Law Undergraduates’ Understanding and Appropriation of Arguments in Online Essay Writing Tutorials

The art of constructing an assertive argument is a crucial lifelong skill for law students to master. The English language teachers at Bennett University Law School introduce the topic of argumentative essay writing to its first-year law undergraduates and teach the basic structure of an argument in a standard five paragraph argumentative essay and then gradually elaborate on the content. The pedagogy makes use of the online platforms of i-Learn learning management and Clarity English programs (customised English language teaching software) to engage students in essay writing tutorials. The study analyses how the students develop the understanding of framing a strong argument and move towards attaining appropriation in it. This was done by comparing pre-test and post-test results of the control and experimental groups and by content analysis of the transcripts. The target group in the study included 120 students of BA LLB (Hons) who are divided into control and experimental groups. The study also tries to figure out the comparative advantage of classroom teaching in physical settings, online group discussions on i-Learn forums, and individual practice sessions on Study Skills Success and the Practical Writing program offered by Clarity English. This was done through student survey analysis. The overall data involved pre-test and post-test essay writing transcripts, online discussion forum transcripts on i-Learn, and student surveys. This educational intervention is an attempt to assess and design the best teaching practice with available resources for teaching argumentative essay writing to law undergraduates.

Conducting High Impact Research With Limited Financial Resources (While Working from Home)

The Covid-19 pandemic has far-reaching implications for researchers. For example, many researchers cannot access their labs anymore and are hit by budget-cuts from their institutions. Luckily, there are a range of ways how high-quality research can be conducted without funding and face-to-face interactions. In the present paper, I discuss nine such possibilities, including meta-analyses, secondary data analyses, web-scraping, scientometrics, or sharing one’s expert knowledge (e.g., writing tutorials). Most of these possibilities can be done from home, as they require only access to a computer, the internet, and time; but no state-of-the art equipment or funding to pay for participants. Thus, they are particularly relevant for researchers with limited financial resources beyond pandemics and quarantines.

‘Tutoring Is Not Proofreading’. Exploring the Perceptions of Writing Tutors at University Writing Centres, Saudi Arabia: An Exploratory Study

Academic discourse is highly complex and requires writers to follow specific writing conventions. Many Saudi university students have underdeveloped writing skills (Al-Khairy, 2013). One way to assist second language (L2) learners and develop their academic writing skills is through academic language support offered by writing centres. The challenge for writing centre tutors lies in the predominant belief among many L2 students that tutors’ only role is to fix students’ mistakes. Although there has been significant growth in writing centres in Saudi universities, the perceptions of writing tutors concerning tutoring non-native students are still under-researched. This study uses thematic analysis to explore the role of writing tutorials as perceived by writing centre tutors in Saudi settings. Data were obtained using an interpretive inquiry through individual interviews of two tutors. The main findings of the interviews were that tutors perceived proofreading requests, low writing proficiency of tutees and tutees’ understanding of tutors’ role as influencing their tutorial practices. The implementation of this study may help regulate the role of tutors in writing centres in Saudi universities by highlighting new avenues that can improve writing tutorials, especially in Saudi Arabia.

Conducting High Impact Research With Limited Financial Resources (While Working From Home)

The Covid-19 pandemic has far-reaching implications for researchers. For example, many researchers cannot access their labs anymore and are hit by budget-cuts from their institutions. Luckily, there are a range of ways how high-quality research can be conducted without funding and face-to-face interactions. In the present paper, I discuss eight such possibilities, including meta-analyses, secondary data analyses, web-scrapping, scientometrics, or sharing one’s expert knowledge (e.g., writing tutorials). Most of these possibilities can be done from home, as they require only access to a computer, the internet, and time; but no state-of-the art equipment or funding to pay for participants. Thus, they are particularly relevant for researchers with limited financial resources beyond pandemics and quarantines.