implications of this for teaching, learning and assessment.
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Reading-Writing Relationships in First and Second Language Academic Literacy Development
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…
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Ethical and Unethical Methods of Plagiarism Prevention in Academic Writing
Bakhtiyari, Kaveh; Salehi, Hadi; Embi, Mohamed Amin; Shakiba, Masoud; Zavvari, Azam; Shahbazi-Moghadam, Masoomeh; Ale Ebrahim, Nader; 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 iThenticate for cross checking and plagiarism detection. The efficiency of the proposed techniques is evaluated on five different texts using student...
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Encouraging Good Writing Practice in First-Year Psychology Students: An Intervention Using Turnitin
Betts, Lucy R.; Bostock, Stephen J.; Elder, Tracey J.; Trueman, Mark
2012-01-01
There is growing concern among many regarding plagiarism within student writing. This has promoted investigation into both the factors that predict plagiarism and potential methods of reducing plagiarism. Consequently, we developed and evaluated an intervention to enhance good practice within academic writing through the use of the plagiarism…
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From University Writing to Workplace Writing: The Case of Social ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
This is a case study of social work students' initial experiences with professional writing. The paper addresses the issue of academic writing with special attention to the types of documents written by social work students on their fieldwork placements using twelve students who volunteered to be interviewed. Their views are ...
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Reflective Writing for Medical Students on the Surgical Clerkship: Oxymoron or Antidote?
Liu, Geoffrey Z; Jawitz, Oliver K; Zheng, Daniel; Gusberg, Richard J; Kim, Anthony W
2016-01-01
Reflective writing has emerged as a solution to declining empathy during clinical training. However, the role for reflective writing has not been studied in a surgical setting. The aim of this proof-of-concept study was to assess receptivity to a reflective-writing intervention among third-year medical students on their surgical clerkship. The reflective-writing intervention was a 1-hour, peer-facilitated writing workshop. This study employed a pre-post-intervention design. Subjects were surveyed on their experience 4 weeks before participation in the intervention and immediately afterwards. Surveys assessed student receptivity to reflective writing as well as self-perceived empathy, writing habits, and communication behaviors using a Likert-response scale. Quantitative responses were analyzed using paired t tests and linear regression. Qualitative responses were analyzed using an iterative consensus model. Yale-New Haven hospital, a tertiary care academic center. All medical students of Yale School of Medicine, rotating on their surgical clerkship during a 9-month period (74 in total) were eligible. In all, 25 students completed this study. The proportion of students desiring more opportunities for reflective writing increased from 32%-64%. The proportion of students receptive to a mandatory writing workshop increased from 16%-40%. These differences were both significant (p = 0.003 and p = 0.001). In all, 88% of students also reported new insight as a result of the workshop. In total, 39% of students reported a more positive impression of the surgical profession after participation. Overall, the workshop was well-received by students and improved student attitudes toward reflective writing and the surgical profession. Larger studies are required to validate the effect of this workshop on objective empathy measures. This study demonstrates how reflective writing can be incorporated into a presurgical curriculum. Copyright © 2015 Association of Program Directors in
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Using an e-Portfolio System to Improve the Academic Writing Performance of ESL Students
Alshahrani, Ali; Windeatt, Scott
2012-01-01
Many intensive English language programmes that English second language (ESL) students enrol in adopt a process approach to writing, interpreting writing as a cognitive process that is highly private or individualistic (Atkinson, 2003), where writers use specific cognitive phases, such as pre-writing, drafting, and revising, to generate their…
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Self-Regulated Strategic Writing for Academic Studies in an English-Medium-Instruction Context
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…
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Winarti, Eny
2014-01-01
From the experience of joining the boards in the students’ research report defence, teaching education research methodology, and classroom action research, the researcher indicated that students had challenges related with the logic of research methods and academic research writing. These findings encouraged the researcher to study the courses that have potential in helping students writing their research reports. To study the courses, the researcher analysed related documents, such as ...
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Training of academic writing: improving competitiveness of Czech universities
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Tomáš Foltýnek
2013-01-01
Full Text Available Project “Impact of Policies for Plagiarism in Higher Education across Europe” has reached its final phase. We have collected lots of data reflecting facts and opinions about plagiarism and related areas. Training of academic writing is one of important means for plagiarism prevention.The paper compares levels of training of academic writing between the Czech republic and the rest of Europe. The answers in a questionnaire survey dealing with plagiarism and training of academic writing will be compared and analysed. According to these answers, best practices in European higher education institutions will be identified, and gaps in the Czech institutions will be described. Removing gaps than poses a step to improve the competitiveness of the Czech higher education institutions.
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Reflective writing: the student nurse's perspective on reflective writing and poetry writing.
Coleman, Dawn; Willis, Diane S
2015-07-01
Reflective writing is a mandatory part of nurse education but how students develop their skills and use reflection as part of their experiential learning remains relatively unknown. Understanding reflective writing in all forms from the perspective of a student nurse is therefore important. To explore the use of reflective writing and the use of poetry in pre-registered nursing students. A qualitative design was employed to explore reflective writing in pre-registered nursing students. A small university in Scotland. BSc (Hons) Adult and Mental Health Pre-registration Student Nurses. Two focus groups were conducted with 10 student nurses during March 2012. Data was analysed thematically using the framework of McCarthy (1999). Students found the process of reflective writing daunting but valued it over time. Current educational methods, such as assessing reflective accounts, often lead to the 'narrative' being watered down and the student feeling judged. Despite this, reflection made students feel responsible for their own learning and research on the topic. Some students felt the use of models of reflection constricting, whilst poetry freed up their expression allowing them to demonstrate the compassion for their patient under their care. Poetry writing gives students the opportunity for freedom of expression, personal satisfaction and a closer connection with their patients, which the more formal approach to reflective writing did not offer. There is a need for students to have a safe and supportive forum in which to express and have their experiences acknowledged without the fear of being judged. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Measuring the Effectiveness of Writing Center Consultations on L2 Writers’ Essay Writing Skills
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Shanthi Tiruchittampalam
2018-02-01
Full Text Available With the international growth of English-medium education, tertiary institutions are increasingly providing academic support services to L2 students, and thus, the number of writing centers working with L2 student writers has also increased. Writing center practices originated in L1 English educational contexts and their appropriateness for L2 English writers requires examination. This study investigated the effect of writing center consultations on the essay writing skills of L1 Arabic foundation level students at an English-medium university in the Gulf region. Analysis was based on quantitative measures of writing ability of two distinct groups of students: an experimental group who participated in tutoring sessions at the university’s writing center and a control group who did not. Findings indicated that students who participated in writing center consultations scored significantly higher in overall essay writing scores, as well as in two aspects of writing: task fulfilment (that is ideas and text organization/coherence. These findings contribute to a limited bank of similar empirical studies on effectiveness of writing center sessions on students’ essay writing ability. They also support the case for the expansion of writing center work beyond the domains of predominantly L1 English academic communities.
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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.
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Hybrid Identity in Academic Writing: “Are There Two of Me?”
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Troy Crawford
2014-10-01
Full Text Available This paper explores the construction of identity in an academic learning environment in Central Mexico, and shows how identity may be linked to non-language factors such as emotions or family. These issues are associated with elements of hybrid identity. To analyze this we draw on language choice as a tool used for the construction of identity and for showcasing and defending identity through exploratory interviews with the bilingual students and teachers. The results draw our attention towards the role of non-linguistic variables and their relationship to emotional and contextual issues that influence how academic writing occurs within the school confines, where hybrid identities may be constructed for academic purposes.
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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…
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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…
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Using Systemic Functional Linguistics in Academic Writing Development: An Example from Film Studies
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…
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Student Perceptions of Scholarly Writing
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Shirley Peganoff O'Brien
2016-07-01
Full Text Available Learning the process of scholarly writing, including the significance of peer review, is an essential element in the preparation of students for professional practice. This descriptive research study, using Scholarship of Teaching and Learning methodology, explores one approach to teaching scholarly writing in an occupational science/occupational therapy curriculum. The writing assignment was designed to offer multiple points for feedback and revision and instructional features to reinforce learning. A survey of students [n = 169] participating in this scholarly writing project was conducted yearly to gather their perceptions of learning. The results revealed four key elements: instructional strategies are needed to support scholarly writing, students value explicit instructor feedback, a successful writing experience opens the possibility for students to write in their professional future, and students will develop the habits of a writer given structure and pedagogical considerations in the assignment construction. This experience shows students will work to achieve the expected standard for scholarship once writing is made an essential part of the course and their efforts are supported by scaffolding the assignment. Through this experience, it was also learned students need opportunities for repetition and practice to refine scholarly writing. Suggestions for future research are proposed.
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Suhaimi, Zuhairina; Shahrill, Masitah; Tengah, Khairul Amilin; Abbas, Nor'Arifahwati Haji
2016-01-01
This study incorporated the use of writing-to-learn strategy, particularly journal writing, in Grade 10 mathematics lessons. Although part of a study conducted to investigate the effects of journal writing on academically lower-achieving learners with English as their second language, this paper will focus only on the students' perceptions of…
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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…
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Wang, Xin; Cho, Kwangsu
2010-01-01
This study examined two major academic genres of writing: argumentative and technical writing. Three hundred eighty-four undergraduate student-produced texts were parsed and analyzed through a computational tool called Coh-Metrix. The results inform the instructional librarians that students used genre-dependent cohesive devices in a limited way…
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An Exploration of Discoursal Construction of Identity in Academic Writing
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Davud Kuhi
2011-11-01
Full Text Available The view that academic writing is purely objective, impersonal and informational, which is often reflected in English for Academic Purposes materials, has been criticized by a number of researchers. By now, the view of academic writing as embodying interaction among writers, readers and the academic community as a whole has been established. Following this assumption, the present study focused on how second/foreign language writers enact, construct, and invent themselves through writing. In this study, the theoretical stance on identity is grounded on Ivanič’s (1998 four interrelated aspects of writer identity, namely autobiographical self, discoursal self, authorial self, and possibilities for self-hood in the socio-cultural and institutional contexts. Hyland’s model of metadiscourse (2004a was used as the analytical tool for analyzing texts. Based on a corpus of 30 research articles, the overall distribution of evidential markers, hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and self-mentions were calculated across four rhetorical sections (Abstract, Introduction, Methodology, Discussion and Conclusion of the research articles. According to the results of this study, identity is a critical aspect of writing which should be brought into the mainstream of second/foreign language writing pedagogy through consciousness -raising or the specific teaching of certain features.
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Linguistic Features of Humor in Academic Writing
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Stephen Skalicky
2016-06-01
Full Text Available 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 scored for overall writing quality by human raters, which correlated (r = .195 with the humor component score. Correlations between the humor component scores and linguistic features were examined. To investigate the potential for linguistic features to predict the Humor component scores, regression analysis identified four linguistic indices that accounted for approximately 17.5% of the variance in humor scores. These indices were related to text descriptiveness (i.e., more adjective and adverb use, lower cohesion (i.e., less paragraph-to-paragraph similarity, and lexical sophistication (lower word frequency. The findings suggest that humor can be partially predicted by linguistic features in the text. Furthermore, there was a small but significant correlation between the humor and essay quality scores, suggesting a positive relation between humor and writing quality. Keywords: humor, academic writing, text analysis, essay score, human rating
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Attitudes toward text recycling in academic writing across disciplines.
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.
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The Effect of Dialogue Journal Writing on EFL Students' Writing Skill
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Ali Gholami Mehrdad
2008-02-01
Full Text Available Despite the role writing plays in learning a foreign language, many students do not show much interest in taking an active part in writing classes (Myint, 1997. Thus different activities have been proposed to motivate students to write one of which is dialogue journal writing, and the present work tries to investigate the possible effect(s of such activity on writing ability of a group of English students at Islamic Azad University- Hamedan branch. To do this, 50 students obtaining 1 and 2 on the TWE scale on the structure section of a TOEFL test were selected and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. After some introductory sessions, the students were asked to write paragraphs on a weekly schedule and hand them in to be corrected. In the experimental group the students were, furthermore, asked to keep journals and hand them in. After 4 months, the students in both groups took part in a writing exam in which they had to write two paragraphs on the topics given. The comparison of the means at p
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"Your Writing, Not My Writing": Discourse Analysis of Student Talk about Writing
Hales, Patrick D.
2017-01-01
Student voice is a difficult concept to capture in research. This study attempts to provide a vehicle for understanding student perceptions about writing and writing instruction through a case study supported by discourse analysis of student talk. The high school students in this study participated in interviews and focus groups about their…
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Sahoo, Soumendra; Mohammed, Ciraj Ali
2018-06-01
This intervention was aimed to analyse the effect of academic writing and journal critiquing as educational approaches in improving critical thinking and collaborative learning among undergraduate medical students. A research proposal writing format was created for the 4th year medical students of Melaka Manipal Medical College, Malaysia during their ophthalmology clinical postings. The students worked in small groups and developed research protocols through an evidence based approach. This was followed by writing reflective summaries in academic portfolios about the activity undertaken. A mixed methods study was designed to explore the possible role of collaborative research proposal writing in enhancing critical thinking and collaborative learning. Analysis of reflections submitted by 188 medical students after the intervention indicate that majority of them found an improvement in their skills of critical thinking and collaborative learning as a result of research protocol writing. All participants agreed that the model helped in applying concepts to new situations in the form of designing their own study, which reflected in enhanced higher order cognitive skills. This study shows that the introduction of a structured module in the core medical curriculum that focuses on research writing skills embedded with collaborative and reflective practices can enhance collaborative learning, critical thinking, and reasoning among medical students.
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Soumendra Sahoo
2018-06-01
Full Text Available Purpose This intervention was aimed to analyse the effect of academic writing and journal critiquing as educational approaches in improving critical thinking and collaborative learning among undergraduate medical students. Methods A research proposal writing format was created for the 4th year medical students of Melaka Manipal Medical College, Malaysia during their ophthalmology clinical postings. The students worked in small groups and developed research protocols through an evidence based approach. This was followed by writing reflective summaries in academic portfolios about the activity undertaken.A mixed methods study was designed to explore the possible role of collaborative research proposal writing in enhancing critical thinking and collaborative learning. Results Analysis of reflections submitted by 188 medical students after the intervention indicate that majority of them found an improvement in their skills of critical thinking and collaborative learning as a result of research protocol writing. All participants agreed that the model helped in applying concepts to new situations in the form of designing their own study, which reflected in enhanced higher order cognitive skills. Conclusion This study shows that the introduction of a structured module in the core medical curriculum that focuses on research writing skills embedded with collaborative and reflective practices can enhance collaborative learning, critical thinking, and reasoning among medical students.
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Impact of Writing Proficiency and Writing Center Participation on Academic Performance
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…
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Writing the Ties that Bind: Service-Learning in the Writing Classroom.
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…
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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…
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Holland, Rochelle
2013-01-01
This explanatory case study researched the writing experiences of 11 community college students who differed subculturally and who were all part of the African diasporic community. The theoretical perspectives used for this study were Arthur Chickering's (1969) classical concept of academic competence and community dialect theory (Baxter &…
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Sinaga, Megawati
2017-01-01
The Objectives of this paper as an experimental research was to investigate the effect of Roundtable and Clustering teaching techniques and students' personal traits on students' achievement in descriptive writing. The students in grade ix of SMP Negeri 2 Pancurbatu 2016/2017 school academic year were chose as the population of this research. The…
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The writing approaches of secondary students.
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
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Predicting Academic Performance Based on Students' Blog and Microblog Posts
Dascalu, Mihai; Popescu, Elvira; Becheru, Alexandru; Crossley, Scott; Trausan-Matu, Stefan
2016-01-01
This study investigates the degree to which textual complexity indices applied on students’ online contributions, corroborated with a longitudinal analysis performed on their weekly posts, predict academic performance. The source of student writing consists of blog and microblog posts, created in
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Error Analysis in Academic Writing: A Case of International Postgraduate Students in Malaysia
Amiri, Fatemeh; Puteh, Marlia
2017-01-01
This paper examines the different types of writing errors performed by 16 international postgraduate students undertaking an intensive English course at a public university in Malaysia. It was mandatory for international postgraduate students who obtained less than IELTS Band 6 to undertake an Intensive English Course (IEC) offered by the…
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Scaffolding EFL Students' Writing through the Writing Process Approach
Faraj, Avan Kamal Aziz
2015-01-01
This research reports a study conducted at Koya University/English Language Department, and it aims at presenting the effect of scaffolding on EFL students' writing ability through the writing process. In this study, the students have taken the role of writers, so they need to follow the same steps that writers apply during their writing process.…
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Akbari, Neda
2017-01-01
This study focuses on lexical diversity and the use of academic and lower frequency words in essays written by EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students enrolled in Years 1 and 2 at the undergraduate university level. The purpose of this study is to find out the extent to which EFL students become more proficient in their use of academic and…
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Students’ expectations of feedback given on draft writing
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Zach Simpson
2011-09-01
Full Text Available Academic writing is the primary means of assessing university students and feedback (oral or written responses on writing can contribute significantly to student learning and success (Ferris, 2003; Hyland & Hyland, 2006. This study explores students’ expectations of feedback on draft writing. The research design was two-pronged. The initial quantitative aspect employed a questionnaire which students completed after receiving feedback from Writing Centre consultants who aim to give developmental feedback. A subsequent phase involved focus groups with volunteer students. This mixed methods design allowed for greater depth of understanding as the qualitative findings extended the quantitative results. The study concludes that students expect feedback to be understandable, encouraging and to focus on both positive and negative aspects of their writing. Importantly, students expect feedback to ‘unpack’ the conventions of academic literacy while still encouraging independence and originality.
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Alghail, Ali Abdullah Ali; Mahfoodh, Omer Hassan Ali
2016-01-01
This study examines how international graduate students in a Malaysian public university perceive and overcome academic reading difficulties. The target population included all graduate students from Yemen, an Arab country, studying at Universiti Sains Malaysia. Data were collected using questionnaires, focus group interviews, and journal writing.…
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Dyslexia, Authorial Identity, and Approaches to Learning and Writing: A Mixed Methods Study
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…
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An Analysis of the Language of Attribution in University Students' Academic Essays
Jabulani, Sibanda
2014-01-01
The study reports on challenges related to the use of the language of attribution in academic essay writing by Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students at Rhodes University, as a microcosm of similar challenges faced by university students elsewhere. The study content-analysed 150 essays written by 50 PGCE students taking the course…
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Murphy, Greer Alison
2016-01-01
This study examined how English as a Second Language (ESL) and Writing program faculty at a professional liberal arts college partnered with faculty across the curriculum to help international students learn to write from sources and avoid unintentional plagiarism. Eight participants joined a series of action research professional development workshops. In these workshops, faculty focused on defining plagiarism in both academic and professional settings, designing culturally inclusive assignm...
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Peer-Mentoring Program and Academic Atmosphere
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Sri Endah Kusmartini
2014-03-01
Full Text Available Management of Sriwijaya State Polytechnic believes that peer-mentoring program has positive effects on students’ academic success. Moreover, it is also believed that good academic atmosphere should be developed. In line with these, researchers tried to investigate whether peer-mentoring program and academic atmosphere correlated significantly to students’ writing achievement partially and simultaneously. The research was conducted in English Department, Sriwijaya State Polytechnic with 60 samples taken randomly. Measures of Peer-mentoring Program and Academic Atmosphere were used sequentially to measure peer-mentoring program and academic atmosphere as perceived by the students. Meanwhile, writing score was used to find out writing achievement of the students. The hypotheses were tested by using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Linear Regression. The results showed that peer-mentoring program and academic atmosphere as perceived by the students correlated significantly towards students’ writing achievement partially and simultaneously. Therefore it is recommended to continue the programs.
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Dyslexia, authorial identity, and approaches to learning and writing: a mixed methods study.
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
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Unpacking the Value of Writing: Exploring College Students' Perceptions of Writing
Zumbrunn, Sharon; Carter, Yvette M.; Conklin, Sarah
2014-01-01
This study explored college students' beliefs about the value of writing, their past experiences with writing, and the relationship between students' prior experiences with writing and writing value beliefs. One hundred fourteen undergraduates from a public Southeastern university participated in the study. Using expectancy-value theory as a…
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Writing Feature Articles with Intermediate Students
Morgan, Denise N.
2010-01-01
Students need regular opportunities to write expository text. However, focusing on report writing often leaves students without strong examples to study or analyze to guide and grow their own writing. Writing and studying feature articles, meant to inform and explain, can become an alternative to report writing, as they can easily be located in…
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Reading and Writing as Academic Literacy in EAP Program of Indonesian Leaners
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Imroatus Solikhah
2015-12-01
Full Text Available 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 tecniques. The study diseovers that academic literacy is prominent to serve and recently it has been the growing learning outcomes universities should provide besides discipline and experise. Academic literacy in EAP program is embedded into academic vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing for academic purposes. Consequently, academic literacy should be incurred in the curriculum, syllabus, aims and objectives, and teaching materials.
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Why It Is so Hard for Academics to Write Textbooks
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…
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Announcing the ESL-WOW for Self-Directed Writing Support
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Thaddeus M. Niles
2013-03-01
Full Text Available This is an overview of ESL-WOW (Writing Online Workshop, a new online resource for students aiming to develop academic writing skills which has been available to the public at no charge since December 2012. Students can visit www.esl-wow.org to learn more about the academic conventions that confound new entrants into academic discourse communities, or to learn more about what makes writing clear and cogent in general. While the site is designed for adult learners and students entering community colleges, a wide variety of intermediate and advanced learners can certainly benefit from the materials offered by the ESL-WOW.
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Incorporating A Structured Writing Process into Existing CLS Curricula.
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.
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Jalongo, Mary Renck; Boyer, Wanda; Ebbeck, Marjory
2014-01-01
Expectations for academic writing and publication have intensified in Academia. Doctoral students in colleges of education are advised to publish even before they graduate and evidence of successful publication is influential in hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions. The purpose of this research was to study the process of writing for…
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Academic writing performance measured for research and instruction
Firssova, Olga
2012-01-01
Firssova, O. (2012, 19 January). Academic writing performance measured for research and instruction. Presentation given at the ICO Masterclass, Theme Domain-Specific Instruction, January 19-February 10, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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The Impact of Blended e-Learning on Undergraduate Academic Essay Writing in English (L2)
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…
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Troubling Our Desires for Research and Writing within the Academic Development Project
Peseta, Tai
2007-01-01
In this paper, I speculate on the work "usefulness" does to regulate the research and writing of the scholarship of academic development project. My argument is not that academic developers ought to repudiate a fidelity to usefulness; rather, I want to expand our ideas for the possibilities of research and writing beyond purposes of…
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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…
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Combined Training of One Cognitive and One Metacognitive Strategy Improves Academic Writing Skills.
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.
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Combined training of one cognitive and one metacognitive strategy improves academic writing skills
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Anke eWischgoll
2016-02-01
Full Text Available 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.
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Combined Training of One Cognitive and One Metacognitive Strategy Improves Academic Writing Skills
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
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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…
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THE EFFECT OF CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE ON WRITING EXPOSITORY ESSAYS OF EFL STUDENTS
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Sabarun Sabarun
2013-03-01
Full Text Available The study is aimed at investigating the effectiveness of using clustering technique in writing expository essays. The aim of the study is to prove whether there is a significant difference between writing using clustering technique and writing without using it on the students’ writing achievement or not. The study belonged to experimental study by applying counterbalance procedure to collect the data. The study was conducted at the fourth semester English department students of Palangka Raya State Islamic College of 2012/ 2013 academic year. The number of the sample was 13 students. This study was restricted to two focuses: using clustering technique and without using clustering technique to write composition. Using clustering technique to write essay was one of the pre writing strategies in writing process. To answer the research problem, the t test for correlated samples was applied. The research findings showed that,it was found that the t value was 10.554.It was also found that the df (Degree of freedom of the distribution observed was 13-1= 12. Based on the Table of t value, if df was 12, the 5% of significant level of t value was at 1.782 and the 1% of significant level of t value was at 2.179. It meant that using clustering gave facilitative effect on the students’ essay writing performance. Keywords: reading comprehension, text, scaffolding
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Révész, Andrea; Michel, Marije; Lee, MinJin
2017-01-01
This project examined the cognitive processes and online behaviours of second language writers while performing IELTS Academic Writing Test Task 2, and the ways in which the online behaviours of test-takers relate to the quality of the text produced. An additional aim was to assess whether writing
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Shaarawy, Hanaa Youssef
2014-01-01
Based on writing weekly academic journals and on Bloom's (1984) taxonomy of cognitive critical thinking skills, this article reports on a quasi-experiment where journal writing was an additional task to an academic writing course. The experiment was carried out with first year university students (semester two) in one of the Egyptian private…
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Beyond "Writing to Learn": Factors Influencing Students' Writing Outcomes
Jani, Jayshree S.; Mellinger, Marcela Sarmiento
2015-01-01
Social work educators concur that writing and critical thinking are basic components of effective practice, yet students are often deficient in these skills. Although there is agreement among educators about the need to enhance students' writing skills, there is little understanding of the nature of students' problems--a necessary step…
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Tânia Guedes Magalhães
2017-08-01
Full Text Available This work shows the result of a research with Portuguese Language students of Federal University of Juiz de Fora (MG that analysed their understanding about academic genres written in supervised internship of Portuguese Language in last period of full time course in 2014. We understand that the student’s insertion in written practices of academic genres is an important socialization process. Methodologically, we used open questionnaire applied at the end of the period when the students wrote their texts, after writing – rewriting – reflection about written. The data show us that a a minority of students is immersed in academic written practice during the Portuguese Language undergraduation; b the students face up difficulties in writing not detected along the course; c there is more student’s engagement in the written of paper and reports in circulation context.
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Peer-tutoring in academic writing: the infectious nature of engagement
O'Sullivan, Íde; Cleary, Lawrence
2014-01-01
non-peer-reviewed Students often struggle with writing as they are unaware of the process of writing and of strategies and skills to help them write well. They often focus on the product of writing rather than engaging with the process of writing. However, it is in the process of writing, and in the discovery of that process, that learning happens (Murray 1973, Emig 1977, Berlin 1982). It is thought that the inductive, non-intrusive model of student peer-tutoring practiced at the Regional ...
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Al Asmari, AbdulRahman
2013-01-01
The tenet of this study is to investigate the use of writing strategies in reducing writing apprehension and uncovering its effect on EFL students' writing achievement. It also attempts to explore associations between foreign language apprehension, writing achievement and writing strategies. The primary aims of the study were to explore the…
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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…
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Teaching Adolescent ELs to Write Academic-Style Persuasive Essays
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…
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Academic writing performance measured for research and instruction
Firssova, Olga
2012-01-01
Firssova, O. (2011, January 19). Academic writing performance measured for research and instruction. Presentation at the ICO Course Domain specific research on learning and instruction: theories, methodology and curricular innovations, Utrecht, The Netherlands: Interuniversitair Centrum voor
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Adika Gordon S. K.
2015-08-01
Full Text Available Drawing from a social constructionist perspective to written scholarly communication, this paper argues that training in academic writing for students in higher education especially in second language contexts should go beyond emphasis on grammatical correctness and paragraphing strategies, and also focus on the rhetorical character of academic discourse together with the mastery of its communicative protocols. Using the University of Ghana as a reference point, the paper reviews a selection of Ghanaian graduate students’ awareness of the protocols that govern academic discourses in scholarly writing, and in consideration of their unique educational and socio-cultural circumstances, the paper proposes strategies, from the pedagogical and institutional standpoints, aimed at increasing students’ awareness of the relevant communicative practices that engender credibility and accountability.
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Küçükal, Şerife
1990-01-01
Ankara : Faculty of Letters and the Institute of Economics and Social Science of Bilkent Univ., 1990. Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 1990. Includes bibliographical references. The purpose of this study is to investigate the suggestions that experts in the field of teaching composition have for motivating students to write, teaching writing and assessing writing and the ways that these suggestions could be used in Turkish EFL Hazirlik classes for elementary level students. ...
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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…
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De Smet, Milou; Brand-Gruwel, Saskia; Leijten, Mariëlle; Kirschner, Paul A.
2018-01-01
This study addresses to what extent and how electronic outlining enhances students' writing performance. To this end, the focus of this study is not only on students' final writing products but also on the organisation of the writing process (i.e., planning, translating, and reviewing) and perceived
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Bigarelli, Juliana Faleiros Paolucci; Ávila, Clara Regina Brandão de
2011-09-01
To characterize, according to the school grade and the type of school (private or public), the performance on orthographic and narrative text production in the writing of Elementary School students with good academic performance, and to investigate the relationships between these variables. Participants were 160 children with ages between 8 and 12 years, enrolled in 4th to 7th grades Elementary School. Their written production was assessed using words and pseudowords dictation, and autonomous writing of a narrative text. Public school students had a higher number of errors in the words and pseudowords dictation, improving with education level. The occurrence of complete and incomplete utterances was similar in both public and private schools. However, 4th graders presented more incomplete statements than the other students. A higher number of overall microstructure and macrostructure productions occurred among private school students. The essential macrostructures were most frequently found in the later school grades. The higher the total number of words in the autonomous written production, the higher the occurrence of linguistic variables and the better the narrative competence. There was a weak negative correlation between the number of wrong words and the total of events in text production. Positive and negative correlations (from weak to good) were observed between different orthographic, linguistic and narrative production variables in both private and public schools. Private school students present better orthographic and narrative performance than public school students. Schooling progression influences the performance in tasks of words' writing and text production, and the orthographic abilities influence the quality of textual production. Different writing abilities, such as orthographic performance and use of linguistic elements and narrative structures, are mutually influenced in writing production.
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Student perception of writing in the science classroom
Deakin, Kathleen J.
This study examines factors that shape four student's perceptions of writing tasks in their science classroom. This qualitative retrospective interview study focuses on four students concurrently enrolled in honors English and honors biology. This research employs a phenomenological perspective on writing, examining whether the writing strategies students acquire in the Language Arts classroom manifest in the content areas. I also adopt Bandura's theoretical perspective on self-efficacy as well as Hillock's notion of writing as inquiry and meaning making. This study concludes that students need ample opportunity to generate content and language that will help reveal a purpose and genre for writing tasks in the content areas. Although all four students approached the writing tasks differently in this study, the tasks set before them were opportunities for replication rather than inquiry Through the case studies of four students as well as current research on content writing, this project works to inform all content area teachers about student perceptions of writing in the content areas.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Cari Merkley
2013-06-01
Full Text Available Objective – To outline the collaborative development of an online course addressing academic integrity by a university’s library system and writing centre.Design – Case study.Setting – A public research university in the Midwestern United States.Subjects – 1650 students who completed the online module.Methods – Oakland University (OU Libraries and the Writing Centre began to collaborate on the development of a new online course on academic integrity in 2011. It was felt that an existing online library tutorial on plagiarism no longer met the needs of students and faculty. The development of the course was informed by the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000 as well as a research study investigating students’ use of sources in their scholarly writing across several institutions. Moodle, the institution’s learning management system (LMS, was used to develop the learning object.Main Results – OU Libraries and the Writing Centre launched the six-part online course entitled “Using and Citing Sources” in January 2012. They developed modules around learning outcomes in five broad categories: defining academic integrity and plagiarism; the use of sources in academic writing; paraphrasing; quoting; and citation. The final module provided students with an opportunity to practise lessons learned in the first five modules. The use of the LMS to design and host the course limited the tutorial to registered students, but provided developers with access to additional course functionality without labour-intensive coding. It also allowed Writing Centre staff to access students’ performance data on the modules prior to their appointments. Improvements over the previous online tutorial included expanded content on academic ethics and referencing, more active learning elements, video content, and the opportunity for students to choose discipline
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Vardi, Iris
2012-01-01
Just as plagiarism is viewed poorly in the academic community, so is plagiarism viewed poorly in student writing, with a range of sanctions and penalties applying for not displaying academic integrity. Yet learning to cite effectively to progress one's argument, position or understandings is a skill that takes time to develop and hone. This paper…
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Kolb, Kenneth H.; Longest, Kyle C.; Singer, Alexa J.
2015-01-01
Writing intensive first-year seminars are well situated within the curriculum to teach about issues like cheating and plagiarism. Although most research on academic integrity focuses on how--and how much--students cheat, we take a different approach. We assess whether participation in writing intensive first-year seminars produces measurable…
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Peer Facilitated Writing Groups: A Programmatic Approach to Doctoral Student Writing
Kumar, Vijay; Aitchison, Claire
2018-01-01
Very few empirical studies have investigated programmes in which doctoral students act as peer facilitators in faculty writing groups. We report on the development of a centrally delivered doctoral student writing programme in which twenty student participants were mentored and provided with the resources to initiate their own faculty-based…
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Student Writing Accepted as High-Quality Responses to Analytic Text-Based Writing Tasks
Wang, Elaine; Matsumura, Lindsay Clare; Correnti, Richard
2018-01-01
Literacy standards increasingly emphasize the importance of analytic text-based writing. Little consensus exists, however, around what high-quality student responses should look like in this genre. In this study, we investigated fifth-grade students' writing in response to analytic text-based writing tasks (15 teachers, 44 writing tasks, 88 pieces…
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Teaching Process Writing in an Online Environment
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…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Kerstin Eleonora Kohl
2011-02-01
Full Text Available In view of the increasing number of cases of plagiarism and the ease of use of online published texts, universities are faced with a considerable challenge to prevent and take action against plagiarism in academic student papers. In reaction to plagiarism, web-based plagiarism detection systems (PDSs are increasingly used to check submitted papers - this checking entails various problems, for example the percentage of plagiarism found is only an indication of the actual extent of plagiarism and not all types of plagiarism can be identified. To cope with this problematic situation the voluntary plagiarism check (VPC, an alternative preventive university didactic concept, was developed at the University of Education, Freiburg (Germany. It focused on the development of individual skills. Students were able to submit their academic papers (e.g. an undergraduate paper, final thesis anonymously. These were then tested with the PDS Ephorus. Following interpretation and summary of the findings by the project team - plagiarism as well as referencing mistakes - we advised the students on a suitable approach to academic writing based on their own typical mistakes. The VPC was conducted as a three-semester research project and was later evaluated. About 500 academic papers were tested. In 90% of the undergraduates' work incorrect and/or missing citations were found. This high percentage decreased among students in later semesters. Instances of plagiarism were detected in about 40% of the papers when the texts of advanced students (≥6th semester were tested. At the same time the length of the plagiarised texts decreased. Around half of the students stated that it was acceptable to copy single sentences or short passages from other sources without citation; they did not consider plagiarising on a limited scale as cheating. A similar number of students admitted to having doubts about whether they could write a good paper without plagiarising. Almost all
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The Evolution of a Writing Program.
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.
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Translation as a Paradigm Shift: A Corpus Study of Academic Writing
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Agnes Pisanski Peterlin
2013-05-01
Full Text Available In recent decades the increasing reliance on computer technology and the emergence of electronic publishing have precipitated changes in both the production and reception of academic writing. At the same time, the dominance of English as the medium of academic communication has been asserted in all fields of study. While many scholars write their own texts in English, it is not exceptional for others to have their papers translated into English. It is interesting, however, that translation of academic discourse has received relatively little research attention so far. In the study presented here, the question how translated academic texts differ from comparable original English academic texts is addressed. To explore this question, a 700,000-word corpus comprising 104 research articles (Slovene-English translations and comparable English originals is analyzed in terms of references to the entire text itself. The results show considerable differences between the translated texts and the comparable English-language originals.
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Larson, Susan C.
Academic language, discourse, vocabulary, motivation, and comprehension of complex texts and concepts are keys to learning subject-area content. The need for a disciplinary literacy approach in high school classrooms accelerates as students become increasing disengaged in school and as content complexity increases. In the present quasi-experimental mixed-method study, a ninth-grade biology unit was designed with an emphasis on promoting academic literacy skills, discourse, meaningful constructivist learning, interest development, and positive learning experiences in order to learn science content. Quantitative and qualitative analyses on a variety of measures completed by 222 students in two high schools revealed that those who received academic literacy instruction in science class performed at significantly higher levels of conceptual understanding of biology content, academic language and vocabulary use, reasoned thought, engagement, and quality of learning experience than control-group students receiving traditionally-organized instruction. Academic literacy was embedded into biology instruction to engage students in meaning-making discourses of science to promote learning. Academic literacy activities were organized according the phases of interest development to trigger and sustain interest and goal-oriented engagement throughout the unit. Specific methods included the Generative Vocabulary Matrix (GVM), scenario-based writing, and involvement in a variety of strategically-placed discourse activities to sustain or "boost" engagement for learning. Traditional instruction for the control group included teacher lecture, whole-group discussion, a conceptual organizer, and textbook reading. Theoretical foundations include flow theory, sociocultural learning theory, and interest theory. Qualitative data were obtained from field notes and participants' journals. Quantitative survey data were collected and analyzed using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) to
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Linguistic Features of Humor in Academic Writing
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…
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The Relationship between Writing Anxiety and Writing Disposition among Secondary School Students
Cocuk, Halil Erdem; Yanpar Yelken, Tugba; Ozer, Omer
2016-01-01
Problem Statement: Writing is important in secondary schools because it underpins the performance of students in most examinations. Writing disposition, which specifically deals with the aspects of students' attitudes toward writing, has also been studied by some researchers. Purpose of the Study: This study reports on the result of a study on the…
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"SCAFFOLDING" STUDENTS' WRITING IN EFL CLASS: IMPLEMENTING PROCESS APPROACH
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Ekaning Dewanti Laksmi
2006-01-01
Full Text Available The writing process approach views a writing learner as a creator of text, and hence, he needs to experience what writers actually do as they write, and so do students in EFL writing classes. The approach offers an answer to the need of helping the students develop their writing skill without their having to master the basic fundamental elements of writing, i.e. grammar, prior to attending the writing courses. This article highlights the potential of the process approach-with which students go through a write-rewrite process-in giving students a scaffold to work in a real, live process of how a real writer engages in the process of writing. However, the most important harvest is the fact that students have become more confident in expressing their ideas in writings.
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Zielinska, Dorota
2003-01-01
Outlines the technical writing tutorial (TWT) that precedes an advanced English as a second language (ESL) writing course for students of English Philology at the Jagiellonian University, Poland. Finds a statistically significant increase in the performance of the students who had taken the TWT. Indicates that technical writing books and journals…
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Sources of Writing Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Elementary, Middle, and High School Students
Pajares, Frank; Johnson, Margaret J.; Usher, Ellen L.
2007-01-01
The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of Albert Bandura's four hypothesized sources of self-efficacy on students' writing self-efficacy beliefs (N = 1256) and to explore how these sources differ as a function of gender and academic level (elementary, middle, high). Consistent with the tenets of self-efficacy theory, each of the…
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Yilmaz Soylu, Meryem; Zeleny, Mary G.; Zhao, Ruomeng; Bruning, Roger H.; Dempsey, Michael S.; Kauffman, Douglas F.
2017-01-01
The two studies reported here explored the factor structure of the newly constructed Writing Achievement Goal Scale (WAGS), and examined relationships among secondary students' writing achievement goals, writing self-efficacy, affect for writing, and writing achievement. In the first study, 697 middle school students completed the WAGS. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed a good fit for this data with a three-factor model that corresponds with mastery, performance approach, and performance avoidance goals. The results of Study 1 were an indication for the researchers to move forward with Study 2, which included 563 high school students. The secondary students completed the WAGS, as well as the Self-efficacy for Writing Scale, and the Liking Writing Scale. Students also self-reported grades for writing and for language arts courses. Approximately 6 weeks later, students completed a statewide writing assessment. We tested a theoretical model representing relationships among Study 2 variables using structural equation modeling including students' responses to the study scales and students' scores on the statewide assessment. Results from Study 2 revealed a good fit between a model depicting proposed relationships among the constructs and the data. Findings are discussed relative to achievement goal theory and writing. PMID:28878707
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Scott, Jessica A.; Hoffmeister, Robert J.
2018-01-01
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…
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Establishing Peer Mentor-Led Writing Groups in Large First-Year Courses
Marcoux, Sarah; Marken, Liv; Yu, Stan
2012-01-01
This paper describes the results of a pilot project designed to improve students' academic writing in a large (200-student) first-year Agriculture class at the University of Saskatchewan. In collaboration with the course's professor, the Writing Centre coordinator and a summer student designed curriculum for four two-hour Writing Group sessions…
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From digital to Academic Literacy: Interactional Dynamic and Writing Practices on Facebook
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Eunice Braga Pereira
2015-06-01
Full Text Available This paper discusses some of the results obtained in an educational project carried out in a Portuguese undergraduate course at Universidade Federal do Pará. We analyzed the interactional dynamic experienced by students in Facebook when it is used as a teaching platform, as well as the use of writing in these interactions. We understand that the use of digital literacy tools can greatly contribute to the training of future Portuguese language teachers, considering that such tools have directly influenced language practices. Integral formation of our students is one of our main objectives, so we intent not just preparing them for academic practice, but also for future teaching practice in a context which technology and digital tools will be increasingly present. Thus, we aim at contributing to the expansion of digital and academic literacy of our students. Blended Learning, a mix of face-to-face and on line teaching was the methodology used in the project. That way, we believe that learning could become a more continuous process. Our research is theoretically founded on the Studies about Literacy, as Martin (2008, Street (2014 and Lankshear and Knobel (2008 and by Levy (2010 Cyberculture. This ethnographic research analyses the, literacy in context, understood as social practice.
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Rickard, Claire M; McGrail, Matthew R; Jones, Rebecca; O'Meara, Peter; Robinson, Anske; Burley, Mollie; Ray-Barruel, Gillian
2009-07-01
Publication rates are a vital measure of individual and institutional performance, yet many nurse academics publish rarely or not at all. Despite widespread acceptance of the need to increase academic publication rates and the pressure university faculty may experience to fulfil this obligation, little is known about the effectiveness of practical strategies to support academic writing. In this small cohort study (n=8) comprising nurses and other professionals involved in university education, a questionnaire survey was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a one-week "Writing for Publication" course combined with a monthly writers support group to increase publication rates. Two year pre and post submissions increased from 9 to 33 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Publications (in print) per person increased from a baseline of 0.5-1.2 per year. Participants reported increased writing confidence and greater satisfaction with the publishing process. Peer support and receiving recognition and encouragement from line managers were also cited as incentives to publish. Writing for publication is a skill that can be learned. The evaluated model of a formal writing course, followed by informal monthly group support meetings, can effectively increase publication rates.
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Effects of Writing Instruction on Kindergarten Students' Writing Achievement: An Experimental Study
Jones, Cindy D'On
2015-01-01
This full-year experimental study examined how methods of writing instruction contribute to kindergarten students' acquisition of foundational and compositional early writing skills. Multiple regression with cluster analysis was used to compare 3 writing instructional groups: an interactive writing group, a writing workshop group, and a…
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Yu, Han
2008-01-01
To teach students how to write for the workplace and other professional contexts, technical writing teachers often assign writing tasks that reflect real-life communication contexts, a teaching approach that is grounded in the field's contextualized understanding of genre. This article argues to fully embrace contextualized literacy and better…
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Exploring Plagiarism into Perspectives of Indonesian Academics and Students
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Rina Agustina
2017-08-01
Full Text Available Plagiarism has been done by students from around the globes. There has been a heated discussion of finding reasons why plagiarism occurred in academic world and Eastern students in particular. This research wants to explore how actually students perceive plagiarism in their academic writing as well as how lecturers coped with plagiarism in the students’ assignments. The research participants were taken from 2 different majors, 32 English Education students and 10 Psychology students as well as 5 lecturers from English Education Department and 3 lecturers from Psychology Faculty in one of private universities in Central Java Province, Indonesia. Questionnaires were distributed to those respondents and also interviews were conducted to several lecturers and students. The results of questionnaire and interview showed that both students and lecturers knew and understand the essence of plagiarism, however, students admitted that they still plagiarised in their assignment. Lecturers, on the other hand, revealed that they could figure out when students plagiarised others’ works. However, it was limited to crossing over assignments between students. In other words, detecting plagiarism was done manually and restricted to students’ written works only. In conclusion, despite comprehending the meaning of plagiarism, student still plagiarised since there was not any real action from lecturers to encounter it.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Meryem Yilmaz Soylu
2017-08-01
Full Text Available The two studies reported here explored the factor structure of the newly constructed Writing Achievement Goal Scale (WAGS, and examined relationships among secondary students' writing achievement goals, writing self-efficacy, affect for writing, and writing achievement. In the first study, 697 middle school students completed the WAGS. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed a good fit for this data with a three-factor model that corresponds with mastery, performance approach, and performance avoidance goals. The results of Study 1 were an indication for the researchers to move forward with Study 2, which included 563 high school students. The secondary students completed the WAGS, as well as the Self-efficacy for Writing Scale, and the Liking Writing Scale. Students also self-reported grades for writing and for language arts courses. Approximately 6 weeks later, students completed a statewide writing assessment. We tested a theoretical model representing relationships among Study 2 variables using structural equation modeling including students' responses to the study scales and students' scores on the statewide assessment. Results from Study 2 revealed a good fit between a model depicting proposed relationships among the constructs and the data. Findings are discussed relative to achievement goal theory and writing.
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Sang, Yuan
2017-01-01
This research synthesis collected, compiled, and analyzed 29 academic research articles that were published in China in recent years. It addressed and explored the issues in Chinese undergraduate students' English writing and the possible reasons causing and/or explaining the issues. It was discovered that many Chinese undergraduate students have…
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National Writing Project 2009 Annual Report
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…
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Fisher, Elizabeth
2014-01-01
This book is a step by step illustrated guide to planning and writing dissertations and theses for undergraduate and graduate science students. Topics covered include advice on writing each section of a thesis as well as general discussions on collecting and organizing references, keeping records, presenting data, interacting with a supervisor and avoiding academic misconduct. Recommendations about how to use word processors and other software packages effectively are included, as well as advice on the use of other resources. A concise summary of important points of English grammar is given, along with appendices listing frequently confused words and wordy phrases to avoid. Further appendices are provided, including one on Si units. The aim is to provide an easy-to-read guide that gives students practical advice about all aspects of writing a science thesis or dissertation, starting from writing a thesis plan and finishing with the viva and corrections to the thesis.
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DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Borgström, Benedikte
With care of writing as a method of inquiry, this paper engages in academic writing such as responsible knowledge development drawing on emotion, thought and reason. The aim of the paper is to better understand emancipatory knowledge development. Bodily experiences and responses shape academic...... writing and there are possibilities for responsible academic writing in that iterative process. I propose that academic writing can be seen as possibilities of passionate as well as passive writing....
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Writing Motivation of Students with Specific Language Impairments
Brouwer, Kyle Lee
2010-01-01
This study was designed to compare the writing motivation of students with specific language impairments with their non-disabled peers. Due to the cognitive and linguistic demands of the writing process, students with language impairments face unique difficulties during the writing process. It was hypothesized that students with specific language…
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Writing and Related Problems for EFL Students
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Hassan Edalat
2008-05-01
Full Text Available ESL students who write in English may present written material in a rhetorical and organizational mode that reflects the pattern which is valued in their native culture and rhetoric. Considering the violation of English code of writing in the writings of Iranian students, we will notice one common characteristic: They are reluctant (or ignorant of to write a unified paragraph. Their writing consists of one whole page or two. They do not divide their writing into separate paragraphs. The knowledge of the writer on any subject begins and ends as much as the time or space for writing allows with no paragraph separation. The length of sentences is extraordinary, and the position of modifiers does not seem natural according to the code of English sentence pattern. This means that elements transferred from L1 rhetoric result in a production which does not match the English language style and rhetoric, despite the fact that some students lack grammatical competence. As a result, this type of writing is labeled unacceptable, vague or erroneous by English language standards. The focus of this study is to use English major students' writings to identify the elements which violate English language pattern of writing. The sources of errors responsible for non-English language rhetoric will be classified after a short theoretical review in the literature and finally suggestions for the elimination of errors will be presented.
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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…
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Re-contextualising academic writing in English
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Larsen, Sanne
six focal students’ challenges in re-contextualising themselves as writers in English in a new university environment, data were generated from regular interviews with the participants over one semester, supplemented by questionnaires, documentary evidence, and observational data. Analyses building......’ experiences as writers of English, manifested in three main areas of concern: ideational, linguistic, and interpersonal. These writing concerns were embedded in more global processes of establishing academic continuity and in managing English-mediated instruction and learning in the English...
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The Impact of Computer-Assisted Writing on Improving Writing Scores for Urban Eighth-Grade Students
Williams-Butler, LaTilya
2016-01-01
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact standards-based aligned computer-assisted writing instruction had on improving writing scores for eighth-grade students that attend an urban middle school. The researcher wanted to remedy the problem of low writing achievement of eighth-grade students and determine if writing across the…
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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.
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Ekholm, Eric; Zumbrunn, Sharon; Conklin, Sarah
2015-01-01
Despite the powerful effect feedback often has on student writing success more research is needed on how students emotionally react to the feedback they receive. This study tested the predictive and mediational roles of college student writing self-efficacy beliefs and feedback perceptions on writing self-regulation aptitude. Results suggested…
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Creating an Oasis: Some Insights into the Practice and Theory of a Successful Academic Writing Group
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…
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'Academic literacies approaches to genre'?
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Brian Street
Full Text Available I provide an overview of approaches to writing referred to as 'academic literacies' building on broader traditions, such as New Literacy Studies, and I draw out the relevance of such traditions for the ways in which lecturers provide support to their students with regard to the writing requirements of the University. I offer three case studies of the application of academic literacies approaches to programmes concerned with supporting student writing, in the UK and the USA. I briefly conclude by asking how far these accounts and this work can be seen to bring together many of the themes raised at SIGET conferences - including academic literacies and its relation to genre theories - and express the hope that it opens up trajectories for future research and collaboration of the kind they were founded to develop.
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The academic transitional experiences of masters’ students at the University of the Western Cape
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Jeffrey C. Hoffman
2012-08-01
A quantitative, exploratory, descriptive research design was employed. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with masters’ students during 2009, using convenience sampling. Data was statistically analysed using the SPSS to provide descriptive statistics. The majority of the sample indicated a lack of academic preparedness, even though most of them had a bachelor’s degree. The primary reasons listed as motivation for master’s study were to improve knowledge and reaching self-actualisation. The majority is still eager to complete their studies. Most support systems were utilised and students rated these services as a positive experience that facilitates smooth academic transition. However, concerns are that not many students utilised the academic writing centre and those who did, rated the overall service as average. One of the main recommendations was that a research culture needs to be established
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Critical Thinking through Writing: Expressing Scientific Thought and Process in a Deaf Classroom
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.
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Effects of Guided Writing Strategies on Students' Writing Attitudes Based on Media Richness Theory
Lan, Yu-Feng; Hung, Chun-Ling; Hsu, Hung-Ju
2011-01-01
The purpose of this paper is to develop different guided writing strategies based on media richness theory and further evaluate the effects of these writing strategies on younger students' writing attitudes in terms of motivation, enjoyment and anxiety. A total of 66 sixth-grade elementary students with an average age of twelve were invited to…
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Wolbers, Kimberly A.; Dostal, Hannah M.; Graham, Steve; Cihak, David; Kilpatrick, Jennifer R.; Saulsburry, Rachel
2015-01-01
Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI) has led to improved writing and language outcomes among deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) middle grades students. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of SIWI on the written expression of DHH elementary students across recount/personal narrative, information report, and persuasive…
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Reading and Writing as Academic Literacy in EAP Program of Indonesian Leaners
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…
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Comparison of Writing Anxiety and Writing Dispositions of Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Grade Students
Berk, Rifat Ramazan; Ünal, Emre
2017-01-01
The purpose of this study is to determine sixth, seventh and eighth grade students' writing anxiety and dispositions and to examine to what extent they predict each other. The basis of this study is to determine whether writing disposition is the significant predictor of writing anxiety or not and whether students' grade levels and genders are…
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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…
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Writing Skills for Technical Students. Fourth Edition.
Carlisle, Vicky; Smith, Harriet; Baker, Fred; Ellegood, George; Kopay, Carol; Tanzer, Ward; Young, Diana; Dujordan, Jerome; Webster, Ron; Lewis, Sara Drew
This self-paced text/workbook is designed for the adult learner who needs a review of grammar and writing skills in order to write clearly and concisely on the job. It offers career-minded students 14 individualized instructional modules on grammar, paragraph writing, report writing, letter writing, and spelling. It is designed for both self-paced…
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The Value of Understanding Students' Prior Writing Experience in ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
How should undergraduate science students' writing be understood when it does not meet the conventions of scientific writing? Studies have shown that the writing that students produce in their course work on tasks that imitate authentic scientific writing practices often do not match the tone, vocabulary and grammatical ...
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Planning at a Higher Level: Ideas, Form, and Academic Language in Student Prewriting
Morris, Paul
2012-01-01
For students, writing is too frequently a matter of going through the motions, perhaps no truer than with the traditional academic essay. Although there are many culprits for this disengagement, one is surely an over-emphasis on form--and particularly set form--to the detriment of content. When form becomes formula, planning is stultified, losing…
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MBA Students' Workplace Writing: Implications for Business Writing Pedagogy and Workplace Practice
Lentz, Paula
2013-01-01
Employers frequently complain about the state of their employees' writing skills. Much of the current research on this subject explores workplace writing skills from the employer's perspective. However, this article examines workplace writing from the employees' perspective. Specifically, it analyzes MBA students' responses to a course assignment…
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Academic Entitlement and Academic Performance in Graduating Pharmacy Students
Jeffres, Meghan N.; Barclay, Sean M.; Stolte, Scott K.
2014-01-01
Objectives. To determine a measurable definition of academic entitlement, measure academic entitlement in graduating doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students, and compare the academic performance between students identified as more or less academically entitled.
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Why Literature Students Should Practise Life Writing
Cardell, Kylie; Douglas, Kate
2018-01-01
This article considers our experiences teaching a hybrid literature/creative writing subject called "Life Writing." We consider the value of literature students engaging in creative writing practice--in this instance, the nonfiction subgenre of life writing--as part of their critical literary studies. We argue that in practicing life…
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Student perceptions of writing projects in a university differential-equations course
Latulippe, Christine; Latulippe, Joe
2014-01-01
This qualitative study surveyed 102 differential-equations students in order to investigate how students participating in writing projects in university-level mathematics courses perceive the benefits of writing in the mathematics classroom. Based on previous literature on writing in mathematics, students were asked specifically about the benefits of writing projects as a means to explore practical uses of mathematics, deepen content knowledge, and strengthen communication. Student responses indicated an awareness of these benefits, supporting justifications commonly cited by instructors assigning writing projects. Open-ended survey responses highlighted additional themes which students associated with writing in mathematics, including using software programs and technology, working in groups, and stimulating interest in mathematics. This study provides student feedback to support the use of writing projects in mathematics, as well as student input, which can be utilized to strengthen the impact of writing projects in mathematics.
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Cognition and Error in Student Writing
Perrault, S. T.
2011-01-01
The author integrates work from cognitive and developmental psychology with studies in writing in order to explain why the quality of student writing sometimes appears to regress to earlier or less proficient levels. Insights from this combined analysis are applied to explain how and why to use specific Writing Across the Curriculum strategies to…
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Adolescents' Use of Academic Language in Historical Writing
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…
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Effects of Feedback on Collaborative Writing in an Online Learning Environment
Guasch, Teresa; Espasa, Anna; Alvarez, Ibis M.; Kirschner, Paul A.
2013-01-01
The need for supporting student writing has received much attention in writing research. One specific type of support is feedback--including peer feedback--on the writing process. Despite the wealth of literature on both feedback and academic writing, there is little empirical evidence on what type of feedback best promotes writing in online…
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Academic essay writing in the first person: a guide for undergraduates.
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.
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Computer Anxiety, Academic Stress, and Academic Procrastination on College Students
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Wahyu Rahardjo
2013-01-01
Full Text Available Academic procrastination is fairly and commonly found among college students. The lack of understanding in making the best use of computer technology may lead to anxiety in terms of operating computer hence cause postponement in completing course assignments related to computer operation. On the other hand, failure in achieving certain academic targets as expected by parents and/or the students themselves also makes students less focused and leads to tendency of postponing many completions of course assignments. The aim of this research is to investigate contribution of anxiety in operating computer and academic stress toward procrastination on students. As much as 65 students majoring in psychology became participants in this study. The results showed that anxiety in operating computer and academic stress play significant role in influencing academic procrastination among social sciences students. In terms of academic procrastination tendencies, anxiety in operating computer and academic stress, male students have higher percentage than female students.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Angela Diane Crocker
2018-01-01
Full Text Available Many first-year students in the School of Law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College, who have been disadvantaged by a poor primary and secondary education, exhibit poor legal writing skills. Over a period of four years, in order to address this urgent need for legal writing instruction, the School of Law introduced two successive legal writing interventions. The first intervention was the Concise Writing Programme, followed by the Integrated Skills in Context Programme. The Concise Writing Programme focused on English writing skills and grammar in the hope that first-year law students would be able to transfer these generic writing skills to the more specific legal discourse within which they were learning to operate. The Law School reviewed the success of this initial programme and found that students who took part in the programme not only lacked the motivation to learn generic English writing skills, but that they also did not find it easy to transfer these skills to the more specific legal writing environment. The Law School then implemented a second legal writing intervention – The Integrated Skills in Context Programme. This programme acknowledged the fact that legal writing has a multi-faceted nature, encompassing legal analysis and application, as well as logical sequencing and argument, all of which could not be taught in a vacuum, particularly when most of the student base was largely unfamiliar with any form of legal discourse and many had English as a second language. This paper recognises that there is no silver bullet to improving the legal writing skills of these students. The reality is that it will take hard work as well as financial incentives to make a difference to these students' legal writing skills. Our students need intensive one-on-one attention by qualified academics, and this means that those doing the instruction must be recognised and adequately compensated.
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Partners in Crime: Integrating Forensic Science and Writing
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…
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Student Perceptions of Academic Dishonesty in a Private Middle Eastern University
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Khawlah Ahmed
2018-04-01
Full Text Available Objective: In varying degrees of severity and seriousness, evidence of academic dishonesty exists in tertiary institutions around the world. This paper examines academic misconduct in a tertiary-level institution in one of the Gulf countries to see if academic dishonesty prevails, and if so, how and why it happens. Method: To gauge students’ perceptions about academic dishonesty in this context, a survey was distributed to 111 junior, sophomore, and senior level students taking an advanced academic writing course in a private university. Results: Results show statistically significant evidence that cheating exists. Conclusions: While research on academic misconduct is extensive in Western contexts, less is documented in the Middle East and North Africa region besides conceptual papers that aim to create a general understanding of this issue and newspaper articles that discuss its prevalence. Implications for Theory and/or Practice: This paper underscores the existence of academic misconduct in the Middle East and North Africa region, identifying the need for further research and implementation of improved teaching strategies and increased attention regarding academic misconduct.
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Exploring Elementary Student Perceptions of Writing Feedback
Marrs, Sarah; Zumbrunn, Sharon; McBride, Caitlin; Stringer, J. K.
2016-01-01
The purpose of this descriptive qualitative investigation was to explore elementary students' (N = 867) perceptions of the feedback they receive on their writing. After responding to the closed-ended question, "Do you like to receive feedback about your writing?" students were branched to the appropriate follow-up open-ended question,…
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The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing Is Taught in Schools
Purcell, Kristen; Buchanan, Judy; Friedrich, Linda
2013-01-01
A survey of 2,462 Advanced Placement (AP) and National Writing Project (NWP) teachers finds that digital technologies are shaping student writing in myriad ways and have also become helpful tools for teaching writing to middle and high school students. These teachers see the internet and digital technologies such as social networking sites, cell…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Kiky Soraya
2016-11-01
Full Text Available This study is aimed at finding out what appropriate methods to be usedin writing lesson seen from the students’ creativity especially for studentswho have high creativityand low creativity. This study used quasi experimental research. The population of the research was the eighth grade of a Junior High School in Wonosari in the academic year of 2013/2014. The sampling technique used was cluster random sampling. The sample in this study was 64 students covering 32 students of E as experimental class and 32 students of C as control class. The data or the students’ writing scores were analyzed in terms of their frequency distribution, normality, homogeneity, then ANOVA and Tuckey tests to test the research hypotheses. Based on the result, the research findings are: CWS is more effective than MWS in writing lesson; the high creativity students produced better writing rather than the low creativity student; and the interaction of teaching methods and the students’ creativity is existing in this writing lesson. In short, Collaborative Writing Strategy (CWS is effective to teach writing for the eighth grade of a Junior High School in Wonosari, Gunungkidul. Then, the research result implies that it is better for the teachers to apply CWS in teaching and learning process of writing, to improve the students’ writing achievement, CWS needs to be used in the classroom activities, then future research can conduct the similar research with different sample and different students’ condition.
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Exploring Students' Reflective Writing on Facebook
Annamalai, Nagaletchimee; Jaganathan, Paramaswari
2017-01-01
According to our experience, facilitating online reflective writing via Facebook motivates students to improve their writing skills and reflective thinking. Six students and a teacher from an urban school in the northern region of Malaysia were involved in this study. The qualitative data in the form of online archives were categorized as…
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Velliaris, Donna M.; Breen, Paul
2016-01-01
In this paper, the authors explore a holistic three-stage framework currently used by the Eynesbury Institute of Business and Technology (EIBT), focused on academic staff identification and remediation processes for the prevention of (un)intentional student plagiarism. As a pre-university pathway provider--whose student body is 98%…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Lia Aris Tantya
2017-02-01
Full Text Available Abstract: The objective of this research are to find out whether, the result of students’ score by using Think Pair Share Technique maximal, the result of students’ score by using Pairs Check Technique maximal and students’ score of Writing Ability in Recount Text, how far the result of Influence of Using Think Pair Share and Pairs Check Tehnique toward Students Writing Ability in Recount Text. This research is Quantitative research. Research design that will be used in this research is true experimental design. The population of this research is the students’ of SMP N 2 Pekalongan in 2013/2014 that consist of 603 students. The sample is 60 students. As the sample, 30 as experimental class and 30 as control class. In taking sample, the researcher used the cluster random sampling. The data collecting tehniques the researcher used are try-out, pre-test, treatment and post-test. The data analyzing tehniques, the researcher used normality test, homogenity test and hypothesis test. The differences of both the tehnique are TPS Tehnique can make students enjoy and fun in learning process because it is adopted by Share and can make students be active in learning. Based on the data analysis, the researcher uses t-test formula. The researcher got the result of tobserved = 2.78 and ttable is 2.00. it means that tobserved > ttable. And the criterion of ttest is Ha accepted if tobserved > ttable . So, there is differences between using TPS and Pairs Check tehnique toward students’ writing ability in recount text at the students of SMP N 2 Pekalongan in academic year 2013/2014.
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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…
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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,…
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Jefferies, Diana; McNally, Stephen; Roberts, Katriona; Wallace, Anna; Stunden, Annette; D'Souza, Suzanne; Glew, Paul
2018-01-01
This systematic review was designed to assess the importance of academic literacy for undergraduate nursing students and its relationship to future professional clinical practice. It aimed to explore the link between academic literacy and writing in an undergraduate nursing degree and the development of critical thinking skills for their future professional clinical practice. A systematic review of qualitative studies and expert opinion publications. A systematic literature search was undertaken of the following databases: ERIC, PubMed, CINAHL, MEDLINE and Scopus. All papers reviewed were from 2000 to 2016 and were written in English. We identified 981 studies and expert opinion papers from the selected databases. After reviewing key words and abstracts for the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 48 papers were selected for review. These were read and reread, with 22 papers, including one thesis, selected for quality appraisal. One paper was discarded due to the exclusion criteria. Three major themes were evident from this study. First, students need assistance to develop tertiary level academic literacy skills when they commence their undergraduate nursing degree. Second, that teaching practices need to be consistent in both designing assessments and in giving feedback to students, in order to assist improvement of academic literacy skills. And finally, academic literacy can facilitate critical thinking when students are assessed using discipline specific genres that relate to their future professional nursing practice. This review highlights the importance of critical thinking in clinical nursing practice and its strong relationship with academic writing skills. It has shown critical thinking is discipline specific and nursing students need to be taught discipline specific literacy genres in undergraduate nursing degrees. Nursing has a diverse educational and cultural mix of students, and educators should not assume academic literacy skills upon commencement of an
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INVESTIGATION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ EFL WRITING APPREHENSION: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY IN CROATIA
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Moira Kostić Bobanović
2016-03-01
Full Text Available Writing apprehension defines a person's ability to write under various stress types. Depending on a situation, an average person might perform below expectations, or be less apprehensive about writing than a professional. The purpose of this research is to investigate Croatian University students’ English as a foreign language writing apprehension. For the purpose to determine if the variables of students' gender and academic level (age play a role in their writing apprehension, we adapted WAT (Writing Apprehension Test so this would be tailored to our study popu-lation. A longitudinal study was conducted among the students who were studying at the University of Juraj Dobrila, Pula. The participants were tested twice: in the first and in the third year. The results of the study indicated that, in contrary to respondents’ gender, academic level was significant variable in their estimates of writing apprehension. In accordance with the findings stated above, a number of recommendations for handling writing apprehension were set.
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Writing the Trenches: What Students of Technical Writing and Literature Can Learn Together
Baake, Ken; Shelton, Jen
2017-01-01
We argue for a course in which students analyze writing about a common topic--in this case World War I--from multiple genres (e.g., poetry and technical manuals). We address the divide between instruction in pragmatic and literary writing and calls to bridge that gap. Students working in disparate areas of English learn the strengths and the…
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Becoming a Professional Nudist: Writing with One's Students.
Boswell, Bill; And Others
1995-01-01
Uses the provocative metaphor of becoming a nudist to illustrate that teachers should write, and share their writing, with their students. Describes a program in which student teachers spent six weeks in class and seven weeks in student teaching and were required to keep journals in which they reflected on what they had learned. (PA)
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Olmanson, Justin; Kennett, Katrina; Magnifico, Alecia; McCarthey, Sarah; Searsmith, Duane; Cope, Bill; Kalantzis, Mary
2016-01-01
Once writers complete a first draft, they are often encouraged to evaluate their writing and prioritize what to revise. Yet, this process can be both daunting and difficult. This study looks at how students used a semantic concept mapping tool to re-present the content and organization of their initial draft of an informational text. We examine…
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The intersection of professional and academic discourses: Hybridity ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
The data comes from a linguistic analysis of (two) students' writing informed by intertextuality, and appraisal analysis of written proposals. In the linguistic analysis of students' writing, findings point to hybridization when police attempt to access academic discourse. Findings suggest that the 'practices' from the workplace ...
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Academic Procrastination on Worker Students
Muzaqi, Sugito; Arumsari, Andini Dwi
2017-01-01
Academic procrastination is to delay the work in the academic field. Academic procrastination occurs because students who work less able to divide his time well, between work and college. Students who work doing academic procrastination because it is less able to regulate themselves. Self-regulation is the ability to control their own behavior and one of the prime movers of the human personality. In the process of self-regulation, academic procrastination students who need to understand the i...
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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.
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Ellis, Robert A.; Taylor, Charlotte E.; Drury, Helen
2005-01-01
Learning through writing is a way of learning not only the appropriate written expression of disciplinary knowledge, but also the knowledge itself through reflection and revision. This study investigates the quality of a writing experience provided to university students in a first-year biology subject. The writing instruction methodology used is…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Audy Yuliser Castañeda Castañeda
2018-04-01
Full Text Available Nowadays ICTs worldwide use has transformed the global society. Through Virtual Learning Environments teaching is focused on the individual, in a way that, considering the differences among students, each of them is expected to follow his own learning paths. Within the syllabus design of university courses conductive to the degree of teacher of English as a Foreign Language (EFL at Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador, Instituto Pedagógico de Caracas (IPC Venezuela, there is a subject devoted to the development of reading and writing skills, namely Reading and Writing II, whose aim is to promote the students’ incorporation into the academic world pertaining their career as EFL educators, so that they learn how to communicate within such academic discourse community. The purpose of this action-research study was to describe an experience with the course Reading and Writing II course (academic period 2011-II within the b-learning modality in regards to the 42 participants’ motivation to high achievement, as evidenced by the number of students who passed, failed, or dropped the course, as well as by their grades at the end of the academic period. By means of surveys and direct observation, the participants’ perception was that there are advantages in using the IPC Virtual Learning Environment (IPCEVA, as well as some disadvantages and limitations, mainly due to the lack of some participants’ sufficient expertise in using ICTs
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Schooling Background and Academic Academic Achievement of Agricultural Students
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N. Jayakumar
2016-05-01
Full Text Available In our society academic achievement is considered as a key criterion to judge one’s total potentiality and capability. Academic achievement is seen as a students’ grade point averages in many academic settings. Academic achievement has become an index of students’ future in this highly competitive world and Agricultural education is no exception. Hence it becomes necessary to find out the factors that determine better academic performance. In this context the present study had been carried out to find out the possible relationship between schooling background and academic achievement of agriculture students. The students admitted in Adhiparasakthi Agricultural College, Kalavai, Vellore between 1999 and 2009 formed the subjects of the study. Findings of the study revealed that determinants like gender, type of school and stream of education had a significant role in the academic achievement of the students. Medium of instruction in HSC did influence the academic achievement but not significantly. It was also found that students who performed well in their HSC did perform well in their undergraduate programme also. This confirms that previous educational outcomes are the most important indicators of student’s future achievement and schooling background has a significant role in academic achievement of students.
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Academic writing for business students: a case for a content and language integrated approach
Van Houtven, Tine; Kerkhofs, Goele; Peters, Elke
2012-01-01
Research has shown that many students (Dutch L1/L2) do not meet academic language requirements upon entering Flemish higher education (Peters, Van Houtven, El Morabit, 2010). Many universities feel compelled to help their first-year students bridge the gap between secondary and tertiary education. This paper reports on a case study at the Integrated Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Leuven that investigated how a language-sensitive instructional approach could improve bus...
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Writing as Envision: Autobiographical and Academic Writing in the Composition Class.
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…
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Academic Motivations and Academic Self-Efficacy of Nursing Students
Gamze Sarikoc
2017-01-01
Aim: Academic motivation and academic self-efficacy play important roles in the learning process. They increase academic achievement and the attainment of educational goals, thus providing opportunities in the training of qualified nurses. This study was conducted to determine nursing students%u2019 academic motivation and academic self-efficacy levels. Material and Method: This is a descriptive study. A total of 346 students who are attending a nursing school as either a first, second, third...
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Comparison of Writing Anxiety and Writing Dispositions of Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Grade Students
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Rifat Ramazan Berk
2017-01-01
Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to determine sixth, seventh and eighth grade students’ writing anxiety and dispositions and to examine to what extent they predict each other. The basis of this study is to determine whether writing disposition is the significant predictor of writing anxiety or not and whether students’ grade levels and genders are significant predictor of writing anxiety and dispositions or not. The research was designed according to survey model. The study group, selected through simple sampling method, is made up of 860 students studying at 6th, 7th and 8th grades in elementary schools of Şarkışla District, Sivas. While “Writing Anxiety Scale”, adapted into Turkish by Özbay and Zorbay (2011, was administered to determine the study group’s writing anxiety level, “Writing Disposition Scale”, adapted into Turkish by İşeri and Ünal (2010, was used to determine the writing disposition level. At the end of the study, it was found that writing disposition is a significant predictor of writing anxiety and students’ grade levels and genders are significant predictors of writing anxiety and dispositions. An education environment to create a strong writing disposition for students is recommended. Also, similar studies on different dimensions of the issue can be conducted.
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Writing-to-Learn: Attitudes of nursing students at Sultan Qaboos University.
Balachandran, Shreedevi; Venkatesaperumal, Ramesh; Clara, Jothi; Shukri, Raghda K
2014-02-01
The objectives of this study were to assess the attitude of Omani nursing students towards writing-to-learn (WTL) and its relationship to demographic variables, self-efficacy and the writing process. A cross-sectional design was used to evaluate attitudes towards WTL by Sultan Qaboos University nursing students. A convenience sample of 106 students was used and data collected between October 2009 and March 2010. A modified version of the WTL attitude scale developed by Dobie and Poirrier was used to collect the data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for analysis. Senior and junior students had more positive attitudes to WTL than mid-level students who tended to have negative attitudes towards writing. Although 52.8% students had negative attitudes towards the writing process, the median was higher for attitudes to the writing process compared to the median for self-efficacy. There was a positive correlation between self-efficacy and writing process scores. Overall, students had negative attitudes towards WTL. Attitudes are learnt or formed through previous experiences. The incorporation of WTL strategies into teaching can transform students' negative attitudes towards writing into positive ones.
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A Rubric to Enrich Student Writing and Understanding
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Teresa L Larkin
2015-05-01
Full Text Available The importance of effective communication, both written and oral, has been widely documented within the STEM community. In fact, the ability to communicate effectively is a skillset that is often required by employers. Oftentimes it is challenging to make the transition from academia to the work place. The ability to communicate well is a critical element of this transition. This paper will describe a more authentic experience using a professional conference format that provides students an opportunity to sharpen both their written and oral communication skills. The professional conference paper activity has been utilized in a second-level physics course at American University for 15 years. The conference paper activity allows students to experience all aspects of a professional conference, which is something that they do not get in other courses. This paper will describe the conference paper activity and focus on the use of a rubric that has recently been implemented in order to assist students during multiple phases of the writing process. Through the conference paper, students must communicate about a technical topic in physics while simultaneously connecting that topic to their major field of study. Numerous steps are involved in the paper writing process and each one is designed to emulate an actual conference. The conference paper activity and the associated rubric discussed in this paper offer a unique opportunity for multiple points of feedback, both from the instructor and from their classmates, while the writing process is taking place. Too often in academia a writing activity is designed in such a way that students merely submit their final written papers for a grade. Once a final paper is submitted, there is no opportunity for feedback that will aid in the actual development and writing of the paper. A more traditional paper writing experience does not provide opportunities for formative feedback prior to submission of the final
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Vujanović Marina M.
2017-01-01
Full Text Available Writing, a skill that students practice as soon as they start primary school, requires coordination between motor, perceptual and cognitive abilities. In order to determine the effect of gender on writing difficulties and the possible differences in the relationship between tactile-kinesthetic perception and writing skills of boys and girls with and without writing difficulties, a study was conducted in 2016 on a sample of 1,156 fifth to eighth grade students of eight Belgrade primary schools. Although the results obtained suggest that girls write faster than boys, difficulties with writing fast were equally present in both groups of students. However, difficulties with writing quality occurred with statistically significantly greater frequency among boys. Pencil grip, kinesthetic sensibility test results and consistency of pressure were not unrelated to students' gender, with girls achieving better results. Moreover, boys had significantly lower scores than girls on tactile function tests. The obtained results indicate that gender is a determinant of writing difficulties as measured through speed of writing and legibility. Also, girls have more developed kinesthetic-tactile functions, which are correlated with writing quality.
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Ethical and Unethical Methods of Plagiarism Prevention in Academic Writing
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…
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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…
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Building a scholar in writing (BSW): A model for developing students' critical writing skills.
Bailey, Annette; Zanchetta, Margareth; Velasco, Divine; Pon, Gordon; Hassan, Aafreen
2015-11-01
Several authors have highlighted the importance of writing in developing reflective thinking skills, transforming knowledge, communicating expressions, and filling knowledge gaps. However, difficulties with higher order processing and critical analysis affect students' ability to write critical and thoughtful essays. The Building a Scholar in Writing (BSW) model is a 6-step process of increasing intricacies in critical writing development. Development of critical writing is proposed to occur in a processed manner that transitions from presenting simple ideas (just bones) in writing, to connecting ideas (connecting bones), to formulating a thesis and connecting key components (constructing a skeleton), to supporting ideas with evidence (adding muscle), to building creativity and originality (adding essential organs), and finally, developing strong, integrated, critical arguments (adding brain). This process symbolically represents the building of a scholar. The idea of building a scholar equates to progressively giving life and meaning to a piece of writing with unique scholarly characteristics. This progression involves a transformation in awareness, thinking, and understanding, as well as advancement in students' level of critical appraisal skills. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Young people’s writing in senior English classrooms: Opening the classroom door
LOUISE ANNE PIVA
2018-01-01
The thesis is a practitioner inquiry that examines the teaching of writing to Year 12 students in the subject of English. It uses narrative inquiry to examine the teaching and learning of writing over the course of one academic year. It focuses on the dialogue between the teacher, her students and others as well as the contextual and socio-cultural factors that influence and mediate the teaching and learning of writing.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Pauline Sangster, Graeme Trousdale & Charles Anderson
2012-06-01
Full Text Available This article reports on part of a study investigating a new writing assessment, the Writer's Craft, which requires students to read a stimulus passage and then write a continuation adopting the style of the original. The article provides a detailed analysis of stimulus passages employed within this assessment scheme and students' written continuations of these passages. The findings reveal that this is a considerably more challenging assessment writing task than has previously been recognised; and that questions arise concerning the nature of the stimulus passages and the extent to which the assessment criteria captured what the students had achieved in their writing. The implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations are made.
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Let's Talk! ESL Students' Needs and Writing Centre Philosophy
Moussu, Lucie
2013-01-01
When university/college faculty members believe that ESL students' writing skills are not equivalent to those of native speakers, they frequently send these ESL students to their institution's writing centres (WCs). However, this often results in frustration for WC staff, the students, and faculty members. This article first describes ESL…
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Narrative Writing in Digital Formats: Interpreting the Impact of Audience
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Lawrence Joshua Fahey
2015-12-01
Full Text Available Digital writing has enabled students to write for a variety of authentic audiences, both in and out of the classroom. As they consider audience, students shoulder a cognitive burden that they must juggle in addition to the task of composition. At the same time, writing provides students with opportunities to craft and express their identities. The ways that identity formation and cognitive load intersect may be particularly complex in digital, online writing environments, as students gain the ability to share and receive feedback from global and local audiences. In this counterbalanced experimental study, 86 seventh- and eighth-grade students responded to two narrative prompts. One prompt was written for the teacher and the other was written for the teacher and peers in an online forum. We examined student writing fluency, mechanical errors, academic word use, and setting. Students were found to be more likely to set narratives in private settings when writing for an audience that included peers. We discuss this finding from cognitive and sociocultural perspectives and how it might inform networked communication research.
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Students' Academic Performance: Academic Effort Is an Intervening ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
PROMOTING ACCESS TO AFRICAN RESEARCH ... Students' Academic Performance: Academic Effort Is an Intervening Variable ... This study was designed to seek explanations for differences in academic performance among junior ...
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Student Perceptions of Writing Projects in a University Differential-Equations Course
Latulippe, Christine; Latulippe, Joe
2014-01-01
This qualitative study surveyed 102 differential-equations students in order to investigate how students participating in writing projects in university-level mathematics courses perceive the benefits of writing in the mathematics classroom. Based on previous literature on writing in mathematics, students were asked specifically about the benefits…
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Writing learning cases for an information literacy tutorial
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Gunhild Austrheim
2010-09-01
Full Text Available The research and writing processes are often hidden mysteries to our students. A key point in the online tutorial Search and Write (Søk and Skriv has been to supply our students with tools to handle these processes. Learning cases embedded in the tutorial allow us to demonstrate a variety of working techniques and to better cater for a diverse student population. The tutorial can be used as an independent resource for students and as a teaching aid for both library sessions on information literacy and for faculty-led sessions on academic writing. Our tutorial is available in Norwegian and in English and thereby the tutorial can be used with both local and international students. An online tutorial is aimed at all students and therefore the information literacy content is of a general kind. The pedagogical foundation for the Search and Write tutorial is in contextual learning. Adding context to our general content has been important to us and we decided to develop learning cases for this purpose. In our online tutorial we have developed three sample student blogs, Kuhlthau’s information search process functions as a template in structuring the students’ stories. The blogs are learning cases, developed with the intent of illustrating various aspects of academic writing tasks. The blog stories are idealized and touch upon many of the known stumbling stones for student writers. Contextualising the search and write process like this let us explore the diversity of student assignments and from various fields of study. When our real-life students use Search and Write they may use their own research question as a point of departure. They can read the blog stories and relate these stories to their own experiences. They can use the How to brainstorm-tips provided in Sofie’s blog. Christian’s use of tutors, library staff and his writing group can provide guidance on who to ask for help. For students writing literature reviews Oda’s systematic
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Taking a Closer Look at Your Informational Writing Instruction
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…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Ahmad Mosa Batianeh
2014-10-01
Full Text Available Abstractــ-This study explored the effects of using online chat and word processors on students' writing skills that include; organizing a text, spelling, punctuation, grammar, phrasal verbs, idioms, idiomatic expressions, pragmatics, creativity, vocabulary growth, content, relational words, conjunctions, authenticity, figures of speech, imagination, coherence, style, socio-cultural aspects, language use, and the production of authentic text. The study group consisted of students in the Department of Languages and Translation at Taibah University who registered for the Writing Two course in the first semester of the 2012 - 2013 academic year. Fourty subjects were divided into two sections: section one was assigned as an experimental group (supported by Facebook and Skype and section two was assigned as a control group and was asked to write their essays with paper and pencil. Facebook and Skype accounts were created for every student in the experimental group. Data was analyzed from pre-test and post-test results to evaluate the question posed by the study: Does the use of online text chat assisted with word processors help undergraduate students develop their writing skills more than traditional methods of teaching? The results revealed that students who worked with Facebook and Skype showed a significant improvement in their writing skills when compared to the control group. In light of these findings, it is recommended that online discussions via Facebook, Skype, and other social media sites should be utilized when teaching writing and the other language skills.
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The writing process: A powerful approach for the language-disabled student.
Moulton, J R; Bader, M S
1985-01-01
Our understanding of the writing process can be a powerful tool for teaching language-disabled students the "how" of writing. Direct, explicit instruction in writing process helps these students learn to explore their ideas and to manage the multiple demands of writing. A case study of one student, Jeff, demonstrates how we structure the stages of writing: prewriting, planning, drafting, revising, and proofreading. When these stages are clearly defined and involve specific skills, language-disabled students can reach beyond their limitations and strengthen their expression. The case study of Jeff reveals the development of his sense of control and his regard for himself as a writer.
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Academic anxiety, academic procrastination, and parental involvement in students and their parents.
Milgram, N; Toubiana, Y
1999-09-01
The study investigated the relationship between academic anxiety and procrastination in children and parents, and parents' direct involvement in their children's schoolwork. Children reported their current anxiety and procrastination and parents reported their anxiety and procrastination when they were children (a measure of indirect influence on their children's schoolwork habits), and on their current involvement in their children's schoolwork (a measure of direct influence). Self-report measures were administered to 354 Israeli adolescents (ages 13, 14, and 16) and their parents. Students were less anxious about homework than the other academic assignments. Older adolescents were less anxious about their schoolwork overall and procrastinated more than younger on homework. Parents of late adolescents were less involved in their children's schoolwork than parents of younger adolescents. Parents participated equally in school-related interactions that demanded high investment of time and effort, but mothers engaged more than fathers in low investment activities. These direct and indirect parental influences on their children's procrastination were of low magnitude overall, but appeared relatively stronger for mothers. The more students were anxious about preparing for examinations and writing papers, the more they procrastinated on these assignments, confirming the appraisal-anxiety avoidance (AAA) model. The inverse relationship of anxiety and procrastination with regard to homework led to our making a post hoc distinction between task-centred and consequence-centred anxiety.
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Technical writing practically unified through industry
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.
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Reconsiderations: We Got the Wrong Gal--Rethinking the "Bad" Academic Writing of Judith Butler
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…
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Improving Marketing Students' Writing Skills Using a One-Page Paper
Wright, Newell D.; Larsen, Val
2016-01-01
Employers of marketing graduates view good writing as a core marketing skill, but many marketing students are weak writers. The improvement of student writing should therefore be an important objective in a well-designed marketing curriculum. One-page papers combine the effective teaching of marketing concepts with writing instruction while…
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Effect of Direct Grammar Instruction on Student Writing Skills
Robinson, Lisa; Feng, Jay
2016-01-01
Grammar Instruction has an important role to play in helping students to speak and write more effectively. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of direct grammar instruction on the quality of student's writing skills. The participants in this study included 18 fifth grade students and two fifth grade teachers. Based on the results…
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Real-time capture of student reasoning while writing
Franklin, Scott V.; Hermsen, Lisa M.
2014-12-01
We present a new approach to investigating student reasoning while writing: real-time capture of the dynamics of the writing process. Key-capture or video software is used to record the entire writing episode, including all pauses, deletions, insertions, and revisions. A succinct shorthand, "S notation," is used to highlight significant moments in the episode that may be indicative of shifts in understanding and can be used in followup interviews for triangulation. The methodology allows one to test the widespread belief that writing is a valuable pedagogical technique, which currently has little directly supportive research. To demonstrate the method, we present a case study of a writing episode. The data reveal an evolution of expression and articulation, discontinuous in both time and space. Distinct shifts in the tone and topic that follow long pauses and revisions are not restricted to the most recently written text. Real-time writing analysis, with its study of the temporal breaks and revision locations, can serve as a complementary tool to more traditional research methods (e.g., speak-aloud interviews) into student reasoning during the writing process.
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Using Student Scholarship To Develop Student Research and Writing Skills.
Ware, Mark E.; Badura, Amy S.; Davis, Stephen F.
2002-01-01
Focuses on the use of student publications in journals as a teaching tool. Explores the use of this technique in three contexts: (1) enabling students to understand experimental methodology; (2) teaching students about statistics; and (3) helping students learn more about the American Psychological Association (APA) writing style. (CMK)
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Effects of electronic outlining on students' argumentative writing performance
de Smet, M.R.J.; Broekkamp, H.; Brand-Gruwel, S.; Kirschner, P.A.
2011-01-01
This study examined the effect of electronic outlining on the quality of students' writing products and how outlining affects perceived mental effort during the writing task. Additionally, it was studied how students appropriate and appreciate an outline tool and whether they need explicit
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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…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Deborah M. Netolicky
2017-07-01
Full Text Available This paper fashions a lens through which to view scholarly identity and the experience of academic writing. The lens of inquiry I apply is the metaphor of Season 1 of sci-fi HBO television show Westworld and its characters, especially its cyborg protagonist Dolores. Thrumming like electric currents through this lens of inquiry are Haraway’s theorization of the cyborg, the fictional worlds of science fiction and Wonderland, my own lived experience, and Deleuze and Guattari’s desiring-machines and bodies without organs. I engage in the cyborgic technology of writing in order to playfully explore what it means to be a cyborg academic operating in intersecting machinic worlds. I ask: Can we listen to our internal voices and write our own stories? Can we burn the world clean with our scholarship and the ways in which we interrogate ingrained and expected practices?
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STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING AN INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH OF ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
RINI ANITA
2016-01-01
Writing well is not just an option for young people – it is necessary. They need writing skill as one of predicator of academic success and a basic requirement for participation in civic life. Seeing writing skill as one of important skill to be a well comprehended by young people, include students, writing appears as nightmare for struggling writers. Likewise, they often waste most of their time just for starting to write. This paper is intended to find out the students’ ability in writing...
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Yazıcı, Hikmet; Albayrak, Elif; Reisoğlu, Serpil
2016-01-01
There are several variables to determine academic procrastination behavior among university students. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships among big five personality, academic self-efficacy, academic locus of control and academic procrastination. Research group consisted of 885 university students (Female=496, Male=389) in 2012/2013 academic year in Karadeniz Technical University. Results from study indicated that responsibility and amenability subscales of b...
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Efforts to Improve Writing Skills of High School Students
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Nurul Inayah
2016-03-01
Full Text Available Writing in English is one of the language skills that are taught in the context of learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL in Indonesian senior high schools. According to previous studies, most of the students consider writing is the most difficult of the four skills. This research was aimed at finding out the main difficulties in writing faced by the grade XI students at SMA Negeri 10 Fajar Harapan, Banda Aceh, and the efforts made by their teacher to overcome those problems. The design of this study was a descriptive qualitative study. To obtain the data, the writers used document collection and interviews. The results from the document collection showed that the highest percentages of problems faced by the students were in the aspect of language use and the least problems were in the aspect of content. The results from the interviews showed that the most common correcting efforts made by the teacher were giving written feedback for all aspects of writing i.e. language use, mechanics, vocabulary, organization, and content. Likewise, teachers need to develop systemized forms of feedback and make it clear to students what the feedback means and what they are to do with them to assist students in improving their writing skills.
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The academic transitional experiences of masters’ students at the University of the Western Cape
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Jeffrey C. Hoffman
2012-08-01
Full Text Available Transition has been a major focus of educational institutions. However, most of the research into student transition focuses on the challenges related the transition from high school to university. Not much emphasis has been placed on the transition from undergraduate topostgraduate studies, despite the steadily increasing postgraduate enrolment rates in higher education institutions. The discrepancy between the enrolment and completion rates is an indication that postgraduate students are facing transitional challenges when engaging with postgraduate studies. The aim of this research study was to describe the academic transitional experiences of masters’ students in the Faculty of Community Health Sciences at the University of the Western Cape. The objectives were to determine the academic preparedness of postgraduate students, to explore their primary motivations for pursuing postgraduate studies, and to assess their utilisation of the available support services at UWC.A quantitative, exploratory, descriptive research design was employed. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with masters’ students during 2009, using convenience sampling. Data was statistically analysed using the SPSS to provide descriptive statistics. The majority of the sample indicated a lack of academic preparedness, even though most of them had a bachelor’s degree. The primary reasons listed as motivation for master’s study were to improve knowledge and reaching self-actualisation. The majority is still eager to complete their studies. Most support systems were utilised and students rated these services as a positive experience that facilitates smooth academic transition. However, concerns are that not many students utilised the academic writing centre and those who did, rated the overall service as average. One of the main recommendations was that a research culture needs to be established at undergraduate level, as this would give students greater exposure to
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Mariet Raedts
2017-02-01
Full Text Available This study extends previous research on observational learning in writing. It was our objective to enhance students’ motivation and learning in an academic writing course on research synthesis writing. Participants were 162 first-year college students who had no experience with the writing task. Based on Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory we developed two videos. In the first video a manager (prestige model elaborated on how synthesizing information is important in professional life. In the second video a peer model demonstrated a five-step writing strategy for writing up a research synthesis. We compared two versions of this video. In the explicit-strategy-instruction-video we added visual cues to channel learners’ attention to critical features of the demonstrated task using an acronym in which each letter represented a step of the model’s strategy. In the implicit-strategy-instruction-video these cues were absent. The effects of the videos were tested using a 2x2 factorial between-subjects design with video of the prestige model (yes/no and type of instructional video (implicit versus explicit strategy instruction as factors. Four post-test measures were obtained: task value, self-efficacy beliefs, task knowledge and writing performances. Path analyses revealed that the prestige model did not affect students’ task value. Peer-mediated explicit strategy instruction had no effect on self-efficacy, but a strong effect on task knowledge. Task knowledge – in turn – was found to be predictive of writing performance.
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Conceptualising Doctoral Writing as an Affective-political Practice
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James Burford
2017-03-01
Full Text Available Aim/Purpose: This article offers a conceptual summary and critique of existing literature on doctoral writing and emotion. The article seeks to intervene in current debates about doctoral writing by re-positioning it as an affective-political practice Background: Over recent decades public interest in the doctorate has expanded as it has become re-framed as a key component of national success in the global knowledge economy. It is within this context that the practice of doctoral writing has crystallised as an object of interest. While researchers have examined the increased regulation, surveillance, and intensification of doctoral writing, often this work is motivated to develop pedagogies that support students to meet these new expectations. At this point, there has been limited attention to what broad changes to the meanings and practices of doctoral writing feel like for students. Methodology: The paper offers a conceptual review that examines the ways in which doctoral writing tends to be understood. A review of literature in the areas of doctoral writing, doctoral emotion, and critical studies of academic labour was undertaken in order to produce a more comprehensive understanding of the political and emotional dynamics of doctoral writing. Contribution: It is intended that this conceptual research paper help researchers attend to the emotional context of doctoral writing in the current university context. Critical studies of academic work and life are identified as a possible platform for the development of future doctoral education research, and the conceptual tool of “affective-politics” is advanced as a novel frame for approaching doctoral writing research.
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[The relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic burnout in medical students].
Lee, Su Hyun; Jeon, Woo Taek
2015-03-01
The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between academic burnout and academic self-efficacy in medical students. The study group comprised 446 students in years 1 to 4 of medical school. They were asked to rate their academic burnout and academic self-efficacy on a scale. The data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance and regression analysis. Academic self-efficacy was correlated negatively with academic burnout explaining 37% of academic burnout. Academic self-efficacy (especially self-confidence) had the greatest effect on academic burnout. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of an evaluation and support system for students.
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The Word Writing CAFE: Assessing Student Writing for Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency
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…
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Righting writing: strategies for improving nursing student papers.
Bickes, Joan T; Schim, Stephanie M
2010-01-01
The ability to clearly express complex ideas in writing is necessary for nurses in professional practice at all levels from novice to expert. The community health nursing course is specially designated as writing intensive to provide students with the experience of preparing a major scholarly paper. To address issues of poor paper quality and grade inflation we implemented a program including a writing workshop for faculty, a revision of the grading rubric, and a system of blind review for grading student papers. Changes resulted in a major shift in paper grades which more closely reflects the actual quality of the work.
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Baker, Sally
2017-01-01
The lament that "students can't write" remains loud and defiant, even after years of research pointing to the myriad factors that make students' writing challenging, particularly when they move into university. This paper reports on a longitudinal, ethnographic study which explored students' writing "in transition," from…
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Nuruzzaman, Mohammed; Islam, A. B. M. Shafiqul; Shuchi, Israt Jahan
2018-01-01
The present study investigates the writing errors of ninety Saudi non-English major undergraduate students of different proficiency levels from three faculties, who studied English as a foundation course at the English Language Center in the College of Languages &Translation at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia in the academic year 2016-17.…
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Writing Abilities Longitudinally Predict Academic Outcomes of Adolescents with ADHD
Molitor, Stephen J.; Langberg, Joshua M.; Bourchtein, Elizaveta; Eddy, Laura D.; Dvorsky, Melissa R.; Evans, Steven W.
2016-01-01
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…
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Process Memos: Facilitating Dialogues about Writing between Students and Instructors
Parrott, Heather Macpherson; Cherry, Elizabeth
2015-01-01
We have created a new teaching tool--process memos--to improve student writing. Process memos are guided reflections submitted with scaffolded assignments that facilitate a written dialogue between students and instructors about the process of writing. Within these memos, students critically assess available teaching tools, discuss their writing…
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Real-time capture of student reasoning while writing
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Scott V. Franklin
2014-09-01
Full Text Available We present a new approach to investigating student reasoning while writing: real-time capture of the dynamics of the writing process. Key-capture or video software is used to record the entire writing episode, including all pauses, deletions, insertions, and revisions. A succinct shorthand, “S notation,” is used to highlight significant moments in the episode that may be indicative of shifts in understanding and can be used in followup interviews for triangulation. The methodology allows one to test the widespread belief that writing is a valuable pedagogical technique, which currently has little directly supportive research. To demonstrate the method, we present a case study of a writing episode. The data reveal an evolution of expression and articulation, discontinuous in both time and space. Distinct shifts in the tone and topic that follow long pauses and revisions are not restricted to the most recently written text. Real-time writing analysis, with its study of the temporal breaks and revision locations, can serve as a complementary tool to more traditional research methods (e.g., speak-aloud interviews into student reasoning during the writing process.
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Dialogizing Response in the Writing Classroom: Students Answer Back.
Gay, Pamela
1998-01-01
Notes that while informed teachers of writing have moved toward more dialogic approaches, they still have colonial tendencies when responding to student writing. Suggests an activity that invites students to talk back to the teacher-reader as a means of helping them move more effectively toward revision. (PA)
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Indonesian EFL Students' Perspective on Writing Process: A Pilot Study
Hermilinda Abas, Imelda; Aziz, Noor Hashima Abd
2016-01-01
The study was aimed at understanding the EFL Indonesian students' perspective on the writing process. The pilot study involved two male Indonesian postgraduate students in Universiti Utara Malaysia. The Indonesian students were selected based on the following criteria: (1) had enough knowledge in English writing, indicated by the completion of…
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Co-Constructing Writing Knowledge: Students' Collaborative Talk across Contexts
Winzenried, Misty Anne; Campbell, Lillian; Chao, Roger; Cardinal, Alison
2017-01-01
Although compositionists recognize that student talk plays an important role in learning to write, there is limited understanding of how students use conversational moves to collaboratively build knowledge about writing across contexts. This article reports on a study of focus group conversations involving first-year students in a cohort program.…
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Khadijeh Jamshidi; Babak Mohammadi; Zahra Mohammadi; Mohammad Karimi Parviz; Roghayeh Poursaberi; Mohammad Mehdi Mohammadi
2017-01-01
Background: Academic satisfaction is considered one of the most important factors affecting academic achievement among students. The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between academic satisfaction and academic achievement among students at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted with 346 student participants using stratified random sampling. The research instrument included the Student Academic Sa...
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Behrooz Ghoorchaei; Ali Arabmofrad
2017-01-01
The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between self-efficacy beliefs, writing strategies, and writing abilities of Iranian EFL learners. The study first investigated the relationship between self-efficacy and writing strategies, then examined the relationship between self-efficacy and writing ability. The participants were 120 students learning English in Iran Language Institute in Gorgan, Iran. Data were gathered by means of a writing strategies questionn...
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Academic Publishing: Making the Implicit Explicit
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Cecile Badenhorst
2016-07-01
Full Text Available For doctoral students, publishing in peer-reviewed journals is a task many face with anxiety and trepidation. The world of publishing, from choosing a journal, negotiating with editors and navigating reviewers’ responses is a bewildering place. Looking in from the outside, it seems that successful and productive academic writers have knowledge that is inaccessible to novice scholars. While there is a growing literature on writing for scholarly publication, many of these publications promote writing and publishing as a straightforward activity that anyone can achieve if they follow the rules. We argue that the specific and situated contexts in which academic writers negotiate publishing practices is more complicated and messy. In this paper, we attempt to make explicit our publishing processes to highlight the complex nature of publishing. We use autoethnographic narratives to provide discussion points and insights into the challenges of publishing peer reviewed articles. One narrative is by a doctoral student at the beginning of her publishing career, who expresses her desires, concerns and anxieties about writing for publication. The other narrative focuses on the publishing practices of a more experienced academic writer. Both are international scholars working in the Canadian context. The purpose of this paper is to explore academic publishing through the juxtaposition of these two narratives to make explicit some of the more implicit processes. Four themes emerge from these narratives. To publish successfully, academic writers need: (1 to be discourse analysts; (2 to have a critical competence; (3 to have writing fluency; and (4 to be emotionally intelligent.
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Birks, Melanie; Smithson, John; Antney, Janene; Zhao, Lin; Burkot, Camilla
2018-06-01
Universities' responsibility to ensure academic integrity is frustrated by software and communication tools that facilitate content reuse coupled with a growing international essay writing economy. A wide range of behaviours constitute academic dishonesty and while a complex phenomenon to examine, existing evidence suggests that there is sufficient proliferation (both in volume and variety) of these behaviours among Australian university students to warrant concern. This proliferation presents faculty and staff with new challenges in ensuring academic integrity. This paper reports findings of a nationwide cross-sectional survey of 361 students enrolled in an Australian nursing degree program and describes the extent of academic dishonesty among those surveyed. An online survey adapted from previous work was used to collect data on academic dishonesty, professional dishonesty and social desirability bias. Analysis of this data enabled identification of the prevalence of dishonesty, relationships between individual characteristics and dishonest behaviours, associations between academic and professional dishonesty, and the impact of deterrents to such behaviour. Plagiarism was the most frequently reported form of academic misconduct. Most participants indicated that threat of severe punishment and signing of verification statements would deter undesirable academic behaviour. Despite this, a relatively high proportion of students reported engaging in at least one form of academic misconduct, the likelihood of which was higher among younger age groups. Of concern was that a correlation was found between academic and professional misconduct, the most common being the recording of inaccurate or fabricated vital signs and breaching client privacy. In health professional education, there is a tendency to assume that the nobility of these disciplines would result in a lower incidence of cheating behaviours. The findings of this study support existing literature that refutes
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A writing intensive introductory course for RN to BSN students.
Tesh, Anita S; Hyde, Yolanda M; Kautz, Donald D
2014-01-01
This article describes learning strategies used with RN to BSN students in their 1st nursing course to successfully learn how to write formal papers using the American Psychological Association (APA) format. This 1st nursing course, a writing intensive, requires 4 short papers with self, peer, and teacher critiques and opportunities to rewrite. Students learn the style of professional nursing discourse, mastery of APA format, and development of additional skills in following directions and in critiquing their own work. An additional benefit is to enhance learning about professional nursing topics. By mastering writing skills in this initial course, students are able to successfully complete writing assignments in future courses and, in some cases, move on to publication.
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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…
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Elwood Madden, M.; Miller-Deboer, C.; Eodice, M.; Miller, J.; Johnson, J.; Rifenburg, M.
2013-12-01
Students in OU's Geology and Geophysics (G&G) program must complete either English Technical Writing or a major-specific Geowriting class as sophomores or juniors. We asked students in Geowriting and students in a G&G colloquium course (required for G&G scholarship students and an elective for others) to complete surveys reporting their writing experiences and attitudes, as well as write an abstract for a Scientific American story to assess writing skills at the beginning and end of the semester. Geowriting students had stronger writing skills and more positive attitudes towards writing at the beginning of the semester than their colloquium peers, suggesting that students who were already interested and skilled in writing were self-selecting into the class. During the semester, Geowriting focused on improving the clarity, organization, efficiency, and mechanics of student writing and discussed how science writing is similar in some ways (argument, sentence structure, etc.), but also different in many aspects (concise, forthright, repetitive, etc) from writing tactics taught in high school and some college composition courses. Colloquium students attended the weekly scientific talks, but did not write in the class; however, some students were enrolled in freshman-level composition courses and Technical Writing. End-of-semester surveys showed Geowriting students had a more positive change in attitude and expectations towards writing than their colloquium peers. However, one significant difference in attitude towards writing was indicated by negative feelings towards in-class writing, which may be a result of 'writing fatigue' within the Geowriting group. This writing fatigue could be explained by student end-of -semester cognitive overload. Through other measures, colloquium students showed a greater improvement in writing skills (concise, clear, organized, etc) compared to Geowriting students; however, Geowriting students maintained higher skill levels than the
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Writing Matters to Urban Middle Level Students
Yost, Deborah S.; Vogel, Robert
2012-01-01
This article provides an overview of the Writers Matter program, which allows adolescents to use their life stories as a vehicle for self-expression and writing skill development. Evaluations of the program have show increased writing skills among participating students in the areas of focus, content, organization, and grammar. Additional benefits…
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DEVELOPING WRITING ABILITIES OF EFL STUDENTS THROUGH BLOGGING
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Orachorn KITCHAKARN
2014-10-01
Full Text Available Due to a rapid development and expansion of technology and, as a result, Web 2.0 technologies are providing both teachers and learners with new solutions to the limitations of traditional method in the field of language teaching and learning. The research compared students’ writing ability before and after they were taught through blog, a new medium or tool for written communication and interaction in many different languages around the world. The research design is a kind of one group pretest posttest. Participants were 35 first-year students. They were divided into eight groups. Four or five students in each group created a blog, www.blogger.com, and they worked together for twelve weeks to produce six pieces of writing assignments. Each member in the group worked through providing comments, editing and revising on the blog until the group got a final writing and submitted that to the teacher for grading. The instruments used in this study were: Ø two writing tests Ø a questionnaire surveying students’ attitude toward learning through blogs, and Ø postings on blogs to reflect their learning experiences. The results revealed that after the students worked together on weblogs, their English writing mean score of the posttest was higher than that of the pretest, and they had positive attitudes towards using weblogs in learning. Regarding cooperative learning experiences through using weblogs, most students thought that it was interesting, a new experience to work with their friends on the weblogs.
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Qi, Yang
Writing is a predictor of academic achievement and is essential for student success in content area learning. Despite its importance, many students, including English language learners (ELLs), struggle with writing. There is thus a need to study students' writing experience in content area classrooms. Informed by systemic functional linguistics, this study examined 11 ELL students' writing experience in two sixth grade science classrooms in a southeastern state of the United States, including what they wrote, how they wrote, and why they wrote in the way they did. The written products produced by these students over one semester were collected. Also collected were teacher interviews, field notes from classroom observations, and classroom artifacts. Student writing samples were first categorized into extended and nonextended writing categories, and each extended essay was then analyzed with respect to its schematic structure and grammatical features. Teacher interviews and classroom observation notes were analyzed thematically to identify teacher expectations, beliefs, and practices regarding writing instruction for ELLs. It was found that the sixth-grade ELLs engaged in mostly non-extended writing in the science classroom, with extended writing (defined as writing a paragraph or longer) constituting roughly 11% of all writing assignments. Linguistic analysis of extended writing shows that the students (a) conveyed information through nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbial groups and prepositional phrases; (b) constructed interpersonal context through choices of mood, modality, and verb tense; and (c) structured text through thematic choices and conjunctions. The appropriateness of these lexicogrammatical choices for particular writing tasks was related to the students' English language proficiency levels. The linguistic analysis also uncovered several grammatical problems in the students' writing, including a limited range of word choices, inappropriate use of mood
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Enhancing Argumentative Essay Writing of Fourth-Grade Students with Learning Disabilities
Deatline-Buchman, Andria; Jitendra, Asha K.
2006-01-01
A within-subject pretest-posttest comparison design was used to explore the effectiveness of a planning and writing intervention in improving the argumentative writing performance of five fourth-grade students with learning disabilities. Students were taught to collaboratively plan and revise their essays and independently write their essays using…
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The Predictive Validity of CBM Writing Indices for Eighth-Grade Students
Amato, Janelle M.; Watkins, Marley W.
2011-01-01
Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is an alternative to traditional assessment techniques. Technical work has begun to identify CBM writing indices that are psychometrically sound for monitoring older students' writing proficiency. This study examined the predictive validity of CBM writing indices in a sample of 447 eighth-grade students.…
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Nelson, Jennie; Hayes, John R.
Observing the composing processes of students working over real time in naturalistic settings, two exploratory studies asked: (1) What skills and assumptions do freshman and advanced writers invoke when they are searching for information to be used in writing? (2) What strategies and goals do students bring to a typical writing-from-sources task…
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Faught, Erin L; Ekwaru, John P; Gleddie, Douglas; Storey, Kate E; Asbridge, Mark; Veugelers, Paul J
2017-03-09
Few studies have investigated the independent associations of lifestyle behaviors (diet, physical activity, sleep, and screen time) and body weight status with academic achievement. Even fewer have investigated the combined effect of these behaviors on academic achievement. We hypothesize that the combined effect of these behaviors will have a higher impact on academic achievement than any behavior alone, or that of body weight status. In 2011, 4253 grade 5 (10-11 years old) students and their parents were surveyed about the child's diet, physical activity, screen time and sleep. Students' heights and weights were measured by research assistants. Academic achievement was measured using provincial standardized exams in mathematics, reading and writing, and was expressed as 'meeting' or 'not meeting' expectations as per standardized criterion. Exams were written 1 year following the measurement of lifestyle behaviors. Lifestyle behaviors were measured with self- and parental proxy reports and expressed as meeting recommendations (yes/no) for each behavior. Mixed effects logistic regression models adjusting for demographic confounders and caloric intake were used to determine the independent and combined associations. Meeting dietary recommendations was associated with increased likelihood of meeting academic expectations for each of math, reading and writing. Meeting recommendations for screen time and sleep was associated with meeting expectations for writing. For all three subjects, meeting additional lifestyle behavior recommendations was associated with higher likelihood of meeting expectations. Children who met 7-9 lifestyle behavior recommendations had greater than three-times the odds of meeting expectations for reading compared to those who met 0-3 recommendations (OR: 3.07, 95% CI: 2.09, 4.51), and 1.47 and 2.77 times the odds of meeting expectations in mathematics and writing, respectively. Body weight status was not associated with academic achievement
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Blended Learning and Student Satisfaction: An Investigation into an EAP Writing Course
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Zainab Ibrahim Abbas
2018-02-01
Full Text Available This paper investigates students satisfaction in a blended English writing course for Academic Purposes in Iraq. Blended learning is a novel mode of approaching education and learning in Iraq so it is very relevant to attempt to determine what factors can help it its success. Its novelty comes not from its use of online platforms such as Moodle but blending the traditional face-to face approach and distance teaching in a way that foster critical thinking and ongoing participation of the students. Different factors were emphasized and investigated regarding satisfaction, among them, the instructor-student and student-student interaction, in addition to the pedagogical aspect of the course. Student’s background such as their job and age and family status were not considered in this study. A modified questionnaire of student’s satisfaction in an online course was used to determine the approximate of satisfaction. The result of the research helped the administration office to apply some improvements to the newly-founded Blended courses in Iraq.
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Student Writing, Teacher Feedback, and Working Online: Launching the Drive to Write Program
Balu, Rekha; Alterman, Emma; Haider, Zeest; Quinn, Kelly
2018-01-01
The Drive to Write program was organized by New Visions for Public Schools (a New York City school support network that helps schools with professional development, data infrastructure, leadership training, certification, and more), and New Visions hopes it will lead to a new standard in writing instruction and student learning. New Visions is…
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Improving Student Writing: Methods You Can Use in Science and Engineering Classrooms
Hitt, S. J.; Bright, K.
2013-12-01
Many educators in the fields of science and engineering assure their students that writing is an important and necessary part of their work. According to David Lindsay, in Scientific Writing=Thinking in Words, 99% of scientists agree that writing is an integral part of their jobs. However, only 5% of those same scientists have ever had formal instruction in scientific writing, and those who are also educators may then feel unconfident in teaching this skill to their students (2). Additionally, making time for writing instruction in courses that are already full of technical content can cause it to be hastily and/or peremptorily included. These situations may be some of the contributing factors to the prevailing attitude of frustration that pervades the conversation about writing in science and engineering classrooms. This presentation provides a summary of past, present, and ongoing Writing Center research on effective writing tutoring in order to give science and engineering educators integrated approaches for working with student writers in their disciplines. From creating assignments, providing instruction, guiding revisions, facilitating peer review, and using assessments, we offer a comprehensive approach to getting your students motivated to improve their writing. Our new research study focuses on developing student writing resources and support in science and engineering institutions, with the goal of utilizing cross-disciplinary knowledge that can be used by the various constituencies responsible for improving the effectiveness of writing among student engineers and scientists. We will will draw upon recent findings in the study of the rhetoric and compositional pedagogy and apply them to the specific needs of the science and engineering classroom. The fields of communication, journalism, social sciences, rhetoric, technical writing, and philosophy of science have begun to integrate these findings into classroom practice, and we will show how these can also
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"Anything Could Happen": Managing Uncertainty in an Academic Writing Partnership
DiPardo, Anne; Staley, Sara; Selland, Makenzie; Martin, Adam; Gniewek, Olivia
2012-01-01
This article describes a writing partnership that involved university preservice teachers and ninth grade students enrolled in an integrated social studies/language arts class. While the high school students found the experience exciting and satisfying, the preservice teachers expressed anxieties and concerns as they endeavored to foster academic…
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Using sources in English - writing about them in Danish
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Klitgård, Ida
2015-01-01
This study investigates the scope of a kind of translation literacy involved in the interlingual translation, summarising and paraphrasing which take place when Danish university students write project reports in their native language about academic texts in English. The resulting changes in re......-contexutalisation and the changes in the representation of various levels of voices in both source and target texts have serious implications for the reader's comprehension of the content as well as for the language and style of the students' writing....
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Scaffolding Singaporean Students to Write Vividly in the Chinese ‘Mother Tongue’, Mandarin
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Tzemin Chung
2014-02-01
Full Text Available This paper details results from a three-year study investigating how to help students in Singapore write vivid compositions in Mandarin, the Chinese ‘mother tongue’. Mastery of the mother tongue by Singaporean students has become an important government priority in recent years. The strategies employed by this study included the use of information and communications technology (ICT mediated scaffolds such as collaborative mind maps and online peer editing to help students learn micro-writing strategies. This paper outlines the process of using various scaffolds to support students to learn and apply the action chain micro-writing strategy. A class of 31 Primary 4 from a neighbourhood school participated in this study. Findings indicated that students were very enthusiastic about writing in the ICT-mediated environment. Contrary to the teacher’s initial belief, students could be scaffolded to write action chains quickly. Findings highlighted the potential of scaffolding students in learning small chunks of writing strategy in an ICT-mediated environment that enabled them to practice these strategies in their composition writing until they could master and apply them. These micro-writing strategies gradually built up to a complex set of skills, including expressive writing. Moreover, students enjoyed working in groups and editing their peers’ work online. This showed that peers could be engaged as scaffolders in the classroom to free up the teacher’ time, allowing the teacher more time to spend with students who were not performing well.
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Huisman, B.A.; Saab, N.; Driel, van J.H.; Van, den Broek P.W.
2017-01-01
There does not appear to be consensus on how to optimally match students during the peer feedback phase: with same-ability or different-ability peers. The current study explored this issue in the context of an academic writing task. Adopting a quasi-experimental design, 94 undergraduate students
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Carvajal Medina, Nancy Emilce; Roberto Flórez, Eliana Edith
2014-01-01
Academic writing in English in our context is a significant aspect that can be innovative when a convergence model of writing stages is used along with collaborative work. This article reports on a study aimed at analyzing how collaborative work relates to undergraduate electronics students' academic writing development in English as a foreign…
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Persuasive Writing and the Student-Run Symposium
Mayer, James C.
2007-01-01
High school teacher James C. Mayer explains how a student-run symposium can promote "risk-taking and participation" and help students practice effective persuasion skills before demonstrating them in writing. The symposium places students in roles that encourage responsibility and ownership for discussion and learning, shifting the classroom…
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An Approach to the Teaching of Academic Writing.
Johnston, Sue Ann
1985-01-01
Discusses solutions to problems in teaching research paper writing skills to English as a second language students in developing countries where library resources are inadequate. Suggests the use of interviews as an alternative research source and shows how an oral report on research results can help to develop synthesizing skills. (SED)
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Truth, Memory, Selectivity: Understanding Historical Work by Writing Personal Histories
Koerber, Duncan
2013-01-01
This paper considers the use of a simple assignment, the personal narrative, in teaching students the discursive issues involved in doing academic history. Focusing on autobiography, I present the results of a survey of Canadian university students into their experiences with writing personal histories. Specifically, the survey asked students to…
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Students' Motivation to Access Academic Advising Services
Henning, Marcus A.
2009-01-01
The interrelationships between motivation for choosing a program of study, intention to access academic advisors, academic difficulty, and actual appointments with academic advisors were based on student self-reports of motivation and intentions. In addition, academic achievement measures and data on student access to academic advisors were…
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Scientific writing: strategies and tools for students and advisors.
Singh, Vikash; Mayer, Philipp
2014-01-01
Scientific writing is a demanding task and many students need more time than expected to finish their research articles. To speed up the process, we highlight some tools, strategies as well as writing guides. We recommend starting early in the research process with writing and to prepare research articles, not after but in parallel to the lab or field work. We suggest considering scientific writing as a team enterprise, which needs proper organization and regular feedback. In addition, it is helpful to select potential target journals early and to consider not only scope and reputation, but also decision times and rejection rates. Before submission, instructions to authors and writing guides should be considered, and drafts should be extensively revised. Later in the process editor's and reviewer's comments should be followed. Our tips and tools help students and advisors to structure the writing and publishing process, thereby stimulating them to develop their own strategies to success. Copyright © 2014 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Almodad Biduk Asmani
2013-10-01
Full Text Available The purpose of the research project is to find out how effective grammar teaching and learning using the Principled CLT method can improve the ability of freshman Binus University students to understand and use grammar knowledge for academic writing purposes. The research project is expected to result in computer-animated format which can be used as one of the main tools in teaching and learning grammar at tertiary level. The research project applies the descriptive quantitative approach, and thus uses numeric data. The research project involves two subject groups, which are experimental and control. The two groups are pre-tested so as to find out their level of grammar competency by their academic writing works. The experimental group receives the treatment of grammar learning by using the Principled CLT approach, while the control group receives the standard CLT approach. Then, the two groups have the post-test, and the results are compared. Through statistics, the numerical data show that there is no significant difference between the two methods’ results, and as a result, either method has its own strength and weaknesses. If one is to be implemented, it must be linked to the specific goals and purposes that each entails.
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Student self-esteem and academic achievement
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Milošević Nikoleta M.
2005-01-01
Full Text Available There is a growing belief that academic achievement is the product of a complex network of teacher-student relations, where the identity of successful and unsuccessful student is developing with high, moderate or low self-esteem level. Self-esteem is most often defined as a conscious cognitive-affective expression of self-evaluation which is one of the most immediate indicators of self-concept integration degree. A number of authors view high self-esteem level as an important prerequisite for high academic achievement. In contrast, academic achievement and other experiences related to teaching and learning are considered to exert significant influence on self-esteem and a student should be successful at school first so as to develop a positive self-image and his academic abilities. The debate on what comes first - self-esteem or academic achievement - is in its character more academic than practical. This claim is supported by an increasing number of studies indicating the dynamism and reciprocity of correlation between academic achievement and self-esteem. The paper gives recommendations for educational practice to promote self-esteem and development of personal and social responsibility, which contributes to better student academic achievement. It is pointed out that teacher education in the field is necessary and that self-esteem and responsibility must become essential segments of curricula. Teacher is expected to become sensitive to the needs of students who are at risk to be unsuccessful and to largely apply cooperative learning methods. Findings demonstrate that cooperative learning either sustain or increase student self-esteem, whereas traditional teaching methods, in general, lead to its decline. Cooperative relations improve student self-image in respect of academic abilities and social interactions. Positive feedback, peer support, more frequent experience of learning achievement leads mainly to general increase in self-esteem and
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A mandatory course in scientific writing for undergraduate medical students.
Roland, C G; Cox, B G
1976-02-01
All students at Mayo Medical School take a course in scientific writing during their sophomore and junior years. Early in the sophomore year they receive a self-instructional text designed to help them avoid 15 common writing faults. Comparison of pretest and posttest results for two classes, with a total of 89 students, indicates significant improvement (p less than .001). Later in his sophomore year, each student writes a minithesis; and during his junior year he reports on work done in a clinical or laboratory research project, preparing it as a paper submissible to a scientific journal. Professional editors work as preceptors with the students, critiquing their manuscripts, which are revised until they receive satisfactory ratings.
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Lee, Susan E.; Woods, Kyra J.; Tonissen, Kathryn F.
2011-01-01
We introduced writing activities into a project style third year undergraduate biomolecular science laboratory to assist the students to produce a final report in the form of a journal article. To encourage writing while the experimental work was proceeding, the embedded writing activities required ongoing analysis of experimental data. After…
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Making connections through reflection: writing and feedback in an ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
This paper describes the writing and feedback processes in an academic literacy course for first-year students in an extended studies programme at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. We argue that feedback together with metacognitive reflection form a 'vital link' between students' early experiences of a ...
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Academic Students' Attitudes toward Students with Learning Disabilities
Gonen, Ayala; Grinberg, Keren
2016-01-01
Background: Learning disabilities (LD) are lifelong disabilities that affect all facets of a person's life. Aim: Identifying the relationship between academic students' attitudes toward learning disability, self-image, and selected factors. Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to 213 students from an academic center in Israel. Two different…
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Writing a research paper at the university: authorship vs plagiarism
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Maria Fátima Alves
2016-09-01
Full Text Available Considering the need of producing academic texts at the university, many undergraduate students do it by copying texts that were already published. In this study we discuss the presence of plagiarism versus authorship marks in the introduction of academic articles produced by freshmen in a licenciateship degree. Therefore, we emphasize the issue of plagiarism and authorship, particularly from the perspective of the enunciative bakhtinian studies and then present the theoretical basis of Literacies, with the most recent studies on Literacies and Socio-Rhetorics. Data analysis revealed and confirmed the academic writing as a complex activity, given the practice of plagiarism found in the analyzed productions. The lack of knowledge of academic writing together not the theme domain contributed to the practice of plagiarism.
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A comparative study on undergraduate students' academic motivation and academic self-concept.
Isiksal, Mine
2010-11-01
The purpose of this study was to investigate Turkish and American undergraduate students' academic motivation and academic self-concept scores regarding the years that they spent in university. The analysis was based on 566 (284 Turkish, 282 American) undergraduate students where, Academic Motivation Scale and Academic Self-Concept Scale were used as measuring instruments. The results showed that there was a statistical significant effect of nationality and number of years spent in university on undergraduate students' intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and self-concept scores. Turkish students had higher intrinsic scores whereas American students had higher extrinsic scores and more positive academic-self concept compared to Turkish partners. Regarding grade level, senior students from both cultures had higher intrinsic motivation and academic self-concept scores compared to other grade levels. In terms of extrinsic motivation, there is steady decline in American students' scores as grade level increases. On the other hand, Turkish undergraduates' extrinsic scores decrease in the second year but increase in the third and fourth year of university education. Results were discussed by taking into consideration the social and cultural differences between two nations.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Mohammed Nuruzzaman
2018-01-01
Full Text Available The present study investigates the writing errors of ninety Saudi non-English major undergraduate students of different proficiency levels from three faculties, who studied English as a foundation course at the English Language Center in the College of Languages &Translation at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia in the academic year 2016-17. The findings reveal that the common errors the Saudi EFL students make in writing English paragraphs fall under four categories namely grammar, lexis, semantics and mechanics. Then it compares the categories, types and frequency of errors committed by these three groups of students. Among these categories, grammar has been observed as the most error-prone area where students commit errors the most. The study also posits that among the three groups, the students of the College of Medicine make the minimum errors in all the types and the highest number of errors is committed by the students of Engineering College. The College of Computer Science is in the second position in making errors. The frequency of error types is also found different among these three groups.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Andang Saehu
2013-12-01
Full Text Available This is a report of a study designed to examine the process of thesis—a final (research-based paper for undergrads prior to academic completion—writing of English Department students who graduated in Academic Year 2007/2008. Using a descriptive method, this case study aimed to describe the stages, to identify the problems, and to explore the techniques of solving problems used by respondents in the thesis writing by involving six students who had engaged in writing and research project course. The data concerning writing stages, problems, and coping with strategies were collected by using questionnaires, interviews, and documentation (thesis. The results showed that all participants went through the thesis writing stages determined by Faculty of Adab of UIN Sunan Gunung Djati, Bandung, namely: 1 Starting process; 2 Researching; 3 Reporting; and 4 Doing consultation. These also showed that all respondents encountered: 1 Procedural problems, which were likely to be the major problems shared by all respondents; 2 Academic problems; and 3 Nonacademic problems. However, whatever problems they dealt with, each of them had his/her own strategies to cope with. The procedural and academic problems were coped with by reading, doing consultation, and peer-collaboration. Meanwhile, non-academic problems were solved by having a rest and managing time.
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Griffith, Jessica; McLaughlin, T. F.; Neyman, Jen; Donica, Denise K.; Robison, Milena
2013-01-01
The purpose of this study was to evaluate and measure the effectiveness of Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) modified gray block paper with letter writing on two preschool students diagnosed with developmental delays in pre-academics. Two students were selected from a self-contained special education preschool classroom in the Pacific Northwest. All…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Joseph B. A. Afful
2017-10-01
Full Text Available A key support service in doctoral research that has increasingly gained attention is academic writing courses. This position paper argues for the institutionalization of graduate writing courses in universities in Ghana in order to acquaint doctoral students with the theoretical, procedural, and practical aspects of the writing of high stakes academic genres. An overview (including evaluation of existing courses on research- related writing in some universities is proffered. The study consequently presents arguments to support a proposal for institutional graduate writing courses in Ghanaian universities, followed by a discussion of other pertinent issues such as the curriculum, staffing, and funding. It is hoped that the institutionalization of such a writing support service will ultimately improve the quality of doctoral research education in Ghana
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Behrooz Ghoorchaei
2017-09-01
Full Text Available The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between self-efficacy beliefs, writing strategies, and writing abilities of Iranian EFL learners. The study first investigated the relationship between self-efficacy and writing strategies, then examined the relationship between self-efficacy and writing ability. The participants were 120 students learning English in Iran Language Institute in Gorgan, Iran. Data were gathered by means of a writing strategies questionnaire, a self-efficacy belief questionnaire, and an IELTS writing task. The results of Pearson correlation tests showed that there were significant relationship between self-efficacy and writing strategies on the one hand, and self-efficacy and writing ability on the other hand. The results have some implications for teaching writing in the EFL context.
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Exploring Atypical Verb+Noun Combinations in Learner Technical Writing
Luzon Marco, Maria Jose
2011-01-01
Professional and academic discourse is characterised by a specific phraseology, which usually poses problems for students. This paper investigates atypical verb+noun collocations in a corpus of English technical writing of Spanish students. I focus on the type of verbs that most frequently occurred in these awkward or questionable combinations and…
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Miller, Louise C; Russell, Cynthia L; Cheng, An-Lin; Skarbek, Anita J
2015-05-01
While professional nurses are expected to communicate clearly, these skills are often not explicitly taught in undergraduate nursing education. In this research study, writing self-efficacy and writing competency were evaluated in 52 nontraditional undergraduate baccalaureate completion students in two distance-mediated 16-week capstone courses. The intervention group (n = 44) experienced various genres and modalities of written assignments set in the context of evidence-based nursing practice; the comparison group (n = 8) received usual writing undergraduate curriculum instruction. Self-efficacy, measured by the Post Secondary Writerly Self-Efficacy Scale, indicated significant improvements for all self-efficacy items (all p's = 0.00). Writing competency, assessed in the intervention group using a primary trait scoring rubric (6 + 1 Trait Writing Model(®) of Instruction and Assessment), found significant differences in competency improvement on five of seven items. This pilot study demonstrated writing skills can improve in nontraditional undergraduate students with guided instruction. Further investigation with larger, culturally diverse samples is indicated to validate these results. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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21 The Value of Understanding Students' Prior Writing Experience in ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
Studies have shown that the writing that students produce ... variety of student purposes that are determined by their specific school and other literacy ... clinical knowledge was the object of the professional radiology reports. ..... sentences in writing about scientific topics. .... first clause i.e. the landfill running out of space.
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Gender differences in learning styles and academic performance of medical students in Saudi Arabia.
Nuzhat, Ayesha; Salem, Raneem Osama; Al Hamdan, Nasser; Ashour, Nada
2013-01-01
Teachers at medical school are often faced with challenges of improving student satisfaction with the learning environment. On the other hand, education in the medical field is very competitive and medical students are exposed to diverse methods of teaching. Students adapt specific learning styles to keep pace with the information delivered to them in their institutions. The aim of this study is to know the differences in learning styles between male and female students, and the effect it has on academic performance. The VARK Questionnaire version 7.0 (Visual, Aural, Read/Write and Kinesthetic) was administered to the fourth year and fifth year medical students at King Saud Bin Abdul Aziz University for Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine at King Fahad Medical City, Saudi Arabia for determining the preferred learning methods of students participating in this study. The learning styles were then compared to cumulative grade point average (GPA) obtained by the students. The dominant learning style preference of students was multimodal. Among students who preferred unimodal preference, aural and kinesthetic preference was predominant for males and females. Moreover, Females had more diverse preferences than male students. Multimodal learners have higher cumulative GPAs when compared with the unimodal learners. This study revealed variation in learning style preferences among genders, and its implications on academic performance of medical students.
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Teaching General Education Students How to Write Scientific Arguments Using Real Earth Data
Kelly, G. J.; Prothero, W. A.
2003-12-01
Writing activities can improve student understanding of scientific content and processes. We have studied student writing to identify the challenges that students face in composing scientific arguments and to clarify features that constitute quality in scientific writing. We have applied argumentation analysis for the assessment of students' use of evidence in a general education oceanography course. Argumentation analysis refers to the systematic examination of ways that conclusions are supported with evidence. The student writers were supported by an interactive CD-ROM, "Our Dynamic Planet," which provided students with "point and click" access to real earth data and allowed them to solve many problems associated with plate tectonics. Plate boundary types (using quakes, volcanoes, elevation profiles, and heat flow) and plate motion can be determined (seafloor age, island ages/hot spots) with this technology. First, we discuss the structure of scientific argument and how this structure can be made accessible to undergraduate students. Second, we present examples of argumentation analysis applied to student writing. These examples demonstrate how use of large scale geological data sets can be used to support student writing. Third, we present results from a series of studies to show ways that students adhere to the genre conventions of geological writing through use of theoretical claims, multiple lines of evidence, and cohesive terms. These results, combined with our evidence-based orientation to instruction, formed the basis for modifications in the course instruction. These instructional modifications include providing detailed examples of data based observations and interpretations, heuristics for assessing other students' arguments, and quick write exercises with similar but simplified writing tasks. More information about the CD-ROM may be found at http://oceanography.geol.ucsb.edu/.
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Erden, Hale
2016-01-01
Student academic mobility is described as the movement of students from one country to another for studying undergraduate and/or graduate degrees. Students' academic mobility involves two factors: before academic mobility factors and after academic mobility factors. The current study aims at identifying the perceptions of Turkish university…
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Lexical Bundles and the Construction of an Academic Voice in Business Writing
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…
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Rubrics as a Mitigating Instrument for Bias in the Grading of Student Writing
Gerritson, Michael
2013-01-01
The practice of grading student writing often seems arbitrary and unfair to students. It is important to students and educators that writing is fairly and accurately assessed in order to facilitate demonstrable improvement in their composition. This research addressed a specific writing rubric as a method to mitigate implicit or subconscious…
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Academic Essay Writing as Imitative Problem Solving: Examples from Distance Learning
Robertson, Sydney Ian
2014-01-01
Students in tertiary education are often faced with the prospect of writing an essay on a topic they know nothing about in advance. In distance learning institutions, essays are a common method of assessment in the UK, and specified course texts remain the main sources of information the students have. How do students use a source text to…
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Prescription Writing Errors of Midwifery Students in Common Gynecological problems
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Serveh Parang
2014-04-01
Full Text Available Background and aim: Giving improper prescriptions is common among medical practitioners, mostly graduates, in most communities even developed countries. So far, to our knowledge, no study has been conducted on prescription writing of graduate midwifery students. Therefore, this study aimed to detect prescription writing errors of midwifery students in common gynecological problems. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 56 bachelor midwifery students, who had passed the theoretical and clinical courses of gynecology, were evaluated by Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE. A demographic questionnaire and a standard checklist for writing the prescriptions and medications were used for data collection. SPSS Version 16 was used to carry out descriptive statistics. Findings: Most of the students were single, with the mean age of 23.0±1.7 years. Most errors were related to not recording the patients’ age and sex, diagnosis, chief complaint, and the prescriber’s name (observed in less than 10% of the prescriptions. The complete dosage schedule and drug name were stated only in 1.8±4.8 and 14±18.6 of prescriptions, respectively. In more than 93% of the cases, route of use and treatment duration were not recorded. Conclusion: According to the results, the number of prescription errors of midwifery students was high. Therefore, it is recommended to run educational courses on prescription writing skills (e.g. writing prescriptions based on World Health Organization (WHO guidelines for the midwifery students.
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Employing Picture Description to Assess the Students' Descriptive Paragraph Writing
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Ida Ayu Mega Cahyani
2018-03-01
Full Text Available Writing is considered as an important skill in learning process which is needed to be mastered by the students. However, in teaching learning process at schools or universities, the assessment of writing skill is not becoming the focus of learning process and the assessment is administered inappropriately. In this present study, the researcher undertook the study which dealt with assessing descriptive paragraph writing ability of the students through picture description by employing an ex post facto as the research design. The present study was intended to answer the research problem dealing with the extent of the students’ achievement of descriptive paragraph writing ability which is assessed through picture description. The samples under the study were 40 students determined by means of random sampling technique with lottery system. The data were collected through administering picture description as the research instrument. The obtained data were analyzed by using norm-reference measure of five standard values. The results of the data analysis showed that there were 67.50% samples of the study were successful in writing descriptive paragraph, while there were 32.50% samples were unsuccessful in writing descriptive paragraph which was assessed by administering picture description test
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Preferred Writing Topics of Urban and Rural Middle School Students
Shippen, Margaret E.; Houchins, David E.; Puckett, DaShaunda; Ramsey, Michelle
2007-01-01
This study compared the preferred writing topics of urban and rural middle school students. Eighth graders (n = 205) responded to a brief survey of preferred writing topics in the descriptive writing genres of real or imagined stories, reports, and opinions. While some preferred writing topics were divergent such as society, crime, and violence,…
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Motivation and academic achievement in medical students.
Yousefy, Alireza; Ghassemi, Gholamreza; Firouznia, Samaneh
2012-01-01
Despite their ascribed intellectual ability and achieved academic pursuits, medical students' academic achievement is influenced by motivation. This study is an endeavor to examine the role of motivation in the academic achievement of medical students. In this cross-sectional correlational study, out of the total 422 medical students, from 4th to final year during the academic year 2007-2008, at School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, 344 participated in completion of the Inventory of School Motivation (ISM), comprising 43 items and measuring eight aspects of motivation. The gold standard for academic achievement was their average academic marks at pre-clinical and clinical levels. Data were computer analyzed by running a couple of descriptive and analytical tests including Pearson Correlation and Student's t-student. Higher motivation scores in areas of competition, effort, social concern, and task were accompanied by higher average marks at pre-clinical as well as clinical levels. However, the latter ones showed greater motivation for social power as compared to the former group. Task and competition motivation for boys was higher than for girls. In view of our observations, students' academic achievement requires coordination and interaction between different aspects of motivation.
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The Effects of Portfolio Assessment on Writing of EFL Students
Nezakatgoo, Behzad
2011-01-01
The primary focus of this study was to determine the effect of portfolio assessment on final examination scores of EFL students' writing skill. To determine the impact of portfolio-based writing assessment 40 university students who enrolled in composition course were initially selected and divided randomly into two experimental and control…
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Kristen L. Young
2010-12-01
Full Text Available Objective – To explore student thought on both reflection and reflective writing as a process, and to analyze the writing by the application of clearly defined and identifiable outcomes.Design – Mixed method approach consisting of a qualitative analysis of 116 written reflections from master’s level students as well as a quantitative statistical analysis.Setting –The University of Sheffield masters-level librarianship program’s course INF6005, “Management for LIS.”Subjects – Of the 31 students registered the course during the 2007-2008 academic year, 22 (71%, allowed their reflections to be used for the purposes of research. Of these, 7 students identified themselves as male, and 15 were female. All students included were over 21 years of age and had previous library experience, with varying degrees of management experience in supervisory roles. Not all supervisory experience was gathered within the library domain.Methods –A total of 116 reflective journal entries were submitted by the participating students during the eight month period from October 2008 to May 2009. In order to identify themes, qualitative analysis was applied to the reflective writing responses. Descriptive statistics were also applied to test the hypothesis, illustrate the relationships between reflective writing and outcomes, and locate identifiable outcomes.Main Results – Practising reflection demonstrated benefits for individuals groups both in and outside of the workplace. On the whole, individuals gained the most from reflection and saw it in the most positive light when it was practised as a daily activity. Quantitatively, when students began to master the practice of reflection, they demonstrated an increase in their ability to learn and an overall improvement of self-development and critical thinking skills, and gained a defined awareness of personal mental function. When decision making became easier, students understood they had begun to master
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Iranian EFL Students' Writing Strategies for Error Correction: An MI Approach
Ansari, Dariush Nejad; Varnosfadrani, Azizollah Dabaghi
2010-01-01
This study tries to shed some light on the Iranian EFL students' writing strategies at the revision stage of the process of writing in relation to students' interpersonal or intrapersonal intelligences. A total of 73 students majoring in English participated in this investigation. The results indicated that there was a significant relationship…
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Assessment of narrative writing by Persian-speaking students with hearing impairments.
Zamani, P; Soleymani, Z; Mousavi, S M; Akbari, N
2018-02-16
Previous studies have highlighted that narrative skill is critical to the development of the literacy skills by children. Children with cochlear implants (CI) and hearing aids (HA) may have problems in narrative development compared to peers with healthy hearing (HH). There is no exact data about the narrative writing ability of Persian-speaking students who are hearing-impaired. This study was undertaken to compare the microstructure and macrostructure scores for narrative writing of Persian-speaking students who are hearing-impaired and peers with HH. This was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study. The subjects were recruited from elementary schools in the city of Tehran. A total of 144 elementary school students were participated. The written narratives were elicited using a wordless pictorial storybook story. Three-way ANOVA with post hoc adjusted Bonferroni test was applied to determine the main effects and interactions of grounded variables on the microstructure and macrostructure components of narrative writing. No significant differences were observed in the macrostructure components of narrative writing between hearing-impaired and HH students. Factors analysis showed that the 4th grade HH students had significantly the highest scores, and the 3rd grade HA students had significantly the lowest scores in microstructure components of narrative writing. The findings revealed that hearing-impaired students similarly to their HH peers can transmit the main idea (macrostructure) of narrative writing, but show critical difficulties when using complete grammatical elements (microstructures) to form sentences to convey the idea in the narrative. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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Teaching Techniques: Audiovisual Feedback in EFL/ESL Writing Classes
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…
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teachers say reading and writing in a university degree in the colombian caribbean.
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Luis Manuel Cárdenas Cárdenas
2015-03-01
Full Text Available Literacy practices in higher education: what students andThis article is the result of a survey conducted in 10 degrees in a University Colombian Caribbean whose general purpose was to describe, interpret and understand the literacy practices that take place in these degrees. To achieve this article was taken into account one aspect that research in general was conceived as the first specific objective. This aspect refers to the conceptions which teachers and students of the degrees on the teaching and learning of reading and writing academic texts in college. The study usually takes as a theoretical concept of academic literacy. Data collected through classroom observations, also came from surveys and interviews with students and teachers of the degrees. The results of the investigation determined that the teaching and learning of reading and writing in the undergraduate classroom is very limited. The development of pedagogical and didactic classes lacks reading and writing practices.
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Problem-Based Learning Pedagogy Fosters Students' Critical Thinking about Writing
Kumar, Rita; Refaei, Brenda
2017-01-01
Convinced of the power of PBL to promote students' critical thinking as demonstrated by its application across disciplines, we designed a series of problems for students in a second-year writing course. We collected samples of their writing before and after implementation of the problems. We were concerned about whether PBL pedagogy would…
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Understanding Preclerkship Medical Students' Poor Performance in Prescription Writing.
James, Henry; Al Khaja, Khalid A J; Tayem, Yasin I; Veeramuthu, Sindhan; Sequeira, Reginald P
2016-05-01
This study aimed to explore reasons for poor performance in prescription writing stations of the objective structured practical examination (OSPE) and absenteeism in prescription writing sessions among preclerkship medical students at the Arabian Gulf University (AGU) in Manama, Bahrain. This descriptive study was carried out between September 2014 and June 2015 among 157 preclerkship medical students at AGU. Data were collected using focus group discussions and a questionnaire with closed- and open-ended items. All 157 students participated in the study (response rate: 100.0%). The most frequently cited reasons for poor performance in OSPE stations were an inability to select the correct drugs (79.6%), treatment duration (69.4%), drug quantity (69.4%) and drug formulation (68.2%). Additionally, students reported inadequate time for completing the stations (68.8%). During focus group discussions, students reported other reasons for poor performance, including examination stress and the difficulty of the stations. Absenteeism was attributed to the length of each session (55.4%), lack of interest (50.3%), reliance on peers for information (48.4%) and optional attendance policies (47.1%). Repetitive material, large group sessions, unmet student expectations and the proximity of the sessions to summative examinations were also indicated to contribute to absenteeism according to open-ended responses or focus group discussions. This study suggests that AGU medical students perform poorly in prescription writing OSPE stations because of inadequate clinical pharmacology knowledge. Participation in prescription writing sessions needs to be enhanced by addressing the concerns identified in this study. Strategies to improve attendance and performance should take into account the learner-teacher relationship.
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Study on Writing Anxiety among Iranian EFL Students
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Naghmeh Jebreil
2015-03-01
Full Text Available This article aimed at investigating the level of writing anxiety of the Iranian EFL students with different proficiency levels. To do so, 45 students (elementary, intermediate, and advanced learners studying in Azad University of Ilam, Iran were selected based on random sampling. Second, Language Writing Anxiety Inventory SLWAI (Cheng, 2004 was used to measure anxiety. Both descriptive and inferential statistics including One-way ANOVA were run to analyze the data. Statistical analysis was conducted using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS. The results of the study indicated that the selected Iranian EFL students majoring in English language teaching experienced a high level of anxiety. In addition, students with elementary level were found to suffer higher level of English writing anxiety than the students with intermediate and advanced levels. Finally, based on the findings, cognitive anxiety was the most common type of anxiety, followed by somatic anxiety, and avoidance behavior. The results also highlighted the fact that foreign and second language teachers should be cautious of the dangers of anxiety and try to make the atmosphere of class as stress-free as possible in order to improve students’ performance.
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hamid Asayesh
2016-09-01
Full Text Available Background and Objectives: Learning is a stressful experience of human life; reduced adaption to stressors causes academic burnout which is a reason for academic failure among students. This study investigated the correlation among academic stress, academic burnout, and academic performance in nursing and paramedic students of Qom University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, 264 nursing and paramedic students were randomly selected. Demographic characteristics checklist, academic burnout questionnaire, and academic stress scale were used to gather data, and grade point average was considered to be the indicator of academic performance. Linear regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The level of significance was considered to be p<0.05. Results: The mean score for students' academic burnout was 28.52±15.84. Univariate regression analysis showed that the students' employment, years of education, academic performance, and all academic stress subscales had a significant correlation with academic burnout. According to multivariate regression analysis, having a field of study-related occupation was a protective factor and academic stress a risk factor for academic burnout. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that a large proportion of students experienced academic burnout, and students with higher levels of stress experienced more severe academic burnout and had poorer performance. Therefore, training ways to cope with stress can cause reduction in academic burnout and improvement of performance.
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Does a Business School's Writing Center Encourage Students To Write Like Men?
Nadeau, Jean-Paul
An educator at Bryant College (Rhode Island), a business-oriented college, sought to better understand the effects of gender as they operate within and through the school's writing center. Bryant College's female students attend a college with a student body of about 40% females and 60% males. The hypothesis in a study was that female students…
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SCORE A: A Student Research Paper Writing Strategy.
Korinek, Lori; Bulls, Jill A.
1996-01-01
A mnemonic strategy for writing a research paper is explained. "SCORE A" reminds the student to select a subject, create categories, obtain sources, read and take notes, evenly organize the information, and apply process writing steps. Implementation of the strategy with five eighth graders with learning disabilities is reported. (DB)
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University Student Conceptions of Learning Science through Writing
Ellis, Robert A.; Taylor, Charlotte E.; Drury, Helen
2006-01-01
First-year undergraduate science students experienced a writing program as an important part of their assessment in a biology subject. The writing program was designed to help them develop both their scientific understanding as well as their written scientific expression. Open-ended questionnaires investigating the quality of the experience of…
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Writing Anxiety: A Case Study on Students’ Reasons for Anxiety in Writing
Kara, Selma
2013-01-01
The purpose of the present study was twofold. First, the present study set out to investigate the learners‟ attitudes towards academic writing courses that they have to take as part of their curriculum, whether they experience second language writing anxiety and what reasons they report for their anxiety and failure in academic writing courses. Second, the study aimed to develop a selfreport measure of second language writing anxiety reasons
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Contrasting Views of Business Students' Writing Needs in an EFL Environment
Bacha, Nahla Nola; Bahous, Rima
2008-01-01
This paper reports on a study of business student and faculty views at the Lebanese American University as to the students' language proficiency levels, writing in particular, and what the specific writing needs are in order for students to be effective in their course work. The role of the English and business faculty is also investigated.…
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Maxwell, Sophie; Reynolds, Katherine J; Lee, Eunro; Subasic, Emina; Bromhead, David
2017-01-01
School climate is a leading factor in explaining student learning and achievement. Less work has explored the impact of both staff and student perceptions of school climate raising interesting questions about whether staff school climate experiences can add "value" to students' achievement. In the current research, multiple sources were integrated into a multilevel model, including staff self-reports, student self-reports, objective school records of academic achievement, and socio-economic demographics. Achievement was assessed using a national literacy and numeracy tests ( N = 760 staff and 2,257 students from 17 secondary schools). In addition, guided by the "social identity approach," school identification is investigated as a possible psychological mechanism to explain the relationship between school climate and achievement. In line with predictions, results show that students' perceptions of school climate significantly explain writing and numeracy achievement and this effect is mediated by students' psychological identification with the school. Furthermore, staff perceptions of school climate explain students' achievement on numeracy, writing and reading tests (while accounting for students' responses). However, staff's school identification did not play a significant role. Implications of these findings for organizational, social, and educational research are discussed.
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Sophie Maxwell
2017-12-01
Full Text Available School climate is a leading factor in explaining student learning and achievement. Less work has explored the impact of both staff and student perceptions of school climate raising interesting questions about whether staff school climate experiences can add “value” to students' achievement. In the current research, multiple sources were integrated into a multilevel model, including staff self-reports, student self-reports, objective school records of academic achievement, and socio-economic demographics. Achievement was assessed using a national literacy and numeracy tests (N = 760 staff and 2,257 students from 17 secondary schools. In addition, guided by the “social identity approach,” school identification is investigated as a possible psychological mechanism to explain the relationship between school climate and achievement. In line with predictions, results show that students' perceptions of school climate significantly explain writing and numeracy achievement and this effect is mediated by students' psychological identification with the school. Furthermore, staff perceptions of school climate explain students' achievement on numeracy, writing and reading tests (while accounting for students' responses. However, staff's school identification did not play a significant role. Implications of these findings for organizational, social, and educational research are discussed.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Meriel Bloor
2008-04-01
Full Text Available This article reports on research into the variation of texts across disciplines and considers the implications of this work for the teaching of writing. The research was motivated by the need to improve students’ academic writing skills in English and the limitations of some current pedagogic advice. The analysis compares Methods sections of research articles across four disciplines, including applied and hard sciences, on a cline, or gradient, termed slow to fast. The analysis considers the characteristics the texts share, but more importantly identifies the variation between sets of linguistic features. Working within a systemic functional framework, the texts are analysed for length, sentence length, lexical density, readability, grammatical metaphor, Thematic choice, as well as various rhetorical functions. Contextually relevant reasons for the differences are considered and the implications of the findings are related to models of text and discourse. Recommendations are made for developing domain models that relate clusters of features to positions on a cline. This article reports on research into the variation of texts across disciplines and considers the implications of this work for the teaching of writing. The research was motivated by the need to improve students’ academic writing skills in English and the limitations of some current pedagogic advice. The analysis compares Methods sections of research articles across four disciplines, including applied and hard sciences, on a cline, or gradient, termed slow to fast. The analysis considers the characteristics the texts share, but more importantly identifies the variation between sets of linguistic features. Working within a systemic functional framework, the texts are analysed for length, sentence length, lexical density, readability, grammatical metaphor, Thematic choice, as well as various rhetorical functions. Contextually relevant reasons for the differences are considered
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A Reciprocal Peer Review System to Support College Students' Writing
Yang, Yu-Fen
2011-01-01
As students' problem-solving processes in writing are rarely observed in face-to-face instruction, they have few opportunities to participate collaboratively in peer review to improve their texts. This study reports the design of a reciprocal peer review system for students to observe and learn from each other when writing. A sample of 95…
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Linguistic Audacity: Shakespeare's Language and Student Writing
Goodman, Barbara A.
2011-01-01
Shakespeare molded language to meet his needs. Can students learn from his example? In this article, the author suggests studying Shakespeare's creative use of functional shift, spelling, and vocabulary to help students develop greater control of their own writing. The author is advocating that teachers approach Shakespeare as descriptive…
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Computer Anxiety, Academic Stress, and Academic Procrastination on College Students
Wahyu Rahardjo; Juneman Juneman; Yeni Setiani
2013-01-01
Academic procrastination is fairly and commonly found among college students. The lack of understanding in making the best use of computer technology may lead to anxiety in terms of operating computer hence cause postponement in completing course assignments related to computer operation. On the other hand, failure in achieving certain academic targets as expected by parents and/or the students themselves also makes students less focused and leads to tendency of postponing many completions of...
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Graham, Bruce S; Knight, G William; Graham, Linda
2016-01-01
Cheating incidents in 2006-07 led U.S. dental schools to heighten their efforts to enhance the environment of academic integrity in their institutions. The aims of this study were to document the measures being used by U.S. dental schools to discourage student cheating, determine the current incidence of reported cheating, and make recommendations for enhancing a culture of integrity in dental education. In late 2014-early 2015, an online survey was distributed to academic deans of all 61 accredited U.S. dental schools that had four classes of dental students enrolled; 50 (82%) responded. Among measures used, 98% of respondents reported having policy statements regarding student academic integrity, 92% had an Honor Code, 96% provided student orientation to integrity policies, and most used proctoring of final exams (91%) and tests (93%). Regarding disciplinary processes, 27% reported their faculty members only rarely reported suspected cheating (though required in 76% of the schools), and 40% disseminated anonymous results of disciplinary hearings. A smaller number of schools (n=36) responded to the question about student cheating than to other questions; those results suggested that reported cheating had increased almost threefold since 1998. The authors recommend that schools add cheating case scenarios to professional ethics curricula; disseminate outcomes of cheating enforcement actions; have students sign a statement attesting to compliance with academic integrity policies at every testing activity; add curricular content on correct writing techniques to avoid plagiarism; require faculty to distribute retired test items; acquire examination-authoring software programs to enable faculty to generate new multiple-choice items and different versions of the same multiple-choice tests; avoid take-home exams when assessing independent student knowledge; and utilize student assessment methods directly relevant to clinical practice.
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Grammar Errors in the Writing of Iraqi English Language Learners
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Yasir Bdaiwi Jasim Al-Shujairi
2017-10-01
Full Text Available Several studies have been conducted to investigate the grammatical errors of Iraqi postgraduates and undergraduates in their academic writing. However, few studies have focused on the writing challenges that Iraqi pre-university students face. This research aims at examining the written discourse of Iraqi high school students and the common grammatical errors they make in their writing. The study had a mixed methods design. Through convenience sampling method, 112 compositions were collected from Iraqi pre-university students. For purpose of triangulation, an interview was conducted. The data was analyzed using Corder’s (1967 error analysis model and James’ (1998 framework of grammatical errors. Furthermore, Brown’s (2000 taxonomy was adopted to classify the types of errors. The result showed that Iraqi high school students have serious problems with the usage of verb tenses, articles, and prepositions. Moreover, the most frequent types of errors were Omission and Addition. Furthermore, it was found that intralanguage was the dominant source of errors. These findings may enlighten Iraqi students on the importance of correct grammar use for writing efficacy.
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TRAVEL WRITING: AN APPLICATION OF WRITING WORKSHOP TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’S CREATIVE WRITING
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Prayudias Margawati
2014-10-01
Full Text Available Writing is often assumed as uneasy skill to either learn or teach. For students, they find it difficult to develop ideas in writing. On the other hand, teachers, many of them, only ready with the materials but confuse with the appropriate ways to teach. This paper intends to describe and discuss a method of teaching writing namely writing workshop to improve students’ writing skill through travel writing. Writing workshop proposed by Calkins that consists of mini lesson, work time, peer conferring and/or response groups, share sessions, and publication celebration is applied in writing class for methodological purposes. In mini lesson, teacher offers something to the class that is meant to introduce a writing strategy done at the beginning of the workshop. During work time point, students start their new piece of writing. Teacher moves among students conferring with them while checking their works. Peer conferences or response groups provide a forum for students to talk about works in progress. When students work in group, one of them could arrange his/ her group needs during the work time. A share session may be varied, one possible way is each group shares their process of writing to other students. At the end of writing class, student writers come together to publish and/ or celebrate their final work. The publication could be in the form of portfolio, students’ diary, blog, or others. Travel writing genre is chosen as it could develop students’ creativity in describing/ narrating their own stories during, let say holiday or things they used to see on the way home weekly or monthly. Furthermore, travel writing as the product of creative writing teaches the readers of values, characteristics, and way of life. Last but not least, a professional writing teacher should set the writing workshop components in variety ways to achieve effective running-class.
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Let's Write It Right! A Student-Oriented Approach for Teaching Letterwriting Skills.
Christensen, Judie
In the student-oriented approach to writing business letters, students work in small groups to write a series of letters. For the first letter, the groups take the role of consumers, writing letters to order merchandise. The letters are written on overhead transparencies and are then critiqued by the other teams, with an emphasis on constructive…
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Undergraduate nursing students writing therapeutic letters to families: an educational strategy.
Erlingsson, Christen
2009-02-01
Writing therapeutic letters to families is discussed in this article as an educational strategy encouraging students to think reflectively about family nursing. At the University of Kalmar, Sweden, undergraduate nursing students in a primary care module interviewed families using the Calgary Family Assessment Model and wrote therapeutic letters to these families. This article describes (a) the examination process, which was the context for writing therapeutic letters, (b) results of analyses of the letters, and (c) student's post-examination evaluation comments. Results indicate that most students needed encouragement to focus on the family's strengths and resources instead of focusing on own feelings or problems they perceived the family as having. Students also needed support in relinquishing their hierarchical role of "expert nurse." Students' evaluation comments showed that writing therapeutic letters provided students with opportunities to reflect about the connections between family nursing theory and the family itself.
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The Iranian Academicians' Strategies in Writing English Papers
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Marziyeh Nekoueizadeh
2013-05-01
Full Text Available Academicians are identified with their papers and expertise in writing scholarly articles, either for promotion or for satisfying their prestige. Iranian academic members are expected to win a justifiable stance by the quality and quantity of their publications and presentations. Regrettably through pervious studying about second language writing, any studies haven’t been dedicated to the style of writing articles, which are used by academic members. Former studies on second language writing indicate that style in academic paper writing is most likely ignored. The purpose of this study is to explore the role of mind translation strategy among Iranian academic members for expressing their own opinion through writing second language academic papers. The present paper has based its hypothesis on three levels of strategies, effective in writing academic papers, namely: 1-Do Iranian academicians follow specific strategies in writing their academic papers? 2-What role does translation play as a strategy in their writing academic papers? 3-Do they feel a need for a strategy shift in their academic paper writing? Data elicited based on survey and corpora analysis in form of CBDTS- on micro and macro levels, are put into matrices and their analyses are supportive of academicians’ reliance on different types of mental translation use and their shift toward authentic writing after receiving feedback from their reviewers.
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Academic Self-Perceptions of Ability and Course Planning among Academically Advanced Students
Rudasill, Kathleen Moritz; Callahan, Carolyn M.
2010-01-01
The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of gender to the academic self-perceptions of ability and related coursework plans for high school and college across academically advanced students. Participants were academically advanced students (N = 447) from grades 5 to 12. Findings revealed that (a) girls' self-perceptions of ability…
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IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITY THROUGH CUE CARDS TECHNIQUE
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Fenny Thresia
2017-05-01
Full Text Available This research is a qualitative research with two variables. The classroom action research is conducted at phisics study program of Muhammadiyah University of Metro. The subject of this research is first semester students of physics study program. The number of the students is 22. The objective of this research was to know how cue cards technique improve the students’ writing ability in descriptive text. The researcher choose one class because they have problem in writing ability. This research was conducted in two cycles. Each cycle consisted of planning, acting, observing and reflecting. The data were collected from test (pre test and post test, observation. The result of this research can be seen from the average score of pre test (before treatment was 61,86, in cycle 1 was 70,90 and in post test cycle 2 was 78. That was involved in upgrading maximally. It implied that cue cards technique can improve the students writing ability in descriptive text. In other words, the class had fulfilled criteria success of standard students competency from the school.It was supported by the observation of the students. From the result of the discussion, the researcher concludes that in this research there is an improvement student writing ability in descriptive text using cue cards technique at the students of physics academic year 2015/2016. Key Words : Descriptive Text, Writing Ability, Cue Cards Technique
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The effect of topic selection on writing fluency among Japanese high school students
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Sarah Lin Lubold
2016-01-01
Full Text Available Written fluency and fluency building activities have been shown to promote linguistic choice and student voice development, increased ability to express ideas using complex grammatical structures and greater intrinsic motivation in English language learners. Since the 1970’s, process-oriented writing has been emphasized, yielding an amplified focus on meaning of student content over linguistic form precision. Current research of writing fluency must delve deeper into questions of student ownership of topic and the outcomes for low-risk activities that support fluency practice and encourage confidence building in students. The purpose of this replication study is to further explore previous findings on the effects of topic selection on writing fluency for high school English as foreign language learners. Building off of the work of Bonzo (2008, this study focused on a timed, non-graded writing activity administered to groups of Japanese engineering students in three departments: mechanical, electrical, and global engineering. The six subsequent samples for each participating student were analyzed using online text-analysis for total and unique word counts, providing data used to perform a t-test. Responses to bi-lingual student questionnaires, with prompts on self-perceived written English ability, self-efficacy and strategies for success while writing, provided additional insight into the facets of fluency. The results of these writing sessions offer both confirmation of and contrast to Bonzo’s original work, demonstrate increased student meaning making, and support the use of free writing activities in English language classrooms as a means by which student written fluency may be improved.
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Mertz, Pamela; Streu, Craig
2015-01-01
This article describes a synergistic two-semester writing sequence for biochemistry courses. In the first semester, students select a putative protein and are tasked with researching their protein largely through bioinformatics resources. In the second semester, students develop original ideas and present them in the form of a research grant…
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Creative Writing Assignments in a Second Language Course: A Way to Engage Less Motivated Students
Arshavskaya, Ekaterina
2015-01-01
This article makes a case for using creative writing in a second language course. Creative writing increases students' enthusiasm for writing skills development and supports students' creativity, which is a fundamental aspect of education. In order to engage less motivated students, a series of creative writing assignments was implemented in a…
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Martin, Brittany
The purpose of this study was to examine how academic advising impacts minority STEM students' academic success and their level of satisfaction. The study also explored minority STEM students' perceptions of academic advising based on their experience. The sample included 188 sophomore and junior STEM students attending an HBCU in southeastern Louisiana. Participants in the study completed the Academic Advising Inventory (AAI). Some students also participated in a focus group or virtual interview. An independent t-test found no difference between the GPAs of STEM students who received developmental advising as opposed to prescriptive advising. A one-way ANOVA found no significant difference between STEM students' GPAs based on the frequency and duration of their advising sessions. A Mann-Whitney U test determined that STEM students who were prescriptively advised were significantly more satisfied with advising than STEM students who were developmentally advised. A Mann-Whitney U also determined that STEM students who were satisfied with their education were significantly more dissatisfied with academic advising than STEM students who were dissatisfied with their education. A Kruskal-Wallis H test determined there was no significant difference between STEM students' satisfaction with advising and the frequency of their advising sessions. A Kruskal-Wallis H also determined that STEM students who spent less than 15 minutes or more than 1 hour were the most satisfied with advisement. The majority of STEM students perceived academic advising had little impact on their GPA. However, STEM students perceived academic advising as having an impact on their satisfaction with the university. The majority of STEM students perceived academic advising as useful.
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Implicit theories of writing and their impact on students' response to a SRSD intervention.
Limpo, Teresa; Alves, Rui A
2014-12-01
In the field of intelligence research, it has been shown that some people conceive intelligence as a fixed trait that cannot be changed (entity beliefs), whereas others conceive it as a malleable trait that can be developed (incremental beliefs). What about writing? Do people hold similar implicit theories about the nature of their writing ability? Furthermore, are these beliefs likely to influence students' response to a writing intervention? We aimed to develop a scale to measure students' implicit theories of writing (pilot study) and to test whether these beliefs influence strategy-instruction effectiveness (intervention study). In the pilot and intervention studies participated, respectively, 128 and 192 students (Grades 5-6). Based on existing instruments that measure self-theories of intelligence, we developed the Implicit Theories of Writing (ITW) scale that was tested with the pilot sample. In the intervention study, 109 students received planning instruction based on the self-regulated strategy development model, whereas 83 students received standard writing instruction. Students were evaluated before, in the middle, and after instruction. ITW's validity was supported by piloting results and their successful cross-validation in the intervention study. In this, intervention students wrote longer and better texts than control students. Moreover, latent growth curve modelling showed that the more the intervention students conceived writing as a malleable skill, the more the quality of their texts improved. This research is of educational relevance because it provides a measure to evaluate students' implicit theories of writing and shows their impact on response to intervention. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.
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Perceptions and Beliefs about Textual Appropriation and Source Use in Second Language Writing
Polio, Charlene; Shi, Ling
2012-01-01
Perceptions and judgments on plagiarism or acceptable use of source texts are contingent on one's interpretations and experiences in reading and writing academic texts in a specific disciplinary context. The lack of consensus on what is acceptable textual appropriation in student writing has led to the scholarship on perceptions of textual…
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Student Diligence and Student Diligence Support: Predictors of Academic Success.
Arthur, Christon G.
The purpose of this study was to examine ways in which students can become academically engaged and satisfied with their academic experience. A correlational study, using the survey method, was used to describe in quantitative terms, the degree of the relationships between student diligence, student support systems, other related factors, and…
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Taha, Mohamed Mostafa
2016-01-01
This study aimed to test a proposed structural model of the relationships and existing paths among cognitive processes (attention and planning), visual motor integration, and academic achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics. The study sample consisted of 50 students with mild intellectual disability or MID. The average age of these…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Alberto A. Alegre
2014-06-01
Full Text Available The aim of this research was to determine the relationship between academic self-efficacy, self-regulated learning and academic performance of first-year university students in the Metropolitan Lima area. An assessment was made of 284 students (138 male and 146 female students admitted to a private university of Lima for the 2013-2 term by using a non-probability and incidental procedure and the General Academic Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, the University Academic Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire; and for the academic performance of every student, their registered weighted GPA was taken into account. Formulated hypothesis was accepted as correlation coefficients resulting from academic selfefficacy; self-regulated learning and academic performance were both positive and significant, but low. In addition, the correlation between academic selfefficacy and self-regulated learning were positive, significant and moderate.
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Student prosocial behavior and academic achievement
Spasenović Vera Z.
2004-01-01
The paper considers correlation between student prosocial behavior and academic achievement. Attention first focuses on the issue of prosocial behavior defining, making it operational and measuring it. Next consideration is given to the ways that prosocial behavior contributes to academic achievement. It is thought that prosocial behavior can produce indirect effects on student prosocial behavior because it is bound to certain academically relevant forms of behavior leading to successful lear...
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Academic goals, student homework engagement, and academic achievement in Primary Education
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Antonio eValle
2016-03-01
Full Text Available There seems to be a general consensus in the literature that doing homework is beneficial for students. Thus, the current challenge is to examine the process of doing homework to find which variables may help students to complete the homework assigned. To address this goal, a path analysis model was fit. The model hypothesized that the way students engage in homework is explained by the type of academic goals set, and it explains the amount of time spend on homework, the homework time management, and the amount of homework done. Lastly, the amount of homework done is positively related to academic achievement. The model was fit using a sample of 535 Spanish students from the last three courses of elementary school (aged 9 to 13. Findings show that: (a academic achievement was positively associated with the amount of homework completed, (b the amount of homework completed was related to the homework time management, (c homework time management was associated with the approach to homework; (d and the approach to homework, like the rest of the variables of the model (except for the time spent on homework, was related to the student's academic motivation (i.e., academic goals.
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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.
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Student Academic Optimism: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Tschannen-Moran, Megan; Bankole, Regina A.; Mitchell, Roxanne M.; Moore, Dennis M., Jr.
2013-01-01
Purpose: This research aims to add to the literature on Academic Optimism, a composite measure composed of teacher perceptions of trust in students, academic press, and collective efficacy by exploring a similar set of constructs from the student perceptive. The relationships between student trust in teachers, student perceptions of academic…
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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TASK AVERSIVENESS AND ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION
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Magvirasari Lestari Linra
2016-12-01
Full Text Available Academic procrastination occurs when certain tasks are considered unpleasant, an unpleasant task and the usual delayed them is the task of writing, reading, studying for the exam, meetings, and administrative. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of the task aversiveness with academic procrastination. Subject of the study were 100 students out of a population of 516 students of the Faculty of Psychology class of 2012-2014. The method used in this research is quantitative by using Spearman rho as data analysis techniques. The research instrument consists of academic procrastination scale and the scale of the task aversiveness. Based on the results of correlation is known that there is a positive relationship between task aversiveness with academic procrastination with a correlation coefficient r = 0.508; p = 0.000. The results showed that of the 100 students of the Faculty of Psychology University of Makassar has a degree of relationship between task aversiveness with academic procrastination is on the very low category (25, 8%. Area / types of tasks delayed is not necessarily an unpleasant task and otherwise unpleasant task may not be postponed. Area task the highest level of aversive and delays are areas the task of writing and reading. This study illustrates that academic procrastination can be lowered by a change in the mindset of an unpleasant task.
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Writing in learning/teaching in French (study case- freshmen “Alexander Xhuvani” University students
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Leonarda Myslihaka
2017-03-01
Full Text Available Writing plays an important role in teaching and learning foreign languages. Students that can write in a foreign language have to verify their grammar, lexical and semantic performance and it is the role of the teacher to assess if students have learned rules correctly. This is both important for their reading and speaking skills and in general students are tested through a writing test. Writing is now an object of research and it is generally accepted that teaching/ learning cannot be performed out of the communicative acts. Students are required to produce and interpret different documents such as leaflets, journal articles etc. in a foreign language, in this case in French. The idea is that if you want to own the writing competency, you have to know very well both the lingual and contextual structure. This paper is a based on a research conducted with the first year students, studying French at the “Alexander Xhuvani” University, Elbasan, Albania, taking in consideration the lingual, psychological and social factors that affect writing. From the conclusions was clear that students had difficulties in writing due to their limited lingual competencies that leads them to orthographical mistakes etc. We also noted that students are eager to acquire this competency because learning a language through writing does not merely mean to learn syntax but it also requires a de – contextualization and creating a chance for students to get in touch with everyday language texts.
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Students versus Plagiarism: How is Online Plagiarism Detection Service Perceived?
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Muhammad Affan Ramadhana
2016-08-01
Full Text Available The development of information and communication technology plays a considerable role for students in writing their theses. The positive side, it will help the students to find countless number of academic sources ranging from journal articles to complete theses written by other scholars. On the other hand, it will also create a chance for the students to commit plagiarism easier. Unoriginal writing and plagiarism in this digital era can be detected in the digital way by using plagiarism detection software. This paper elaborates how students understand the concept of plagiarism, how they avoid plagiarism, and how they perceive online plagiarism detection service. The data was taken from interviews to MA students during their period of thesis writing. This paper concludes several important outlines to be learning guidelines for the students in improving their academic writing.
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Effect of Process Approach to Writing on Senior Secondary Students ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
Effect of Process Approach to Writing on Senior Secondary Students' ... The study adopted a quasi-experimental non equivalent pretest-posttest research design. ... Key words: process approach, product approach, essay, writing, achievement.
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Writing a research paper at the university: authorship vs plagiarism
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Maria Fátima Alves
2016-09-01
Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2016v69n3p77 Considering the need of producing academic texts at the university, many undergraduate students do it by copying texts that were already published. In this study we discuss the presence of plagiarism versus authorship marks in the introduction of academic articles produced by freshmen in a licenciateship degree. Therefore, we emphasize the issue of plagiarism and authorship, particularly from the perspective of the enunciative bakhtinian studies and then present the theoretical basis of Literacies, with the most recent studies on Literacies and Socio-Rhetorics. Data analysis revealed and confirmed the academic writing as a complex activity, given the practice of plagiarism found in the analyzed productions. The lack of knowledge of academic writing together not the theme domain contributed to the practice of plagiarism.
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Beyond spelling : The writing skills of students with dyslexia in higher education
Tops, W.; Callens, M.; Van Cauwenberghe, E.; Adriaens, J.; Brysbaert, M.
To have a clearer idea of the problems students with dyslexia may face during their studies, we compared writings of 100 students with dyslexia and 100 age matched control students in higher education. The aim of this study was to compare the writing of young adults with dyslexia and young adults
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Student Academic Support as a Predictor of Life Satisfaction in University Students
Akin, Ahmet; Arslan, Serhat; Çelik, Eyüp; Kaya, Çinar; Arslan, Nihan
2015-01-01
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between Academic Support and Life Satisfaction. Participants were 458 university students who voluntarily filled out a package of self-report instruments. Student Academic Support Scale and Satisfaction with Life Scale were used as measures. The relationships between student academic support…
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Perceptions of Engineering students, lecturers and academic ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
Perceptions of Engineering students, lecturers and academic development practitioners about academic development classes at a university of technology. ... development, engineering education, scaffolding, self-regulated learning, students ...
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Student prosocial behavior and academic achievement
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Spasenović Vera Z.
2004-01-01
Full Text Available The paper considers correlation between student prosocial behavior and academic achievement. Attention first focuses on the issue of prosocial behavior defining, making it operational and measuring it. Next consideration is given to the ways that prosocial behavior contributes to academic achievement. It is thought that prosocial behavior can produce indirect effects on student prosocial behavior because it is bound to certain academically relevant forms of behavior leading to successful learning and work. Also, correlation is interpreted by means of teacher’s preferences of prosocial students, which is reflected in teacher expectations and behavior towards students but in evaluating their work too. In addition, prosocial behavior may produce direct effects, for it is through peer prosocial interactions that positive intellectual exchange is performed, which contributes to more successful mastering of teaching content. The paper provides a survey of investigations whose results indicate that there exists correlation between student prosocial behavior and academic achievement. Also, consideration is given to possible methods and treatments for encouraging prosocial behavior in school context, especially the role of teacher in the process and the importance of the program for promoting student prosocial skills.
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Emphasis: Five Ways to Cure Boring Student Writing.
Foster, Mary Ellen
A careful use of emphasis by students in their writing can be promoted by some exercises assigned by composition teachers. A drawing exercise can help students learn that changing the length of sentences makes paragraphs more interesting. Using Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's five categories of grief to consider times of depression in students' lives…
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Henderson, Daphne Carr; Rupley, William H.; Nichols, Janet Alys; Nichols, William Dee; Rasinski, Timothy V.
2018-01-01
Current professional development efforts in writing at the secondary level have not resulted in student improvement on large-scale writing assessments. To maximize funding resources and instructional time, school leaders need a way to determine professional development content for writing teachers that aligns with specific student outcomes. The…
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Exploring evidence of higher order thinking skills in the writing of first year undergraduates
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Lynette Faragher
2014-08-01
Full Text Available Research indicates that concern is often expressed about the language and discourse skills new students bring with them when they first enrol at university, which leads to assumptions being made about their academic abilities. In this paper, an argument is developed through detailed analysis of student writing, that many new first year students have nascent Higher Order Thinking Skills and the potential to be successful in their studies. The work of Robert Marzano and his associates (Marzano, 2001; Marzano & Kendall, 2007, 2008 is applied to student writing.
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Student Engagement: Rhetoric and Reality
Baron, Paula; Corbin, Lillian
2012-01-01
Recently, there has been much interest in higher education literature and policy on the concepts of student engagement and disengagement. While most academic writings recognise the significance of student engagement, they have tended to concentrate on it in relation to academic activities. Increasingly, universities are "cascading" down…
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AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ FREE WRITING
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Rahmi Phonna
2014-05-01
Full Text Available Writing contains a compound process to be expressed that entails the writer to pay more attention on linking appropriate words together. Most linguists agree that a writer should attain high level of understanding to pursue the lifelong learning of academic writing pedagogy. This study aimed to analyze the students’ free writing by identifying the category of mistakes that often appear on their writing assignment. 28 free writings were collected, as the main data, from 28 students as the samples for this study. They were then analyzed by using the guidelines of correction symbols from Hogue (1996 and Oshima & Hogue (1999. The results revealed that 11 categories of grammar that often applied incorrectly on the students’ free writing. The misused of verb-agreement (V/A was the most frequent category occurred, followed by word form (Wf and Spelling (Sp. The least category of errors identified on the students’ free writing was conjunction (Conj and wrong word (Ww categories. Overall, 175 errors from different grammatical conventions were repeated in the students’ free writing.
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The Relationship between Writing Anxiety and Learning Styles among Graduate Students.
Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J.
1998-01-01
Examines the relationship between learning styles and writing anxiety with female (n=72) and male (n=18) graduate students. Findings reveal that students with the highest levels of writing anxiety tended to be those who prefer to learn in warm environments, lacked self-motivation, liked structure, were peer-oriented learners, were…
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Pelger, Susanne; Sigrell, Anders
2016-01-01
Background: Feedback is one of the most significant factors for students' development of writing skills. For feedback to be successful, however, students and teachers need a common language - a meta-language - for discussing texts. Not least because in science education such a meta-language might contribute to improve writing training and feedback-giving. Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore students' perception of teachers' feedback given on their texts in two genres, and to suggest how writing training and feedback-giving could become more efficient. Sample: In this study were included 44 degree project students in biology and molecular biology, and 21 supervising teachers at a Swedish university. Design and methods: The study concerned students' writing about their degree projects in two genres: scientific writing and popular science writing. The data consisted of documented teacher feedback on the students' popular science texts. It also included students' and teachers' answers to questionnaires about writing and feedback. All data were collected during the spring of 2012. Teachers' feedback, actual and recalled - by students and teachers, respectively - was analysed and compared using the so-called Canons of rhetoric. Results: While the teachers recalled the given feedback as mainly positive, most students recalled only negative feedback. According to the teachers, suggested improvements concerned firstly the content, and secondly the structure of the text. In contrast, the students mentioned language style first, followed by content. Conclusions: The disagreement between students and teachers regarding how and what feedback was given on the students texts confirm the need of improved strategies for writing training and feedback-giving in science education. We suggest that the rhetorical meta-language might play a crucial role in overcoming the difficulties observed in this study. We also discuss how training of writing skills may contribute to
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Quitadamo, Ian J; Kurtz, Martha J
2007-01-01
Increasingly, national stakeholders express concern that U.S. college graduates cannot adequately solve problems and think critically. As a set of cognitive abilities, critical thinking skills provide students with tangible academic, personal, and professional benefits that may ultimately address these concerns. As an instructional method, writing has long been perceived as a way to improve critical thinking. In the current study, the researchers compared critical thinking performance of students who experienced a laboratory writing treatment with those who experienced traditional quiz-based laboratory in a general education biology course. The effects of writing were determined within the context of multiple covariables. Results indicated that the writing group significantly improved critical thinking skills whereas the non-writing group did not. Specifically, analysis and inference skills increased significantly in the writing group but not the non-writing group. Writing students also showed greater gains in evaluation skills; however, these were not significant. In addition to writing, prior critical thinking skill and instructor significantly affected critical thinking performance, whereas other covariables such as gender, ethnicity, and age were not significant. With improved critical thinking skill, general education biology students will be better prepared to solve problems as engaged and productive citizens.
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Combating student plagiarism an academic librarian's guide
Lampert, Lynn D
2014-01-01
This practical book introduces readers to the current issues facing todays academic reference and instruction librarians grappling with the growing problem of student plagiarism. The book provides up-to-date overviews of student plagiarism, examples of ways in which librarians can educate students through proven instructional techniques, collaboration approaches and outreach methods, and discusses common problems and questions librarians may encounter when incorporating current anti-plagiarism instruction into their instructional services. Topics include: role of the academic librarian in combating student plagiarism, discipline-based approaches to combating student plagiarism, information literacy techniques and faculty/librarian collaboration. Investigates the issues surrounding the growth of instances of student plagiarism Discusses the academic librarian's role in combating student plagiarism Recommends effective outreach techniques and instructional methods for preventing plagiarism.
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De Smedt, Fien; Merchie, Emmelien; Barendse, Mariska; Rosseel, Yves; De Naeghel, Jessie; Van Keer, Hilde
2018-01-01
In the past, several assessment reports on writing repeatedly showed that elementary school students do not develop the essential writing skills to be successful in school. In this respect, prior research has pointed to the fact that cognitive and motivational challenges are at the root of the rather basic level of elementary students' writing…
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Popular Science Writing Bringing New Perspectives into Science Students' Theses
Pelger, Susanne
2018-01-01
This study analyses which perspectives occur in science students' texts at different points in time during the process of writing a popular science article. The intention is, thus, to explore how popular science writing can help students discover and discuss different perspectives on science matter. For this purpose, texts written by 12 bachelor…
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STUDENT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE PREDICTION USING SUPPORT VECTOR MACHINE
S.A. Oloruntoba1 ,J.L.Akinode2
2017-01-01
This paper investigates the relationship between students' preadmission academic profile and final academic performance. Data Sample of students in one of the Federal Polytechnic in south West part of Nigeria was used. The preadmission academic profile used for this study is the 'O' level grades(terminal high school results).The academic performance is defined using student's Grade Point Average(GPA). This research focused on using data mining technique to develop a model for predicting stude...
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Self-Esteem and Academic Stress among Nursing Students.
Acharya Pandey, R; Chalise, H N
2015-01-01
Stress and self-esteem are common issues that everyone has to cope with at some time in their lives and they could also affect other things going on in a persons' life. Academic stress is psychological condition often experienced by college students as, to some extent, being multidimensional variables. Among others are self-esteem and psychological well-being which are considered to have influences in explaining why college students experience stress. Objective The objective of this study was to assess the self-esteem level and academic stress among the nursing students. Method This is a cross-sectional study carried out in 2012. Total respondents were 190 nursing students selected randomly from Kathmandu University. Academic stress was assed using 30-item Scale for Assessing Academic Stress (SAAS) and Self esteem was assessed using 10 item Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale. Information was collected through the self-administered questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS version 16 software. Simple statistics measurement, percentage, means, correlation was used for the data analysis. Result This study shows mean age of the respondent's was 20.44±2.67 years. Majority (88%) of students getting financial support of less than NRs 6000 per month and 64% have low perceived family support. This study found mean score of self esteem and academic stress was 11.9 and 18.4 respectively. Further nearly 78% students have low self esteem and 74% have high academic stress. Significant variable for high academic stress and low self esteem were lower the age, lower the education and low perceived family support. Lower financial support has also high academic stress. Conclusion Nursing students have low self esteem and high academic stress. Intervention to lower the academic stress and increase the self esteem should be carried out so that the learning of students will be efficient.
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THE EFFECTS OF LEARNING MODELS AND LINGUISTIC INTELLIGENCE ON THE PERSUASIVE WRITING SKILL
Yusri, Yusri; Emzir, Emzir
2017-01-01
The objective of this study is to know the effects of learning models (problem solving and project based learning) and linguistic intelligence on the students of persuasive writing skill of the fourth semester students of English Department, State Polytechnic of Sriwijaya Palembang, in the academic year of 2016-2017. The writer used linguistic intelligence test and persuasive writing test to collect the data. The data was analyzed statistically by using two-factor ANOVA a...
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Writing Retreat Increases Productivity And Community For Women Geoscientists
O'Connell, S.; Holmes, M.
2011-12-01
Five, weeklong geoscientist writing retreats have been completed with an NSF ADANCE PAID grant. During the five nights and four and a half days, eight to twenty-four academics have gathered in a rural setting outside of Boston to get to focus on writing papers and proposals while getting to know each other. Participants range in age and experience from graduate students to emeritus professors. Over twenty papers and proposals acknowledge their production, in part to this writing retreat. Impact extends beyond papers as informal mentoring and discussions at meals and in the evenings centers on succeeding in academia. Research and teaching are foremost in the conversation. Post-docs learn strategies for applying for jobs and grants, and senior professors discuss strategies for working with academic administrations, running departments and mentoring students. They also learn new technologies and perspectives from younger participants. Particularly helpful are discussions on work-life balance. Networking opportunities extend beyond the retreat as participants join each other at their home institutions to give seminars, develop research projects and mentor each other's students. All weeks follow the same format. Participants arrive Sunday and meet during an evening welcome reception. Monday is devoted to writing. Tuesday a writing coach is available. In the morning, using examples from the scientific literature, she discusses strategies and techniques for writing clearly at a group session. During the afternoon, participants work with the coach individually or in small groups to improve their own writing projects. Wednesday evening a skill session is offered on a topic of interest. These have included undergraduate research, NSF funding, productive techniques for dealing with conflict, and generational characteristics and attitudes, which can hamper communication. A Thursday evening wrap-up session prepares participants for Friday's departure. We believe that this model
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Academic Integration of Mainland Chinese Students in Germany
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Hanwei Li
2017-03-01
Full Text Available This article presents an analysis of the academic integration experiences of mainland Chinese tertiary-level students in Germany. Using Tinto’s model, the article explores the challenges that Chinese students face during their academic integration, the strategies they employ, and the relationship between academic and social integration. The data were collected in spring 2016 by interviewing 26 mainland Chinese students studying either in German universities or universities of applied sciences. Four major challenges were identified and analyzed: language barrier, knowledge gap, pedagogical differences, and cultural differences. An important outcome of the study presented is that social integration serves as a facilitator for enhancing academic integration, but is not a prerequisite for academic success. Group learning with peers was found to enhance learning outcomes. Overall, Chinese students have exploited their own advantages in academic integration by exploring feasible strategies and benefiting from their past learning experiences. It is suggested that academic integration as a long and challenging process for international students should be acknowledged by the German HEIs, and that more institutional support and guidance are needed.
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[How medical students perform academically by admission types?].
Kim, Se-Hoon; Lee, Keumho; Hur, Yera; Kim, Ji-Ha
2013-09-01
Despite the importance of selecting students whom are capable for medical education and to become a good doctor, not enough studies have been done in the category. This study focused on analysing the medical students' academic performance (grade point average, GPA) differences, flunk and dropout rates by admission types. From 2004 to 2010, we gathered 369 Konyang University College of Medicine's students admission data and analyzed the differences between admission method and academic achievement, differences in failure and dropout rates. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), ordinary least square, and logistic regression were used. The rolling students showed higher academic achievement from year 1 to 3 than regular students (p dropout rate by admission types, regular admission type students showed higher drop out rate than the rolling ones which demonstrates admission types gives significant effect on flunk or dropout rates in medical students (p students tend to show lower flunk rate and dropout rates and perform better academically. This implies selecting students primarily by Korean College Scholastic Ability Test does not guarantee their academic success in medical education. Thus we suggest a more in-depth comprehensive method of selecting students that are appropriate to individual medical school's educational goal.
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Turnitin and Peer Review in ESL Academic Writing Classrooms
Li, Jinrong; Li, Mimi
2018-01-01
Despite the benefits of peer review, there are still challenges that need to be addressed to make it more effective for L2 students. With the development of technology, computer-mediated peer review has captured increasing attention from L2 writing researchers and instructors. While Turnitin is known for its use in detecting plagiarism, its newly…
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INTERACTIONIST DYNAMIC ASSESSMENT IN ACADEMIC PERSUASIVE WRITING: A CASE OF TWO EFL LEARNERS
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Zahra kheradmand Saadi
2017-09-01
Full Text Available This study investigated the effects of interactionist dynamic assessment on improving academic persuasive writing of two Iranian EFL learners majoring in English Language and Literature. Qualitative analysis of the interactions between the mediator and learners and the drafts written by the learners indicated that using different types of mediation were effective in developing learners’ persuasive writing. In addition to the factors such as individual, time, and language feature which were shown to be integral in determining mediation, assessment of the two cases showed that factors such as mediator’s role, learners’ responsiveness to mediation, and agency were important in specifying mediation.
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Hen, Meirav; Goroshit, Marina
2014-01-01
Academic procrastination has been seen as an impediment to students' academic success. Research findings suggest that it is related to lower levels of self-regulated learning and academic self-efficacy and associated with higher levels of anxiety, stress, and illness. Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to assess, regulate, and utilize emotions and has been found to be associated with academic self-efficacy and a variety of better outcomes, including academic performance. Students with learning disabilities (LD) are well acquainted with academic difficulty and maladaptive academic behavior. In comparison to students without LD, they exhibit high levels of learned helplessness, including diminished persistence, lower academic expectations, and negative affect. This study examined the relationships among academic procrastination, EI, and academic performance as mediated by academic self-efficacy in 287 LD and non-LD students. Results indicated that the indirect effect of EI on academic procrastination and GPA was stronger in LD students than in non-LD students. In addition, results indicated that LD students scored lower than non-LD students on both EI and academic self-efficacy and higher on academic procrastination. No difference was found in GPA.
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English language writing centres in Japanese universities: What do students really need?
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Jim McKinley
2010-06-01
Full Text Available The installation of English language writing centres in Japanese universities is a relatively recent event—the first ones established with funding from the Ministry of Education in 2004. Because of the EFL writing context, setting up a writing centre requires consideration of students’ needs and cultural expectations of writing and writing centres. In general, writing centres that have been established in Japanese universities follow a structure similar to those in the US. This raises the question as to whether or not this is appropriate for the particular needs of EFL students and the obstacles they face. For this study, in order to explore students’ attitudes toward writing centres and the role they play in writing education, interview data was collected from students of English composition in two different departments at a university in Japan well known for its English language education: the English department, which does not have a writing centre, and the liberal arts department, which has one of the first writing centres established in Japan.
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de Caso, Ana Maria; Garcia, Jesus Nicasio; Diez, Carmen; Robledo, Patricia; Alvarez, Maria Lourdes
2010-01-01
Introduction: The use of self efficacy has been suggested as an effective classroom intervention procedure. The present research examined the use of self-efficacy training on the writing of Spanish elementary student with learning disabilities. Objectives: We present a research study focused on the improvement of the writing product and the…
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Lee, Wincy Wing Sze
2017-10-01
The present study examined the relationships among grit, academic performance, perceived academic failure, and stress levels of Hong Kong associate degree students using path analysis. Three hundred and forty-five students from a community college in Hong Kong voluntarily participated in the study. They completed a questionnaire that measured their grit (operationalized as interest and perseverance) and stress levels. The students also provided their actual academic performance and evaluated their perception of their academic performance as a success or a failure. The results of the path analysis showed that interest and perseverance were negatively associated with stress, and only perceived academic failure was positively associated with stress. These findings suggest that psychological appraisal and resources are more important antecedents of stress than objective negative events. Therefore, fostering students' psychological resilience may alleviate the stress experienced by associate degree students or college students in general. Copyright © 2017 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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ENHANCING WRITING SKILL THROUGH WRITING PROCESS APPROACH
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M. Zaini Miftah
2015-03-01
Full Text Available The study is aimed at developing the implementation of Writing Process Approach (WPA to enhance the students’ skill in writing essay. The study employed Classroom Action Research. The subjects of the study were 15 university students enrolled in the writing class. The data were gained from writing task, observation and field notes. The findings show that the implementation of WPA with the proper model procedures developed can enhance the students’ skill in writing essay. Before the strategy was implemented, the percentage of the students achieving the score greater than or equal to C (56-70 was 40.00% (6 students of the class. However, after the strategy was implemented in Cycle I, it enhanced enough to 60.00% (9 students of the class, but this result did not meet the criteria of success set up in the study. Next, in Cycle II it increased slightly to 86.67% (13 students of the class. Thus, the enhancement of the students’ skill in writing essay can be reached but it should follow the proper model procedures of the implementation of WPA developed. Keywords: writing process approach, writing skill, essay writing
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Academic ethical awareness among undergraduate nursing students.
Cho, Ok-Hee; Hwang, Kyung-Hye
2017-01-01
Academic ethical awareness is an important aspect especially for nursing students who will provide ethical nursing care to patients in future or try to tread the path of learning toward professional acknowledgement in nursing scholarship. The purpose of this study was to explore academic ethical awareness and its related characteristics among undergraduate nursing students. This study commenced the survey with cross-sectional, descriptive questions and enrolled convenient samples of 581 undergraduate nursing students from three universities in South Korea. It was investigated with structured questionnaires including general characteristics and academic ethical awareness related. Ethical considerations: This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at National University. Academic ethical awareness was the highest regarding behaviors violating the respect or confidentiality of patients and cheating on exams, while it was the lowest for inappropriate behaviors in class. From the result of general characteristics difference, male students showed higher score than female students in relative; first-year students showed higher score than other year students; the higher score was rated from students who were highly satisfied with their major than the other not satisfied with their major; and students with low academic stress showed higher ethical awareness score than persons with higher stress. Personal behaviors were rated with low ethical awareness in relative, but items related to public rules and actual effects on patients or others were rated with higher score. Nursing satisfaction and academic stress are main factors on ethical awareness. To improve overall ethical awareness level of nursing students, it is required to provide more education about the importance of personal behaviors in class and need to improve the understanding of how it will be connected with future situation and effect.
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hamid Asayesh; Fatemeh Sharififard; Mojtaba Mosavi; Zahra Taheri Kharameh; Zahra Aliakbarzade Arani; Alireza Shouri Bidgoli
2016-01-01
Background and Objectives: Learning is a stressful experience of human life; reduced adaption to stressors causes academic burnout which is a reason for academic failure among students. This study investigated the correlation among academic stress, academic burnout, and academic performance in nursing and paramedic students of Qom University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, 264 nursing and paramedic students were randomly selected. Demographic ch...
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Panel: Opportunities and Challenges of Writing in a Second Language
DEFF Research Database (Denmark)
Kupatadze, Ketevan; Chiu, Scott C.; Cozart, Stacey Marie
/foreign language. This is particularly true when one teaches adult groups of students who have already formed distinct identities as academically and professionally successful L1 writers. The participants of our panel will look at students from different backgrounds with the shared interest in finding out how...... (Richard Kern 2000, Claire Krasch, 1993); Wiring assessment (Carl Bereiter, 1995); Learning and writing transfer (Greeno, Smith, and Moore, 1993), Second language writing (Tony Silva and Paul Kei Matsuda, 2010). Paper (1): Bridging the Danglish Gap: A Study of Danish Doctoral Students’ Experiences...... knowledge and principles to the writing situations they perceive as suitable or doable. Students’ perception about the role of language in Globalized world and language learning, as well as their self-perception plays an integral role in their ability to transfer knowledge when writing in a second...
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Khanehkeshi, Ali; Basavarajappa
2011-01-01
This paper investigates the relationship of academic stress with aggression, depression and academic performance of college students. Using a random sampling technique, 60 students consist of boys and girls were selected as students having academic stress. The scale for assessing academic stress (Sinha, Sharma and Mahendra, 2001); the Buss-Perry…
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Marco Antonio Pérez Durán
2013-09-01
Full Text Available Resumen: Un modelo de escritura se define como una herramienta pedagógica que permite entrenar a los estudiantes en la actividad de la escritura mediante una práctica consciente. Lo que significa que ellos deben considerar todas las reglas y opciones que poseen al momento de crear un texto. En consecuencia, el modelo debe considerar estos recursos generales para lograr que los estudiantes creen sus propias habilidades de escritura, escriban mejor y desarrollen su estilo. El objetivo de este artículo es analizar, describir y presentar un modelo metodológico de escritura basado en la autocorrección (el caso de una estudiante que ayude a los estudiantes universitarios a mejorar su producción textual académica mediante la producción de textos cotidianos.Abstract: A writing model is defined as teaching tool that permit to train students in writing activity through a conscious practice. That means they have to consider all the rules and options they have at the moments they produce a writing text. Thus, this model must consider these general resources in order to reach students develop their own writing skills, they can write better and therefore the get their style. The objective of this study is to analyze, describe and present a methodological writing model based on the self-corrections (a college student case that helps college students to improve their academical textual production by writing everyday text.
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A Self-Assessment Checklist for Undergraduate Students' Argumentative Writing
Nimehchisalem, Vahid; Chye, David Yoong Soon; Jaswant Singh, Sheena Kaur A/P; Zainuddin, Siti Zaidah; Norouzi, Sara; Khalid, Sheren
2014-01-01
With a growing emphasis on students' ability to assess their own written works in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) writing courses, self-assessment checklists are today regarded as useful tools. These checklists can help learners diagnose their own weaknesses and improve their writing performance. This necessitates development of…
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On Developing the Writing Skills Course for Accounting Students
Firch, Tim; Campbell, Annhenrie; Lindsay, David H.; Garner, Don E.
2010-01-01
The CSU, Stanislaus, accounting program is providing a new course that meets the university-wide upper-division writing requirement and offers accounting students additional professional study. While a writing skills course is not unusual in a business program, few offer an alternative centered on the accounting body of knowledge. Undergraduate…
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Personal factors that influence deaf college students' academic success.
Albertini, John A; Kelly, Ronald R; Matchett, Mary Karol
2012-01-01
Research tells us that academic preparation is key to deaf students' success at college. Yet, that is not the whole story. Many academically prepared students drop out during their first year. This study identified entering deaf college students' personal factors as assessed by their individual responses to both the Noel-Levitz College Student Inventory Form B and the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory, second edition (LASSI). Entering students in 3 successive cohorts (total n =437) participated in this study. Results show that in addition to entry measurements of reading and mathematic skills, personal factors contributed to the academic performance of students in their first quarter in college. The Noel-Levitz provided the comparatively better predictive value of academic performance: Motivation for Academic Study Scale (e.g., desire to finish college). The LASSI also showed statistically significant predictors, the Self-Regulation Component (e.g., time management) and Will Component (e.g., self-discipline), but accounted for relatively less variability in the students' initial grade point averages. For this group of underprepared students, results show that personal factors can play a significant role in academic success. Deaf students' personal factors are discussed as they relate to other first-year college students and to their subsequent academic performance and persistence.
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A Probe into the Negative Writing Transfer of Chinese College Students
He, Xiaojun; Niao, Lina
2015-01-01
Although Chinese college students have studied English for many years, they still have much difficulty in writing a good paper. There are many factors resulting in their inability to write well, such as students' lack of vocabulary, having a poor knowledge of grammar, language transfer, and so on. But, of these factors, the negative transfer of…
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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…
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Using journal writing to evoke critical thinking skills of students in teacher education
Baldwin, Dolly Angela Serreno
1991-01-01
There has been little research which shows that students use critical thinking skills when they write. The use of journal writing has been studied for a variety of purposes, but little evidence exists that journal writing can enhance critical thinking skills. The writing assignments presented in this study were designed to enhance the critical thinking skills of college students enrolled in a reading methods course at a small college in southern West Virginia. Case studies were used to descri...
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Bredtmann, Julia; Crede, Carsten J; Otten, Sebastian
2013-02-01
This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the introduction of a Writing Center at a university, which aims at improving students' scientific writing abilities. In order to deal with the presumed limited utility of student feedback surveys for evaluating the effectiveness of educational programs, we use students' actual learning outcomes as our quality measure. Based on this objective measure, different statistical evaluation methods established in the labor market treatment literature are applied. We present and discuss the validity of these methods to evaluate educational programs and compare the results of these approaches to implications obtained using corresponding student surveys. Although almost all students reported the writing courses to be helpful, we find no significant effect of course participation on students' grades. This result highlights the need for institutions not to rely solely on student course evaluations for evidence-based policy decisions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Test Anxiety and Academic Procrastination Among Prelicensure Nursing Students.
Custer, Nicole
Test anxiety may cause nursing students to cope poorly with academic demands, affecting academic performance and attrition and leading to possible failure on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN®). Test-anxious nursing students may engage academic procrastination as a coping mechanism. The Test Anxiety Inventory and the Procrastination Assessment Scale for Students were administered to 202 prelicensure nursing students from diploma, associate, and baccalaureate nursing programs in southwestern Pennsylvania. Statistically significant correlations between test anxiety and academic procrastination were found. The majority of participants reported procrastinating most on weekly reading assignments. Students with higher grade point averages exhibited less academic procrastination.
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The Effects of Portfolio Use in Teaching Report Writing: EFL Students' Perspective
Hussein Taha Assaggaf; Yousef Salem Bamahra
2016-01-01
Portfolio has widely been used in various areas including second language writing. The purpose of this study is to investigate the views of students in using portfolio in teaching technical report-writing. The participants are computer science students enrolled in a report writing course at a university in Yemen. For data collection, the study used three techniques; namely, group discussions, written reflections and a short questionnaire. The findings showed participants' positive views towar...
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Guest Editors
2016-06-01
Full Text Available Call for papers for an upcoming special issue of the South African Journal of Higher Education (SAJHE in 2016: ‘Re-imagining writing retreats for academic staff in higher education’.
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Novelli, Joan
2001-01-01
Six ideas for writing autobiographies with elementary school students include: model the writing process to get students started; read examples of autobiographies; brainstorm writing ideas; free-write the first draft; edit and revise; and publish the stories. Suggestions for mini-lessons are included. A student reproducible offers an editing…
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Influence of Writing Ability and Computation Skill on Mathematics Writing
Powell, Sarah R.; Hebert, Michael A.
2016-01-01
Mathematics standards expect students to communicate about mathematics using oral and written methods, and some high-stakes assessments ask students to answer mathematics questions by writing. Assumptions about mathematics communication via writing include (a) students possess writing skill, (b) students can transfer this writing skill to…
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(un) Disciplining the nurse writer: doctoral nursing students' perspective on writing capacity.
Ryan, Maureen M; Walker, Madeline; Scaia, Margaret; Smith, Vivian
2014-12-01
In this article, we offer a perspective into how Canadian doctoral nursing students' writing capacity is mentored and, as a result, we argue is disciplined. We do this by sharing our own disciplinary and interdisciplinary experiences of writing with, for and about nurses. We locate our experiences within a broader discourse that suggests doctoral (nursing) students be prepared as stewards of the (nursing) discipline. We draw attention to tensions and effects of writing within (nursing) disciplinary boundaries. We argue that traditional approaches to developing nurses' writing capacity in doctoral programs both shepherds and excludes emerging scholarly voices, and we present some examples to illustrate this dual role. We ask our nurse colleagues to consider for whom nurses write, offering an argument that nurses' writing must ultimately improve patient care and thus would benefit from multiple voices in writing. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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Increasing Research Productivity and Professional Development in Psychology With a Writing Retreat.
Stanley, Ian H; Hom, Melanie A; Chu, Carol; Joiner, Thomas E
2017-09-01
Writing is a core feature of the training requirements and career demands of psychology faculty members and graduate students. Within academic psychology, specifically, writing is vital for the generation of scientific knowledge through manuscripts and grant applications. Although resources exist regarding how to improve one's writing skills, few models have been described regarding how to promote a culture of writing productivity that realizes tangible deliverables, such as manuscripts and grant applications. In this article, we discuss the rationale, model, and initial outcome data of a writing retreat developed and implemented to increase research productivity among psychology faculty and trainees. We also review best practices for conducting writing retreats and identify key areas for future SoTL on advancing writing.
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"I Am Kind of a Good Writer and Kind of Not": Examining Students' Writing Attitudes
Hall, Anna H.; Axelrod, Ysaaca
2014-01-01
Since writing ability has been found to be an important predictor of school success and college readiness, it is important for teachers to understand the connections between students' attitudes toward writing, writing self-efficacy, and writing achievement. This article describes the findings from focus groups conducted with 81 students in grades…
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Generic versus discipline-specific writing interventions: Report on a ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
Departing from a socio-constructivist perspective, the main purpose of the research on which this article reports was to indicate the effectiveness of both discipline-specific and generic approaches in teaching academic writing to undergraduate university students. A quasi-experimental design was followed, comparing the ...
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A student guide to proofreading and writing in science.
Hyatt, Jon-Philippe K; Bienenstock, Elisa Jayne; Tilan, Jason U
2017-09-01
Scientific writing requires a distinct style and tone, whether the writing is intended for an undergraduate assignment or publication in a peer-reviewed journal. From the first to the final draft, scientific writing is an iterative process requiring practice, substantial feedback from peers and instructors, and comprehensive proofreading on the part of the writer. Teaching writing or proofreading is not common in university settings. Here, we present a collection of common undergraduate student writing mistakes and put forth suggestions for corrections as a first step toward proofreading and enhancing readability in subsequent draft versions. Additionally, we propose specific strategies pertaining to word choice, structure, and approach to make products more fluid and focused for an appropriate target audience. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.
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Entering the academy as "the other" - about writing competence and ...
African Journals Online (AJOL)
This article argues for an integrated perspective on academic writing, drawing on one primary and two other inquiries conducted with three cohorts of masters students in Education, and a conceptual framework that includes cultural linguistics, cognitive anthropology, social constructivism and "new literacy" studies.
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ASSISTING STUDENTS TO ATTACK WRITING TASKS ON IELTS TEST WITH “PROBING TECHNIQUE”
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Tedi Rohadi
2015-06-01
Full Text Available Writing section on IELTS test is commonly considered one of the most difficult parts of test. The test takers can’t even understand what to do with the tasks provided. They eventually write without clearly knowing the expected direction. Therefore, there should be a fastest way to well equip students to successfully cope with such hindrances. This paper is an action research report of how to make students better understand and answer writing tasks on IELTS test by employing probing techniques as one of test taking strategies. The paper will preliminarily elaborate the characteristics or nature of IELTS test in general and writing section consisting two different tasks in particular including its indicators of what expected kind of writing the testees should be aware of. It will then discuss probing techniques in details. The attack strategies and their sequential implementation will afterward be discussed. The technique will assist students to respectively understand what and how to plan and write effectively on the test.
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ACADEMIC MOTIVATION FOR BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS STUDENTS
Catalin Maican; Radu Lixandroiu
2015-01-01
Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) was applied to Business Information Systems students for finding out their reasons and motives for enrolling this academic field, for undergraduate and postgraduate academic cycles. The students were presented the AMS scale translated in Romanian, together with other questionnaires. The first part of the paper makes a short introduction to AMS, the second describes its objectives, while the third presents the results.
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Blanch, Norine; Forsythe, Lenora C.; Van Allen, Jennifer H.; Roberts, Sherron Killingsworth
2017-01-01
Given the importance of writing, especially in light of college and career readiness emphasis, and the observations that time spent writing in context diminishes over a student's years in school, this article proposes to reignite writing instruction in elementary classrooms through three practical approaches for supporting students in authentic…
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STUDENT ACADEMIC SUPPORT AS A PREDICTOR OF LIFE SATISFACTION IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Ahmet Akýn; Serhat Arslan; Eyüp Çelik; Çýnar Kaya; Nihan Arslan
2015-01-01
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between Academic Support and Life Satisfaction. Participants were 458 university students who voluntarily filled out a package of self-report instruments. Student Academic Support Scale and Satisfaction with Life Scale were used as measures. The relationships between student academic support and life satisfaction were examined using correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis. Life satisfaction was predicted positively by info...
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Lívia Chaves de Melo
2013-06-01
Full Text Available In this paper we investigate citation practices of scientific literature in reflexive writing from the genre of supervised pre-service training report produced by pre-service teachers enrolled in the mandatory pre-service training subject of English Language Teaching, at an undergraduate language teaching course. The aim of this research is to analyze how these pre-services teacher represent themselves based on citation practices of scientific literature, and characterize some of the functions deployed by the citations in the reflexive writing emerging in the academic sphere. We use the dialogic approach to language from Bakhtinian studies as a theoretical base, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions regarding types of sequences and of discourse proposed by Adam and Bronckart. The results of this research show that the practice of citation of scientific literature is an invocation of authority as a form of erudition, amplification and ornamentation of the discourse produced. This practice can also guide pedagogical action developed by pre-service teachers in their supervised training.
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Respondek, Lisa; Seufert, Tina; Stupnisky, Robert; Nett, Ulrike E
2017-01-01
The present study addressed concerns over the high risk of university students' academic failure. It examined how perceived academic control and academic emotions predict undergraduate students' academic success, conceptualized as both low dropout intention and high achievement (indicated by GPA). A cross-sectional survey was administered to 883 undergraduate students across all disciplines of a German STEM orientated university. The study additionally compared freshman students ( N = 597) vs. second-year students ( N = 286). Using structural equation modeling, for the overall sample of undergraduate students we found that perceived academic control positively predicted enjoyment and achievement, as well as negatively predicted boredom and anxiety. The prediction of dropout intention by perceived academic control was fully mediated via anxiety. When taking perceived academic control into account, we found no specific impact of enjoyment or boredom on the intention to dropout and no specific impact of all three academic emotions on achievement. The multi-group analysis showed, however, that perceived academic control, enjoyment, and boredom among second-year students had a direct relationship with dropout intention. A major contribution of the present study was demonstrating the important roles of perceived academic control and anxiety in undergraduate students' academic success. Concerning corresponding institutional support and future research, the results suggested distinguishing incoming from advanced undergraduate students.
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Aki, Esra; Atasavun, Songül; Kayihan, Holya
2008-06-01
Kinesthetic sense plays an important role in writing. Children with low vision lack sensory input from the environment given their loss of vision. This study assessed the effect of upper extremity kinesthetic sense on writing function in two groups, one of students with low vision (9 girls and 11 boys, 9.4 +/- 1.9 yr. of age) and one of sighted students (10 girls and 10 boys, 10.1 +/- 1.3 yr. of age). All participants were given the Kinesthesia Test and Jebsen Hand Function Test-Writing subtest. Students with low vision scored lower on kinesthetic perception and writing performance than sighted peers. The correlation between scores for writing performance and upper extremity kinesthetic sense in the two groups was significant (r = -.34). The probability of deficiencies in kinesthetic information in students with low vision must be remembered.
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Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Marília Mendes Ferreira
2016-01-01
Full Text Available Vygotsky is a well-known author in the field of education and applied linguistics. However, pedagogies based on his assumptions are less publicized. At a time when education in general and, more specifically, language teaching, becomes more instrumental and neoliberal, this article aims to reclaim the relevance of V.V. Davydov and his pedagogy (DAVYDOV, 1988 for the transformation of the current educational context. I seek to present this contribution by describing the approach, and by discussing the challenges imposed on teachers and students, as well as their confrontation through my implementation of this pedagogy in courses of academic writing in English.
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Intertextuality in Chinese High School Students' Essay Writing
Liddicoat, Anthony J.; Scrimgeour, Andrew; Chen, Toni
2008-01-01
This paper investigates the intertextual practices developed for writing in Chinese of high school students in Taiwan. On the basis of texts written by Chinese high school students, we investigate these practices within their own cultural context to develop an understanding of intertextual practices into which Chinese learners are socialised. We…
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Machine learning methods in predicting the student academic motivation
Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)
Ivana Đurđević Babić
2017-01-01
Full Text Available Academic motivation is closely related to academic performance. For educators, it is equally important to detect early students with a lack of academic motivation as it is to detect those with a high level of academic motivation. In endeavouring to develop a classification model for predicting student academic motivation based on their behaviour in learning management system (LMS courses, this paper intends to establish links between the predicted student academic motivation and their behaviour in the LMS course. Students from all years at the Faculty of Education in Osijek participated in this research. Three machine learning classifiers (neural networks, decision trees, and support vector machines were used. To establish whether a significant difference in the performance of models exists, a t-test of the difference in proportions was used. Although, all classifiers were successful, the neural network model was shown to be the most successful in detecting the student academic motivation based on their behaviour in LMS course.
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Utilising Social Networking Sites to Improve Writing: A Case Study with Chinese Students in Malaysia
Vikneswaran, Thulasi; Krish, Pramela
2016-01-01
With the advancement of technology, writing in English is no longer confined to the classroom as nowadays students are exposed to various forms of writing on the Internet. Specifically with Generation Y in mind, online writing is a new method that needs to be implemented to enhance Malaysian students' writing skills. This article aims at…
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Harris, Karen R; Graham, Steve
2013-04-01
By the upper elementary grades, writing becomes an essential tool both for learning and for showing what you know. Students who struggle significantly with writing are at a terrible disadvantage. Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress indicate that only 25% of students can be classified as competent writers; students with learning disabilities (LD) have even greater problems with writing than their normally achieving peers and frequently demonstrate a deteriorating attitude toward writing after the primary grades. In this article, we focus on composing and the writing process, and examine the knowledge base about writing development and instruction among students with LD. We address what research tells us about skilled writers and the development of writing knowledge, strategies, skill, and the will to write, and how this relates to students with LD. Next, we summarize what has been learned from research on writing development, effective instruction, and the writing abilities of students with LD in terms of effective instruction for these students. Finally, we indicate critical areas for future research.
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Students at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences: Academic Year 2015-2016
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Khadijeh Jamshidi
2017-12-01
Full Text Available Background: Academic satisfaction is considered one of the most important factors affecting academic achievement among students. The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between academic satisfaction and academic achievement among students at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted with 346 student participants using stratified random sampling. The research instrument included the Student Academic Satisfaction Questionnaire, the Academic Performance Rating Scale, and student grade point average (GPA. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. A 0.05 significance level was used for statistical tests. Results: The mean score of academic satisfaction among students was 50.7 ± 9.8 and the academic satisfaction level was moderate in 46.2% of the students. Comparing the academic satisfaction level in different fields of study, students in health (58.5%, nursing (67.5%, and paramedics (51.1% reported a moderate satisfaction level and students in midwifery (84.2%, pharmacology (53.5%, medicine (69.3%, and dentistry (55.5% recorded a high satisfaction level (P < 0.05. There was also a significant and positive correlation between academic satisfaction and academic achievement (P = 0.001, r = 0.02. Conclusion: Academic satisfaction among the 46.2% students that reported a moderate level was far from the ideal level. The relationship between academic satisfaction and academic achievement also indicated that creating motivation among students and increasing their levels of satisfaction could provide the grounds for academic achievement among them as much as possible.
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Should Students Engaged to Their Study? (Academic Burnout and School-Engagement among Students
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Fitri Arlinkasari
2017-08-01
Full Text Available Inability to deal with lectures efficiently leads students vulnerable to academic burnout. Burnout contributes to the high dropout rate among students, and this phenomenon has occurred on several universities in Indonesia. To overcome these problems, students should generate the feelings, attitudes and positive attitude towards the academic demands, or known as school engagement. School involvement is a predictor of students’ dropout rate. This study aims to analyze the dropout problem in many private universities in Jakarta by examining the psychological variables: academic burnout and school engagement. 208 students from some private university in Jakarta participated and fulfilled two questionnaires: academic burnout and school engagement that has been modified to suit the college setting. Correlation of the variables showed r= - 0.399 (p = 0.000. This means that school engagement plays a role in reducing academic burnout among students. These findings contribute a reference for academic counseling to support the decreasing of students’ dropout rate.
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Martin, Andrew J.
2014-01-01
Background: Academic buoyancy is students' capacity to successfully overcome setback and challenge that is typical of the ordinary course of everyday academic life. It may represent an important factor on the psycho-educational landscape assisting students who experience difficulties in school and schoolwork. Aims: This study investigated the…