scholarly journals Using Grammarly to Enhance Students’ Academic Writing Skills

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 51-63
Author(s):  
N. A. Zinkevich ◽  
T. V. Ledeneva
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Master's Level ◽  
Online Writing ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Advanced Students ◽  
Writing Problems ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods ◽  
Measurable Factors

The paper aims to present the results of the experiment in applying the online writing assistant Grammarly.com to evaluate ESP students’ essay writing skills. One hundred master students’ papers were processed by the application to identify persisting errors at a master’s level. Quantitative and qualitative methods enabled the researchers to analyze the essays by setting five parameters: audience, formality, domain, tone, and intent. At the other end, the application broke down the outcome by five measurable factors: correctness, clarity, delivery, engagement, and style issues. The representative number of the essays fed into Grammarly.com provided a vivid and reliable picture of which lexis, grammar, structure, or style issues still need addressing. The most common mistakes detected by Grammarly.com were punctuation, wordy sentences, redundancy, and the abundance of personal pronouns in a formal style. They show that the gaps in students’ academic writing need a remedial course. Another objective of the research was to explore the potential of the online writing tool for students’ self-study. Grammarly.com cannot do work for students: it cannot think for them, neither can it write for them, but it can help learners identify the reoccurring writing problems, eliminate them, and monitor the progress. The application could be particularly useful for advanced students. The functionality of the Grammarly premium version allows for a choice of styles, type of addressee, tone of writing, and many other nuances, which could be beneficial not only for studies but in future professional life. Nonetheless, despite Grammarly’s advanced features, it only suggests a better variant, sometimes it errs, and in no way is it a substitute for a teacher.

British Students' Academic Writing

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nabil Sultan
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
University Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Remedial Measures ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
The North ◽  
Word Selection

The problem of poor academic writing among British university students is a major cause of concern for universities and their tutors; and it is also of concern to employers struggling to recruit individuals able to communicate clearly and accurately. This article reports on a study designed to highlight some of the reasons for the lack of writing skills, with a view to identifying remedial measures that could be taken to address the problem. The object of the study is an Academy (secondary school) in the North of England, referred to as Northland Academy (NA), one of the new Academies first introduced by the Labour Government in 2000 and now enthusiastically endorsed and promoted in England by the current UK Coalition Government. A first group of students at NA was given relatively simple tests of punctuation and word selection and essay writing; and, separately, a second group was presented with a research proposal and given the task of writing an essay on it. It is suggested that a change in Government policy is needed in order to emphasize and include the importance of academic writing for secondary and FE students intending to progress into HE.

scholarly journals Performance, Feedback, and Revision: Metacognitive Approaches to Undergraduate Essay Writing

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Riddell
Keyword(s):  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Performance Feedback ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Assessment Criteria ◽  
First Year ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Writing Project

Abstract This paper explores ways in which frequent feedback and clear assessment criteria can improve students’ essay writing performance in a first-year English literature course. Students (n = 68) completed a series of three scaffolded exercises over the course of a semester, where they evaluated undergraduate essays using a predetermined assessment process. They were then asked to write their own essays and evaluate them using the same assessment criteria. The efficacy of the project was evaluated based upon student feedback, both quantitative and qualitative, and an analysis of their marks. The essay-writing project was informed by fundamental principles supported by research in teaching and learning: namely, that early intervention in first-year courses helps students improve their essay-writing skills, clear and transparent expectations are crucial for positive student perceptions around learning, carefully scaffolded assignment help students develop their writing skills over time, and increasing the frequency of writing opportunities and feedback leads to higher learning outcomes. Findings suggest that a metacognitive approach to essay writing can provide significant opportunities for students to improve their essay-writing skills. The essay-writing project has implications for those who plan, support, and deliver first-year university courses, particularly those courses involving academic writing assignments.

scholarly journals Developing Students’ Writing through Scaffolding Techniques in a Workshop Forum

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 963
Author(s):  
Gihan Sidky
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
High School Teachers ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Assessment ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Writing Assignments ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Secondary Stage ◽  
Writing Genres

This study aimed at enhancing students’ essay writing skills at the secondary stage through scaffolding techniques in a workshop forum. The participants of the study were 40 students at the first secondary stage in a governmental language school. Qualitative methods were used in data analysis; a sample of students’ writings was analyzed in light of the academic writing assessment criteria (Rose et al. 2008).  A pre-posttest was administered to highlight progress in students’ writing in the three genres. Scaffolding techniques proved to be effective in improving students’ writing skills, specifically in the selected writing genres the study focused on which was evident in their second and third drafts. Interviews with high school teachers of English emphasized students need for innovative scaffolding techniques to help them develop as efficient writers. The workshop forum encouraged students to work together as one team and to express their ideas fluently to excel in their writing assignments. Having an authentic reason for writing motivated them to do research and to refine their writing to be good enough to share with others.

scholarly journals The Current Issues of Indonesian EFL Students’ Writing Skills: Ability, Problem, and Reason in Writing Comparison and Contrast Essay

DINAMIKA ILMU ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-73
Author(s):  
Rostanti Toba ◽  
Widya Noviana Noor ◽  
La Ode Sanu
Keyword(s):  
Writing Skills ◽  
Teaching Writing ◽  
Writing Anxiety ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Writing Improvement ◽  
Writing Test ◽  
Content Organization ◽  
Writing Problems ◽  
Efl Students

The aim of this study is to investigate issues of Indonesian EFL students’ writing skills, covering ability, problem and reason why they got problems in writing comparison and contrast essay. The convergent parallel of mixed methods was used to explore these issues by involving 52 EFL students of IAIN Samarinda who enrolled the academic essay writing course. The three research instruments; essay writing test, open-ended questionnaire and interview were used in the data collection. The findings of this study revealed that the Indonesian EFL students’ writing ability was good that categorized with the mean score 77.83. However, some of them encounter problems in writing aspects including content, organization, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics. Their reasons in experiencing these problems are not only limited knowledge of writing aspects and comparison and contrast essay itself, but also they had own personal reasons; lack of writing practice, writing dislike, writing anxiety, negative writing perception, low writing motivation, insufficient time given in writing test, and also inadequate teaching writing process taught by their lecturers. Indeed, the teaching writing improvement that involved EFL students and lecturers should be well-integrated in order to alleviate the students’ essay writing problems related to their reasons and to improve their writing ability. Factors caused the writing difficulties will be discussed further and some suggestions will be given on this research.

Fostering EFL College Students’ Register Awareness

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ching-Fen Chang
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Complex Sentence ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Online Writing ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Rigorous Approach ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Efl College Students

This study explores 19 Taiwanese students’ writing in weekly online forum posts and traditional essays. Results drawn from discourse analysis of students’ writing in both types of writing tasks showed that the semester-long online writing accompanied by explicit instruction on essays and basic academic writing conventions appeared to help raise EFL students’ consciousness of register in the two writing contexts and help them make appropriate linguistic adjustments. Quantitative analysis using three measures of syntactic complexity revealed that the students tended to use syntactically more complex sentence structures in essays than in online forums. A number of typical informal or online linguistic features characterize the students’ online forums more frequently than in essays. Finally, although most of these EFL college students seemed able to take different approaches to online writing and essay writing at the end of the semester, some students adopted the same rigorous approach to both types of writing as a result of a strategic response to avoid losing face or being misunderstood when writing in a public domain. The results suggest that providing EFL learners a forum where they can express themselves in less formal language is beneficial.

scholarly journals EAP alignment in EFL writing courses towards developing student’s academic writing skills

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-144
Author(s):  
Melaku Bayu Workie ◽  
Zelealem Shitahun Haregu
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Basic Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Descriptive Survey ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

The objective of the present study was to assess the prevailing alignment of English for academic purposes (EAP) in EFL writing courses vis-à-vis the development of academic writing skills of students in public universities of Amhara National Regional State (ANRS) in Ethiopia. The study used a descriptive survey that involved quantitative and qualitative methods. A questionnaire, focus-group discussions, and syllabus and materials survey were used to gather primary and secondary data, respectively, for the study. The descriptive statistics were employed in analyzing the quantitative data. The qualitative data were analyzed and reported thematically. The results showed there were existed a comparable horizontal (cross-department) distribution pattern of common writing courses among the three universities; all learners in taking the common course 'Basic Writing Skills' in each university learnt with the same syllabus and material regardless of their fields of study. So, there was a poor alignment of writing courses with the target students' mainstream discipline (i.e., learning and discourse) both in terms of content and genre. 

scholarly journals Practicing Dogme ELT to Enhance L2 Academic Essay Writing Skills

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Muhammad Amjad ◽  
Adnan Tahir ◽  
Ayyaz Qadeer
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
English Language ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Teaching Approach ◽  
Final Test ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Methods

English language has been a pressing need of people all over the world; so, the experts are making efforts for effective and successful teaching and learning of different language skills through innovations in teaching approaches and methods. As a new teaching approach, Dogme ELT was introduced in 2000, which claimed success and better outcomes in different language teaching areas. Focusing on the claim of this new teaching approach, this study was conducted to explore the effectiveness of Dogme ELT to enhance English language competence in academic writing skills. For this purpose, a Classroom Action Research (CAR) was conducted, and the data was collected through a diagnostic assessment test on the very first day and a final test after Dogme ELT treatment. The collected data was analyzed through qualitative and quantitative methods to record the results of the study. The research participants’ performance in the diagnostics test and in the final test after Dogme ELT treatment shows that this new teaching approach is very effective and successful to enhance English language competence in academic writing skills.

PENINGKATAN HASIL BELAJAR MENULIS KARANGAN NARASI DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN METODE SAINTIFIKSISWA KELAS VI SDN 07 TUJUAH KOTO TALAGOKECAMATAN GUGUAK KABUPATEN LIMA PULUH KOTA

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sri Mures Walef
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Method ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Teaching Writing ◽  
Narrative Writing ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Essay Writing ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Improve Student Learning

This research is motivated by problems in the learning process, namely students have difficulty in expressing their ideas into writing or essays. The formation of words or sentences used by students is inaccurate or inappropriate, as well as the use of punctuation and spelling. In learning activities writing the teacher is more likely to apply teaching writing by prioritizing the results of the process. This study aims to improve narrative writing skills using the scientific method of class VI SDN 07 VII Koto Talago, Guguak District, Lima Puluh Kota Regency. The method used in this study is qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative research is research that intends to understand phenomena, about what is experienced by research subjects such as behavior, perceptions, motivations, actions and others. The results of the study describe learning using the Scientific method can improve student learning outcomes which initially in pre-cycle only reached 64 who are in sufficient qualifications. In the first cycle increased to 74 who were in qualifications more than enough, after the second cycle, the students' scores increased again being an average of 90 who are in excellent qualification. The increase includes three indicators, namely (1) narrative characteristics, (2) use of punctuation, (3) capital letters. Third, improving narrative writing skills using the Scientific method of class VI SDN 07 VII Koto Talago District of Guguak, Lima Puluh Kot Regency can be achieved due to several factors including teachers and students. Based on the results above it can be concluded that the narrative text writing skills using the scientific method increased, from sufficient qualifications to more qualifications until they were in excellent qualifications. Thus it can be concluded that, through the cooperative method the type of make a match improvement in students' essay writing skills increased significantly from stage to stage.Key Words: escritura de narrativas, métodos científicos

scholarly journals Learner autonomy, self-regulation skills and self-efficacy beliefs – How can students’ academic writing skills be supported?

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-402
Author(s):  
Åsa Mickwitz ◽  
Marja Suojala
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Efficacy Beliefs ◽  
Traditional Learning ◽  
Multiple Choice Questions ◽  
Regulatory Strategies ◽  
Academic Settings

Abstract High self-efficacy beliefs and effective self-regulatory strategies are increasingly important in academic settings, and especially in developing academic writing skills. This article deals with how students develop academic writing skills in two different pedagogical settings (as autonomous learners and in a traditional learning environment), and how this is associated with the students’ self-regulatory strategies and self-efficacy beliefs. In the study, self-regulatory skills referred to the ability to take charge of, manage and organize the learning process, while self-efficacy beliefs were defined as the strength of students’ confidence to accomplish an extensive task and sense of succeeding. The method was quantitative, including some qualitative elements, and data was elicited through a survey answered by 150 students, after they had attended courses in academic writing. The survey consisted of 1 open-ended question and 16 multiple-choice questions (a five-point Likert scale). The data was analyzed using SPSS. The results show that self-regulatory skills and self-efficacy beliefs have a greater impact on learning academic writing skills in traditional learning settings than in learning settings where the students are supposed to work more independently, and where teacher support is not available to the same extent.

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