scholarly journals NTNU WriteFest 2020

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Fagervik ◽  
Inga Buset Langfeldt ◽  
Anne L. Lorange ◽  
Idun Knutsdatter Østerdal

October is when the NTNU University Library usually offers physical writing events, assisting students with academic writing. For obvious reasons this was not possible in 2020, so we decided to create a digital event instead. We wanted to gather students who needed motivation and inspiration, and lecturers and librarians who could help, on the same platform at the same time. Our intention was to create a feeling of interdisciplinary community among the students as well as the employees, even though we weren’t in the same place physically. Not only did we want to reach out to all NTNU students across Norway, but also include the international students located abroad.The festival took place 12-16 October 2020 in The Virtual Library in Zoom (NTNU Universitetsbiblioteket, 2020), established during the lockdown in the spring of 2020. Events took place during the entire week, with the main event on Wednesday evening. The program focused on academic writing and related topics. We had lectures and courses with multiple internal and external contributors from NTNU, in addition to other services we offered during the week and evening. Parts of the event were also streamed to Facebook. There were a lot of firsts in the making of the festival. A digital writing festival for all students at NTNU had never been done before. The project group also consisted of members from different cities and departments and met only through online meetings. Working digitally presents new and other options when it comes to digital solutions and how to work together. In this presentation we will talk about our experiences, the do’s and don’ts we made along the way, and during the event. Things that work fine physically do not necessarily function well digitally.

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110551
Author(s):  
Hengyu Gu ◽  
Zhibin Xu ◽  
Jiansong Zheng ◽  
Tiyan Shen

The flows of international students are like the currents of the oceans, not only affecting the individuals adrift in them but the global circulation of policy, economics and academics as a whole, bearing pros and cons for each country or region along the way. To date, there has not been a detailed and elaborate description of the fluxes of international students over decades. In light of the research gap, the article utilises the chord diagram to draw threads between each pair of origin and destination of international students in the last 20 years and divides the periods into four main phases. With each phase exhibiting its specific features, we have tentatively concluded that the global student mobility structure has evolved from Arterial (1999–2003), Breakthrough (2004–2008) to Catch-Up (2009–2013), and lastly, Diversification (2014–2018). Corresponding reasons underpinning each change of the migration flows are also discussed briefly in the article.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abir Aly Eldaba ◽  
Janet Kesterson Isbell

In a critical study, researchers explored academic writing experiences of three international female graduate students at a southern U.S. university in order to understand their perspectives of themselves as writers across cultures, their experiences with academic writing, and their coping strategies for academic writing assignments. Findings revealed participants’ challenges and self-doubts about second-language writing abilities. Participants both challenged disconfirmation of their writing and at times were submissive as they negotiated a graduate degree program. The study demonstrates need for universities to recognize marginalized groups’ knowledge and ways of knowing and to create spaces to discuss new possibilities for academic writing experiences among international students.


Author(s):  
Tonette S. Rocco ◽  
Lori Ann Gionti ◽  
Cynthia M. Januszka ◽  
Sunny L. Munn ◽  
Joshua C. Collins

Although research and writing for publication are seen as important responsibilities for most graduate students and faculty, many struggle to understand the process and how to succeed. Unfortunately, writing centers at most universities do not cater to these kinds of needs but rather to course-specific needs of undergraduate students. This chapter presents and explains the principles underlying Florida International University's establishment of The Office of Academic Writing and Publication Support, an office specifically designed to aid the scholarly writing efforts of graduate students and faculty. In doing so, this chapter aims to describe strategies and programs for the improvement of scholarly writing, provide insight into the kind of learning that can take place in a university writing center, and reflect on successes and missteps along the way. This chapter may be especially helpful to educators who seek to create similar offices or services at their own institutions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 132-153
Author(s):  
Dmitri Stanchevici ◽  
Megan Siczek

Before arriving in a host country, international students may be motivated to complete some institutional requirements online. Many studies address computer-assisted instruction for second-language students, but few focus on fully online English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing courses. This comparative case study, grounded in action research, examined the extent to which a fully online version of a graduate-level EAP course offered to international students at a North American university achieved comparable outcomes to a face-to-face version. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of study participants’ performance and course evaluations indicated that the outcomes and student satisfaction of both cohorts were comparable. However, an examination of the participants’ final research papers and online interactions revealed differences and challenges. Based on these findings, it is recommended that future online courses provide more instruction on source integration, library research, and building an interactive learning community. Overall, the findings suggest that when carefully designed, assessed, and refined, fully online courses hold strong promise in EAP academic writing contexts. Les étudiantes et étudiants internationaux tiennent parfois à remplir certaines exigences institutionnelles en ligne avant de se rendre dans leur pays d’accueil. L’enseignement assisté par ordinateur pour les apprenantes et apprenants d’anglais langue seconde fait l’objet de nombreuses études, mais peu d’entre elles portent sur des cours d’écriture d’anglais académique (EAP) complètement dispensés en ligne. Entièrement basée sur la recherche-action, la présente étude de cas comparative fait état du degré de comparabilité des résultats d’un cours d’anglais académique de deuxième cycle complètement présenté en ligne à des étudiantes et étudiants internationaux inscrits à une université nord-américaine et des résultats obtenus lorsque le même cours était dispensé en personne. Une analyse quantitative et qualitative des rendements des participantes et participants et du cours lui-même a indiqué que les résultats et le degré de satisfaction des étudiantes et étudiants des deux cohortes se valaient. L’examen des rapports de recherche finaux des participantes et participants et celui des interactions en ligne ont toutefois révélé des écarts et des défis. Sur la base de ces constatations, il est recommandé que les futurs cours en ligne fournissent davantage d’instructions sur l’intégration des sources, sur les recherches en bibliothèque et sur la construction d’une communauté d’apprentissage interactif. Dans l’ensemble, les constatations de l’étude suggèrent que, s’ils sont soigneusement conçus, évalués et peaufinés, les cours complètement dispensés en ligne sont très prometteurs dans des contextes d’écriture en anglais académique.


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ailie McDowall ◽  
Fabiane Ramos

This paper takes us into the Writing Borderlands, an ambiguous in-between space borrowed from Anzaldúa's concept of Borderlands, where we as PhD students are in a constant state of transition. We argue that theorising from a decolonial position consists of not merely using concepts around coloniality/decoloniality, but also putting its core ideas into practice in the ‘doing’ aspect of research. The writing is a major part of this doing. We enact epistemic disobedience by challenging taken-for-granted conventions of what ‘proper’ academic writing looks like. Writing from a universal standpoint — the type of writing prescribed in theses formats, positivist research methods and ‘proper’ academic writing — has been instrumental in promoting the zero-point epistemologies that prevail through Northern artefacts of knowledge. In other words, we write to de-link from the epistemological assumption of a neutral and detached observational location from which the world is interpreted. In this paper, we discuss the journey we take as PhD students as we attempt to delink and decolonise our writing. Traversing the landscape of the Writing Borderlands, different features arise and fall. Along the way, we come across forks in the road between academic training and the new way we imagine writing decolonially.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Galtung ◽  
Cathinka Dahl Hambro ◽  
Solveig Kavli

This roundtable addresses how three Norwegian writing centres – in different stages of their establishment and settled within different constitutional frames – handle staff policy and aims to facilitate academic writing to their main users; students and PhD candidates. We will structure the discussion around four main themes that we juggle in our daily work:  Using strategic plans to promote academic writing development and student throughput Co-creating learning activities with and for MA students Keeping up with the Library and Faculty Strengthening and further developing academic writing in Higher Education Attendees at the roundtable will be invited to discuss and participate in a dialogue on the way in which writing centres can improve the students’ and PhD candidates’ writing process; why we find teaching and preaching academic writing to be an important skill, and how we can co-create learning activities in libraries and writing centres with academic staff and students. We will also discuss the issue of legitimacy, and  what it takes to move writing centre activities from the periphery to the centre of the institution and its pedagogical mission. The audience will leave with ideas and inspirations on how to facilitate and build good writing centres in collaboration between staff, librarians and experienced students.


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