scholarly journals “Beautifying the Beast”: Customising Online Instruction in a Writing Course for Jamaican Tertiary-level Students

2013 ◽  
pp. 157-174
Author(s):  
Michelle Stewart-McKoy
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Online Instruction ◽  
Tertiary Level ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Student Interest ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Design Based Research ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Directed Learning

This paper describes an on-going project which uses a design-based research approach in the design and development of customised online instruction for Jamaican tertiary-level students pursuing academic writing courses. The customisation of the academic writing content for online consumption is meant to spark student interest, prolong their online engagement and facilitate self-directed learning. This manuscript provides an overview of the four phases and describes in detail the processes and procedures involved in the completion of phases one and two of the research and the plans for implementation and evaluation of phases three and four.

scholarly journals Using Simulations in Teaching Research Academic Writing Course

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 68-75
Author(s):  
Ye. V. Luganskaya
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Simulation Games ◽  
University Of Maryland ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Teaching Research ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Positive Learning Environment ◽  
Dual Degree

The article focuses on teaching research academic writing to undergraduates taking a Russian-American dual-degree program offered by Baikal International Business School and its partner University of Maryland Global Campus. As the American program is online, writing courses are mandatory. Being the final course in the writing module, research academic writing is challenging not only for students but also for the instructor. This makes the teacher look for new ways to improve the quality of teaching and to motivate undergraduates. The paper describes action research aiming at introducing simulation games in research academic writing course to engage students in classroom activities, vary practical assignments, and make classes more interactive. Using observation, student questionnaires and interviews, the author compares her class atmosphere and student involvement before and after the intervention. As a result of her research, the author comes to the conclusion that simulation activities, besides other advantages, can be successfully used for teaching academic writing since they increase motivation and student engagement creating a positive learning environment. Moreover, pair or group work can minimize difficulties, which helps to better understand the material. Furthermore, simulation activities have a practical value enabling students to develop skills and competences vital for future managers. Also the paper offers simulation activities developed for the course which are given in the appendices

scholarly journals Saudi Arabia EFL university students’ voice on challenges and solution in learning academic writing

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Abdullah Alharbi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Efl Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Writing Improvement ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Before And After

The present study aims to investigate the difficulties faced by 74 English as a foreign language (EFL) undergraduate students in developing a well-written paragraph in academic writing by designing a writing course based on the students’ voices. The self-report survey (5-point Likert scale) was used as the pre- and post-questionnaire, and pre- and the post-tests task was used to track students’ writing improvement before and after taking a writing course. Pre-questionnaire and pre-tests showed that participants had difficulties in using the mechanics of writing (punctuation, spelling, grammar, topic sentences, and supporting sentences). The majority of the students’ responses in the post-survey shows that they believed their writing improved and encountered fewer difficulties in writing as compared to their views in the pre-questionnaire. The result of the post-tests indicates improvements in students’ writing samples. The study concludes that EFL writing courses should be designed on the basis of challenges faced by the students in order to get the best outcome from the course.

Preparing for dissertation writing: doctoral education students’ perceptions

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katia Ciampa ◽  
Zora Wolfe
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Doctoral Education ◽  
Doctoral Program ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Dissertation Writing ◽  
Directed Learning

Purpose This paper aims to investigate doctoral students’ perceptions of and satisfaction with their doctor of education program, specifically related to dissertation writing preparation. The results offer a complex picture that has implications for the design of doctoral education programs that aim to help students prepare for culminating academic writing products such as dissertations. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative data, by means of an anonymous online survey with open-ended questions, were used to ascertain 115 doctoral students’ writing experiences in a doctoral program at one university in the USA. Findings The findings of this study suggest the importance of intrapersonal factors, specifically the ability to engage in self-directed learning; interpersonal factors, such as peer and faculty support; and institutional factors, namely, faculty’s writing-based pedagogical practices, in supporting doctoral students’ academic writing. Practical implications This study suggests in addition to selecting and nurturing students’ ability to engage in self-directed learning, there are a number of specific strategies and practices doctoral faculty can engage in and use to prepare students for successful dissertation writing. Originality/value This study provides the perspective of former and existing doctoral students to illuminate the needs they perceive as they engage in dissertation writing. The study provides practical strategies based on common themes in student responses.

scholarly journals Exploring Academic Writing Needs of Indonesian EFL Undergraduate Students

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ratnawati ◽  
Didih Faridah ◽  
Syafiul Anam ◽  
Pratiwi Retnaningdyah
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Private University ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Need Analysis ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
General Skills ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
The University

Academic writing is noteworthy competence to be accomplished for English as a foreign language (EFL) students to fulfill their academic needs at the university. To do so, Indonesian tertiary universities accommodate and foster this competence using academic writing course. The study, therefore, sought to look into: 1. what undergraduate EFL students’ perceptions of the importance of academic writing to their current study and future career, 2. what the students’ perceptions of the difficulties of academic writing, 3. what the students’ attitudes towards their previous and future academic writing courses. The present study investigates students’ needs emerging in academic writing during classroom practices to gain insightful and profound perspectives for forthcoming needs of the course. Data were collected through a five scaled questionnaire of need analysis distributed to thirty-four EFL students from a private university, and a focus group interview involving nine participants. Results indicate 61% (Mdifficulties=3.05) of students faced difficulties in both general skills and language problems of academic writing and a new course was expected to provide moves/steps for writing the sections in a research article. The present study then suggests that e-database resources are needed for academic papers models and references hence its efficiency and flexibility in prospective academic writing.

scholarly journals UNIVERSITY STUDENTS� NEEDS OF WRITING COURSE MATERIALS: A CASE OF INDONESIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Ilham Ilham ◽  
Bachrudin Musthafa ◽  
Fazri Nur Yusuf
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Private University ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Teaching Writing ◽  
English Department ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Grammar Knowledge

The aim of this study is to explore the target needs (i.e. necessities, lacks and wants) of the students to inform academic writing courses materials. A case study design was employed as this design to provide in-depth data information. To collect the data, questionnaire and interviews were used. Twenty-three undergraduate students of English department at a private university in Mataram West Nusa Tenggara who take academic writing course in the 2019-2020 academic year participated in the study. The result of the study showed that the students need to learn the types of writing texts, vocabulary and construct sentences into paragraph, have good skills in writing different genres since they are lack of grammar knowledge and vocabularies, and improvement on the aspect of teaching writing. This finding may promise implications for updating the current curriculum and materials as practiced for tertiary level English department students in an attempt to keep up with the latest changes in the methodologies of English language teaching. This study recommends that lecturers and universities should conduct a need analysis regularly and updated the curriculum with such insightful needs.

scholarly journals Process genre approach to L2 academic writing: An intervention study

XLinguae ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 30-51
Author(s):  
Svetlana Hanusova ◽  
Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova ◽  
Marie Lahodova Valisova ◽  
Marketa Matulova
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Study Program ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Writing Course

The paper presents the research study of academic writing of Czech university students in an English Language Teacher Education study program. The authors apply an interdisciplinary approach integrating the perspectives of linguistics and language pedagogy in the evaluation of the design of the Academic Writing course and its impact on the development of students’ academic writing skills. Adopting a process genre approach (Badger, White, 2000) to writing instruction as a key design principle, our study combines the genre analysis framework (Swales, 1990) and the intercultural rhetoric perspective (Connor, 2004) to design an innovated academic writing course for graduate students focusing on developing critical thinking skills and context-aware writing. The course, informed by an analysis of the academic writing needs of the students, aimed at familiarizing them with the rhetorical structure of academic texts with a focus on the genre of the Master’s thesis and at introducing them to the academic writing conventions in the area of soft sciences. Piloted in 2019, the course was implemented as a blended course, where the contact sessions were complemented by online support in VLE Moodle. Apart from analyses of written texts, classroom writing, and homework tasks, it also included discourse editing tasks and peerreviewing with peer-reviewer feedback and teacher feedback. We believe that our research findings will shed light on the potential of academic writing courses based on the process-genre approach to contribute to the enhancement of the quality of English academic texts by non-native academic writers, and specifically Czech graduate students.

scholarly journals Akademisk fagskriving på ingeniørstudiet

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-19
Author(s):  
Gunvor Sofia Almlie
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Writing In The Disciplines ◽  
Close Collaboration ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
University Library ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Engineering Study ◽  
Study Programs ◽  
The University

   In the Norwegian engineering education, there has been an increasing focus on writinginstruction in the last decade. Although writing in the disciplines seems to be the overall goal,the disciplines themselves are not prepared for nor equipped to provide the writing instructionthe students need. This article attempts to measure the effect of a writing course that was given in the firstsemester of the engineering study at the University of Agder in 2018. The writing course was acollaboration between the disciplines of engineering, the university library and a writinginstructor with permanent affiliation to the Department of Engineering. The aim of thecollaboration was to gather the expertise from the disciplines and the university library in thedesign of writing courses in engineering. The survey seeks to find answers to the students'experience of the writing course, and the challenges they face in academic disciplinary writing.Answers from the students are compared with answers from conversations with studycoordinators and subject teachers in the five engineering study programs at UiA.The results show that the students find teaching and supervision useful, both to achievethe learning outcomes for the course, but also for use in other writing situations in theireducation. The problems students have with academic writing are both discipline-specific andgeneral. They experience challenges in three areas in particular: genre orientation, text structureand information literacy. The close collaboration between the writing instructor, the library and the engineers isbridge-building and contributes to a holistic writing instruction in the engineering education.The interdisciplinary collaboration also raises the competence of all staff involved.

Looking Back and Looking Forward

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurice Taylor ◽  
Norman Vaughan ◽  
Shehzad K. Ghani ◽  
Sait Atas ◽  
Michael Fairbrother
Keyword(s):  
Blended Learning ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Student Interactions ◽  
Instrumental Case Study ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
Community Of Inquiry Framework ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

Using an engagement in research approach this article explores the landscape of blended learning in higher education over the last decade by comparing the results of a critical literature review by Vaughan to an instrumental case study that identified key factors that led to the implementation of a blended learning initiative in one medium sized Canadian university. Findings indicate that although students still prefers the time flexibility of blended learning, there are major differences between undergraduate and graduate students and their motivation for choosing this pedagogy. Professors also find increased teacher-student interactions using a blended learning format but acknowledge more support for course redesign and better professional development and training. From an administrator's viewpoint, one of the main challenges occurred at the individual faculty level in trying to communicate the definition of blended learning to professors. As a way of looking forward, interviews with experts from various Ontario universities and a survey of university personnel from across the country provided some initial insights. A discussion situates the findings using the theoretical lens of andragogy, self-directed learning, the community of inquiry framework, and points to a possible range of additional research questions for blended learning.

scholarly journals Making the transition to master’s dissertation writing: evaluating the impact of a dissertation writing course on PGT students’ confidence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Diane Crisfield
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Master's Students ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dissertation Writing ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Postgraduate Research ◽  
Thesis Writing ◽  
The Impact

 The transition from undergraduate to postgraduate taught (PGT) studies has received increasing focus over the past decade as universities and educators have recognised that master’s students do not necessarily begin their studies equipped with the academic skills necessary to succeed (O’Donnell et al., 2009; Bunney, 2017; McPherson et al., 2017). Research on postgraduate research (PGR) students demonstrates that thesis writing courses improve students’ confidence in their abilities (Larcombe et al., 2007; Fergie et al., 2011), but to date, the transition from writing for module assessments to master’s dissertation writing remains largely unstudied. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a short master’s dissertation writing course − delivered at a British university in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years − on improving students’ confidence in their writing abilities, as reported in pre-course and post-course writing self-evaluations. In both years that the course was offered, there was a significant increase in reported confidence between the first session and the final session, and thematic analysis of open-ended questions demonstrated that students enrolled on the course to improve their knowledge of and confidence in academic writing and left the course having met these goals. This paper confirms that dissertation writing support designed for PGT students can have a positive impact on students’ confidence in their writing abilities, and thus help support them in making the transition to dissertation writing.

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