Browsing by Subject "writing"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
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    Annotating Modernism: Marginalia and Pedagogy from Virginia Woolf to the Confessional Poets
    (Taylor & Francis, 2021) Goodspeed-Chadwick, Julie; IUPUC School of Liberal Arts
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    Audience Considerations: Ten Tips, Crafting a Hook, and the Writing Process
    (Sage, 2024) Herzog, Patricia Snell
    This editorial focuses on writing academic articles that appeal to researcher audiences. I offer 10 tips for audience considerations in writing research articles. One tip is to develop a hook. What is a hook and how does one craft it? I help to answer these ques- tions by encouraging authors to move beyond the over-utilized claim that ‘‘very little research exists on this topic.’’ That is a challenging claim to substantiate after decades and centuries of existing studies on most topics, and it is unnecessary. More than likely in this contemporary year, there are many studies relevant to the topics of any article. Their lack is probably more a reflection of the author not thoroughly looking than whether they exist. But why make such a challenging claim? There are many other inter- esting reasons to pay attention to a topic than lack of attention. Be more creative than only ‘‘filling a gap.’’ The editorial concludes with attention to the writing process and an affirmation of the inverted triangle for organizing the structure of each section in an article.
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    Beyond Words in Word: Tablets and the New World of Writing
    (2012-02) Lamb, Annette; Johnson, Larry
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    Comparison of Undergraduate Student Writing in Engineering Disciplines at Campuses with Varying Demographics
    (ASEE PEER, 2022-08-23) Edinbarough, Immanuel; Gonzalez, Jesus; Bodenhamer, Johanna; Pflueger, Ruth Camille; Weissbach, Robert; Engineering Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    Writing is generally recognized as fundamental to the formation and communication of scientific and technical knowledge to peer groups and general audiences. Often, persuasive writing is an essential attribute emphasized by industries and businesses for a successful career in STEM fields. Nevertheless, the current scenario is that students in STEM fields, with their increased demand for more specialized skills in fewer credit hours combined with a lack of emphasis on writing from engineering faculty members, make addressing this need difficult. In addition, students in engineering fields often do not value writing skills and underestimate the amount of writing they will do in their careers. Hence, it is essential to understand and quantify the level of writing skills STEM students exhibit in their technical courses so that mitigation efforts can be designed using commonly available resources to enhance this important skillset among the students, including university writing centers. A research question was posed to study this aspect of technical writing: How do STEM students at institutions conceive of writing and its role in classroom laboratories? This research was conducted at three different universities with students of varied demographics, including one which is designated as a Hispanic-serving institution, via a sequential mixed-methods design. The demography variation among the institutions includes the level of college preparation among students and the mix of ethnicity to see if there are variations among certain groups. Although the sample size is small, the goal was to establish a methodology and a preliminary outcome set that could be used in further research with larger populations. Research data in the form of reports and surveys, were collected from groups of students from four distinct campuses to ascertain the technical writing capability of each group and provide a comparison to better understand the level of intervention required. The quantitative data was collected throughout the academic year through Likert scale surveys as well as rubric-based evaluation of reports. The research design, methodology, and results of the research findings and the proposed mitigation efforts to improve student writing in STEM fields are presented in the paper.
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    "Discovering" Writing With Struggling Students: Using Discovery Learning Pedagogy to Improve Writing Skills in Reluctant and Remedial Learners
    (2016-03) Bohney, Brandie Lee; Lovejoy, Kim B.; Fox, Steve; Brooks-Gillies, Marilee Elizabeth
    Few writing teachers will disagree that teaching writing conventions in isolation is a fruitless, even harmful, pedagogy which does little, if anything, to improve student writing. Teaching conventions, style, and usage (often collectively referred to as grammar) in context, however, proves difficult when struggling secondary students develop good ideas and evidence but fail to clearly articulate them because of their lack of understanding of various writing conventions. The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of a carefully designed discovery learning activity which intends to push students into metacognition about what they read, how it is structured, and how that structure affects the reader. Three sources of data were used to determine whether students who had learned by discovery were better able to avoid and revise run-on sentences than students who did not learn through discovery pedagogy. The data sources include two sets of essays, surveys taken by the students, and teacher analyses of essays for readability. The results of the data analysis indicate that use of run-on sentences, especially early in an essay, detrimentally affects the readability of student written work; discovery learning activities improve student understanding, application, and transfer of skill; and while students believe they understand more than their written work indicates, the results provide teachers direction for further instruction. The findings of this study indicate that use of discovery learning for writing instruction with struggling learners holds great promise: a group of students generally regarded as academically weak showed greater understanding and application of run-on sentence avoidance than slightly stronger students who learned without discovery methods. This indicates that discovery learning is a method that improves learning among reluctant secondary students, a population many teachers struggle to reach effectively. Discovery learning is not limited to conventions, though: the promise of its application potential extends into a variety of writing skills and concepts. In addition to the run-on sentence discovery activity studied here, discovery activities for various other skills—from semicolon use through creating characterization with dialogue—are included.
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    An ESP Reading Course: Methods and Materials
    (2008-10-13T19:29:42Z) Kiefer, Marvin R.; Connor, Ulla, 1948-; Duerksen, Aye Nu E.; Orlando, Honnor
    This research project evaluated four reading projects and their authentic materials. The projects were used in a U.S. university ESP program for post-bachelor Afghan students. By utilizing field-related American biographies, online academic articles, various news articles, field-specific article databases, and short fiction for in-depth reading and writing projects, the Afghan students’ reading performances proved and disproved the relevance and importance of these authentic materials as ways to improve their IBT TOEFL reading scores and academic reading proficiencies related to their future work at a U.S. graduate school. Data were collected and evaluated from three TOEFL scores and an in-depth, post program survey.
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    Estrategias en el proceso de escritura en estudiantes de escuela elemental de un programa de inmersión
    (2009-06-23T21:50:24Z) Ramos, Mabel; Natal, Elena; Newton, Nancy A.; Antón, Marta
    Explores the applicability of cognitive writing theories in a language immersion program at the elementary school level.
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    Key Words in Instruction: Blogs and Blogging: Part 2
    (2006-06) Lamb, Annette; Johnson, Larry
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    Preparing EFL teachers to teach writing in Poland: The case of an English department
    (Multilingual Matters, 2024) Ene, Estela; Hryniuk, Katarina
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    Understanding the EAP writing and online learning needs of Chinese university students: A multiple-method needs assessment case study
    (2015) Ene, Estela; Department of English, School of Liberal Arts
    The development of educational partnerships between U.S. and Chinese universities looking to internationalize is leading to a growing demand for online English language courses for students seeking to improve their English prior to U.S. arrival. The purpose of this study was to identify the current English for Academic Purposes writing (EAPW) and online learning needs of the students from a major Chinese university. A multiple-source/multiple-method approach to data collection was implemented. The results showed that half of the participating Chinese students were ready for basic EAPW and the other half for first-year EAPW courses. Although most of the students in the study were already exposed to (mostly passive) online learning practices, they would need to be taught interactive and collaborative online learning techniques in order to perform well in an online EAPW course. The study found that the Chinese participants have good command over some important EAPW features, especially when these occur in familiar tasks. Overall, the study suggests that EAPW course designers do not need to overhaul their EAPW curricula, but rather shift their focus to incorporating and scaffolding culturally-sensitive assignments, interaction, and technical support.