scholarly journals Digital Writing, Word Processors and Operations in Texts: How Student Writers Use Digital Resources in Academic Writing Processes

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-58
Author(s):  
Sofia Hort
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Digital Writing ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Writing Processes ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Academic Genre ◽  
Word Processors

This study explores the use of digital technologies in the writing of an academic assignment. Fine-grained studies on student writing processes are scarce in previous research. In relation to the increasing demands on students’ writing, as well as the debate on students’ poor writing (Malmström, 2017), these issues are important to address. In this study, screen captures of five students’ essay processes are analyzed. The results show that students handle text at different levels: they make use of one or more word processors, arrange texts spatially on screens and use resources to operate directly in texts. Above all these actions seem to meet the need to move and navigate within one’s own text, an aspect that could be especially important in relation to the academic genre and for handling texts as artifacts in activity (Castelló & Iñesta, 2012; Prior, 2006). The results of the study point to the importance of making digital writing practices visible, especially those that could create possibilities to intertwine digital texts, thereby enhancing potentials for academic writing and meaning-making.

scholarly journals Where is the Support? Learning Support for Multimodal Digital Writing Assignments by Writing Centres in Canadian Higher Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Bell ◽  
Brian Hotson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Instructional Materials ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Digital Writing ◽  
Writing Assignments ◽  
Multimodal Composing ◽  
Canadian Higher Education ◽  
Video And Audio

Writing centres play a vital role in supporting all forms of student academic writing in higher education (HE) institutions, including digital writing projects (DWPs)—multiliterate and multimodal, often video-and-audio-based projects, produced using digital technologies. The importance of writing support for multimodal composing is evident in emerging research on both the multi-skilled practices of writer-designers and the conceptual shifts involved in their adoption. Currently, no research exists regarding the Canadian context of writing centre support for DWPs. To address this, we conducted two surveys: one of 22 Canadian writing centres asking about DWPs prevalence, technology and skills readiness, and DWP awareness; and one of faculty at a large Canadian university, asking about DWPs prevalence and frequency and types of DWP assignments. We find a significant disconnect between the number of DWPs being assigned by faculty and the number being supported in writing centres. We also find a significant lack of writing centre preparedness for supporting DWPs. This paper calls, with some urgency, for writing centres to invest in the reality of student writing in Canadian HE, to begin developing instructional materials, equipment, and skilled staff to support DWPs.

scholarly journals Expressions of Criticality in Expert and Student Writing: A Corpus Contrastive Analysis of Literature Reviews

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Muna Liyana Binti Mohamad Tarmizi ◽  
Anealka Aziz Hussin
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Research Journal ◽  
Literature Reviews ◽  
Integral Role

Literature review in academic writing plays an integral role in demonstrating writers’ knowledge about a field of study as well as in informing the writers of influential researchers and research groups in the field. More importantly, writers are expected to critically analyze previous studies related to their topic. Despite its importance to the academic text, student writers find it challenging to establish a critical stance and to provide evaluative judgment when reviewing the literature. This paper presents a contrastive analysis of student and expert writers’ expressions of criticality in literature review sections of 8 applied linguistics master theses from UiTM (a Malaysian public university) and 62 literature reviews of research journal articles from a similar field (i.e., Language and Communication, English for Academic Purposes and Applied Linguistics). Corpus techniques are used to identify the most common expressions of criticality used by these two groups of writers. The corpus was analyzed using detailed consistency analysis and concordance software from WordSmith Tools (Scott, 2012). Findings revealed that student writers prefer to use hedges and boosters to express criticality and the evaluations they make tend to sound more reporting rather than analyzing and synthesizing the resources critically. Results from this study are beneficial for constructing pedagogical instructions and guidelines for student writers in their critical analysis of the literature review.

scholarly journals Screen capture technology: A digital window into students' writing processes / Technologie de capture d’écran: une fenêtre numérique sur le processus d’écriture des étudiants

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremie Seror
Keyword(s):  
Modern Society ◽  
Writing Development ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Technological Innovations ◽  
Digital Writing ◽  
Writing Processes ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Screen Capture ◽  
Text Production ◽  
Langue Seconde

Technological innovations and the prevalence of the computer as a means of producing and engaging with texts have dramatically transformed the ways in which literacy is defined and developed in modern society. Concurrently, this rise in digital writing practices has led to a growing number of tools and methods that can be used to explore second language (L2) writers’ writing development. This paper provides an overview of one such technique: the contributions of screen capture technology as a means of analyzing writers' composition processes. This paper emphasizes the unique advantages of being able to unobtrusively gather, store and replay what have traditionally remained hidden sequences of events at the heart of L2 writers' text production. Drawing on research data from case studies of university L2 writers, findings underscore the contribution screen capture technology can make to writing theory's understanding of the complex series of behaviours and strategies at the heart of L2 writers' interactions. Les innovations technologiques et la prévalence de l'ordinateur comme moyen de produire et d’interagir avec les textes ont radicalement transformé la façon dont la littératie est définie et développée dans la société moderne. Cette augmentation des pratiques d'écriture numérique a généré un nombre croissant d'outils et de méthodes disponibles pour explorer le développement de l'écriture dans une langue seconde (L2). Cet article donne un aperçu de l’une de ces techniques: les contributions offertes par la technologie de capture d'écran en tant que moyen d’analyse des processus d’écriture. L’article met l'accent sur les avantages incomparables qu’offre la possibilité de recueillir discrètement, de conserver et de revoir ce qui normalement reste une suite d'événements cachés au cœur du processus d’écriture dans une langue seconde. S'appuyant sur des données de recherche issues d’études de cas d’étudiants en L2 de niveau universitaire, les résultats mettent en lumière la contribution de la technologie de capture d'écran à la compréhension théorique de séries complexes de comportements et de stratégies situées au cœur des interactions des étudiants de L2 en contexte d’écriture.

iLiterate

2014 ◽  
pp. 243-258
Author(s):  
Georgina Kate Willmett ◽  
Jen Scott Curwood
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Digital Education ◽  
Writing Processes ◽  
English Classes ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Local Schools ◽  
Sociocultural Perspectives

Digital technologies significantly shape and mediate adolescents' writing practices. Consequently, this chapter investigates the relevance and use of emergent technology in Year 8 English classes in an Australian high school. The importance of this study stems from the introduction of the Australian Government's Digital Education Revolution and the growing prominence of technology in local schools. Building on sociocultural perspectives and new literacies scholarship, this case study critically considers how iPads influence student writing. Moreover, it examines what pedagogical strategies teachers use when implementing iPads in their classes to support student learning outcomes. Findings from this study contribute to our understanding of how digital tools influence students' collaborative learning, multimodal practices, and writing processes.

scholarly journals Student voices in academic writing: PsychLiverpool a community for meaning making

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Forsythe ◽  
Emir Demirbag ◽  
Jasmine Warren
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Student Voices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Peer Network ◽  
Academic Communication ◽  
The Impact

The practice and expectations of academic communication are changing, and blogging provides a socially liberating mechanism by which to support the development of student writing and literacy. The study reported here examines the impact of an academic–student partnership in supporting the development of student discourse. Anonymous feedback gathered from both the contributors and readers of the student blog, PsychLiverpool was analysed using automated text analysis. The analysis identified that high levels of positive emotion were associated with PsychLiverpool. Students valued its capacity to trigger thinking and insight, and the social and networking relationships the blog offered. PsychLiverpool empowered students to expand their learning networks outside of their classroom and peer network by connecting them with like-minded students and academics.  By providing students with safe opportunities to develop their skills and networks, it fulfilled their needs for affiliation and achievement, power and reward. The particular advantage of PsychLiverpool was that in operating outside of traditional university processes of assessment and feedback, students were more motivated to write about and engage with academic language on their own terms.

scholarly journals Understanding the Sustainable Growth of EFL Students’ Writing Skills: Differences between Novice Writers and Expert Writers in Their Use of Lexical Bundles in Academic Writing

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5553
Author(s):  
Shaojie Zhang ◽  
Hui Yu ◽  
Lawrence Jun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
Novice Writers

Lexical bundles, as building blocks of discourse, play vital roles in helping members from the same academic community achieve successful communication and disseminate sustainable disciplinary knowledge. However, little attention has been paid to lexical bundles in postgraduate writing. Drawing on Biber et al.’s (1999) structural taxonomy and Hyland’s (2008a) functional taxonomy, we identified and compared lexical bundles in two self-built corpora, an EFL student writing corpus and an expert writing corpus. The results indicate considerable structural differences between the two groups: the student writers used verb phrase-based bundles more frequently and prepositional phrase-based and noun phrase-based bundles less frequently. In terms of function, although the two academic groups showed similar distributions of the three main functional categories, as student writers they exhibited insufficient reader-awareness and incomplete knowledge of stance expressions. It is hoped that the findings will shed light on future pedagogical practices to help novice writers improve their academic writing competence as a sustainable goal in enhancing their academic scholarship.

“We learn from each other”: peer review writing practices in English for Academic Purposes

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-91
Author(s):  
Stergiani Kostopoulou ◽  
Fergus O’Dwyer
Keyword(s):  
Peer Review ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Peer Review Process ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Transmission Of Knowledge ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Foundation Programme

Abstract This evidence-based, procedural paper outlines academic writing peer review practices conducted by Pre-Master’s Pathway and pre-undergraduate Foundation programme students at two Irish universities. The theoretical framework section presents the view that formative teacher feedback on student writing alone is insufficient, suggesting sustainable feedback through transmission of knowledge via student-generated feedback. We outline the peer review process, providing learners’ reactions focusing on what went well and what can be improved. This provides an outline of possible processes for others to use in their context, with a discussion of relevant considerations. Issues discussed include how to enhance the quality of peer feedback and maximize its impact on student learning. The ultimate aim of the practices is to improve the experience of the learners, and better facilitate their readiness for forthcoming modules in Irish universities. Overall peer review practices develop emerging academic writers, and should be considered in foundational, pre-sessional and beginning stages of learning in undergraduate, and those returning to Masters programmes. Peer review practices require active involvement and collaboration, and can improve self-regulation capabilities of emerging academic writers. The practices effectively encourage the transmission of socially constructed knowledge regarding their capabilities, and ultimately lead to improved self-efficacy and general writing abilities of learners.

scholarly journals Assessing learning transfer and constraining issues in EAP writing practices

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abebe Yitbarek Wubalem
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Learning Transfer ◽  
Disciplinary Writing ◽  
Content Area Writing ◽  
Writing Processes ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Thinking Strategies ◽  
Carry Over

AbstractThe aim of this study was to investigate what learners carry over from a general academic writing course to disciplinary writing settings and the variables constraining the quality of the outcome. Seven EFL university writing teachers and 58 students were selected using purposive and stratified sampling techniques. Data were generated using in-depth interview and document analysis. Thematic analysis and non-parametric statistical tools were employed to analyze the data. The findings showed that the students made limited learning transfer from the writing course to their writing settings across academic discourses. While surface level knowledge of grammatical features show better transfer, skills of discourse level writing processes, thinking strategies and vocabulary showed very poor transfer. A number of reasons are identified for the failure of learning transfer in the study setting. Among others, EAP teachers’ failure to bridge the EFL writing and content area writing practice contributed to this problem. The other variable causing this problem is students’ failure to make significant moves to adapt skills of writing processes and thinking strategies to new situations. Based on these evidences, alternative ways of improving the carryover impact of such courses have been put forward.

Research on advanced student writing across disciplines and levels

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annelie Ädel ◽  
Ute Römer
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Advanced Student ◽  
First Case ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Written Assignments

This paper introduces the Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers (MICUSP) as a new resource that will enable researchers and teachers of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) to investigate the written discourse of highly advanced student writers whose written assignments have been awarded the grade ‘A’. The usefulness of two aspects of the design of the corpus — variation across discipline and across student level — is illustrated by two case studies, one on attribution and one on recurrent phraseological patterns. The first case study investigates how references to the work of others are realized and to what extent disciplinary variation exists in unpublished academic writing by students. The second study examines the use of phraseological items (n-grams and phrase-frames) by students at four different levels of undergraduate and graduate study. The paper closes with a discussion of the results of both case studies and describes future avenues for MICUSP-based research.

scholarly journals Pedagogical applications of academic literacies theory: a reflection and case study

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Wrigglesworth
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Writing Pedagogy ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Methods Of Evaluation ◽  
Learning Journey ◽  
Uk Higher Education

The development of the academic literacies approach has provided learning developers with a range of powerful tools to help all students to progress through higher education. Twenty years ago, Lea and Street’s (1998) report on student writing initiated a debate which encouraged the transformation of writing pedagogy in UK higher education. The goal of the transformation was, and remains, to develop an education system which is expanding, inclusive and accessible.This paper focuses on the use of the meaning-making resources that students bring to their learning journey and the ones they encounter throughout their study. It outlines the documentation that enacts the rules that govern university practice at task, module, course and institutional level. The paper draws on academic literacies tools to help to clear away misunderstandings about students’ use of language. It then outlines Lea and Street’s (1998) classification of institutional approaches to the pedagogical challenges of improving student writing.The case study describes an optional credit-bearing Introduction to Academic Language module on a UK degree course. By conducting a series of analytical tasks, the undergraduates who elected to take the module developed their use of aspects of academic writing including genre, argument and intertextuality. Students were assessed by analysing their own assessment scripts from other disciplinary modules. The academic writing module was evaluated in ways that could evidence recommendations for change at multiple levels. The methods of evaluation follow practices regarded as standard in many university quality processes but were used to transform provision along inclusive, academic literacies lines.

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