The purpose of this study was to document the nature of elementary writing instruction and classroom physical environments in eight Utah school districts. One hundred seventy-seven full-day observations were completed throughout a one-week period. Results indicated teachers included at least one of the following types of writing: writing workshop/writing process, non-process writing, and writing conventions and mechanics. Process writing time was dominated by instruction from the teacher. Other elements of the writing workshop were implemented, but in a fragmented way. Only five teachers combined aspects of the workshop simultaneously. Non-process writing activities were dominated by prompts and formulas that resulted in one-draft products created with limited teacher assistance and no expectation for revising, editing, or publishing. Conventions of writing were taught regularly, but always in isolation, rather than being integrated with other aspects of writing. Classroom physical environments were generally not literacy rich, showing more evidence of traditional resources instead of resources to support the writing process. Process-oriented teachers had richer environments than those focused on conventions. In fact, classroom environment could be better predicted by the kind of writing the teachers and students did rather than the amount of time spent writing.

<p>The method of peer response has become an important part in process oriented writing classes and is often used at universities, but not in upper secondary school. The aim of this paper is to investigate how students in upper secondary school react when introduced to peer response, and whether or not they find it a beneficial way of working when trying to improve their writing. The aim is also to find out if the students’ texts improve as a result of a peer response session.</p><p>The results of my investigation show that the majority of the students who participated had positive reactions when introduced to peer response. All students agreed that the method was beneficial to improving their texts. Furthermore, according to the teacher, who read both the first and final versions of the texts, many of the students improved their texts enough after peer response to raise their grades. This confirms that peer response is, in fact, a good method to use when trying to improve students’ writing. However, even though the majority of the participants were positive to the idea of using peer response again, there were some students who prefer that only the teacher reads their assignments. This could be due to a lack of confidence concerning their own abilities or the fact that some texts are perceived as too personal and private. There will often be students who do not like to share their writing but the method could be modified and adapted to the situation of each class. Peer response can be combined with teacher response, or the groups can be reduced to pairs of two persons.</p>

Many high school and college composition students have misused formulaic organizational structures, most conspicuously the five-paragraph theme, as invention tools. This misappropriation comes from teacher and student tendencies to oversimplify both the processes of writing instruction and its practice into countable and inflexible forms. In order to help students move towards improved invention models that respond to the overall rhetorical situation, this dissertation offers two new models of invention, the x, y thesis and the argument guide models. Beginning at the invention stage and extending recursively to all stages of the writing process, these two heuristics help guide students towards informed and analytical choices that respectively build relationships between parts and encourage asymmetrical, content-driven extensions of ideas. These models, individually and collectively, assist students in their efforts to restore a balance between content and form because the models set the students’ invented content at the core of a nonlinear rhetorical action – the composition of an essay that involves all phases of process writing.

Recent years have seen the emergence of Web 2.0 in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching and learning, in which students are exposed to an online space where they are not only passive recipients of the featured content but actively engaged in a dynamic interaction and construction of their knowledge and understanding. This study illuminates the nature of Web 2.0 technology integration in EFL writing and examines how the interactive and collaborative features of blogs and wikis were incorporated into an undergraduate writing course in Taiwan. This study adopted mixed research methods to explore the pre-determined dimensions and underlying factors related to and influencing learner satisfaction. A total of 37 Taiwanese EFL students were recruited. At the end of the writing course, they filled out the demographic and learner satisfaction survey online. Sixteen students and the instructor took part in the interviews. The quantitative data were collected from the survey and writing test scores, while the qualitative data were collected from retrospective interviews, online archived assignments, course-related materials, and observations. Correlation analysis was applied to identify the association between the different dimensions and factors with learner satisfaction. Descriptive statistics, interview data and writing test scores were analyzed to determine the impact of the different factors on learner satisfaction. Dimensions and factors correlated with learner satisfaction include: (1) course dimension—course effectiveness; (2) technology dimension—perceived usefulness (of wikis), perceived usefulness (of blogs), perceive ease of use (for blogs); (3) environmental dimension—learner community support, peer assessment system (for wikis); and, (4) instructor dimension—instructor feedback timeliness. No factors in the learner dimension were found to be associated with learner satisfaction. According to the instructor and students' reflections, the technology background of Taiwanese university students, and their learning needs and culture can explain the findings related to their satisfaction with the blog- and wiki-supported writing course. In light of the findings, several implications are drawn for instructional design, classroom practice and research methods in EFL writing. / text

幾十年來，過程寫作常因為『重內容輕形式』和『輕忽寫作成品』而導致批評聲浪不斷。 近年來，部落格網誌的四大特色 — 自我表達、自我反省、互動和發布 — 吸引學者和語言學習者的注意。本文旨在探討部落格融入『過程寫作』之教學如何影響四名台灣高三學生的寫作表現。文獻探討涵蓋過程寫作，部落格和三項共通因素 — 回饋、自我反省日誌和電子檔案評量。 本研究的對象是研究者所教授的過程寫作班的四位高三學生。本研究的程序以寫作循環 (writing cycle) 為主軸。資料包括多次校訂 (multiple revisions)、兩篇草稿 (前後測)、學生寫作態度問卷、教師日誌(teacher’s log)和訪談紀錄。首先，以Yagelski’s coding schemes (1995) 和Johnson’s (1994) 內容和組織指標 (indicators of content and organization) 解讀多次校訂，以了解學生的校訂類型 (types of changes in multiple revisions)。接著，分析前後測分數的差距 (score differences)及文章長度 (the length of essay)、探討多次校訂與前後測草稿的關聯性，再找出前後測草稿中的內容與組織指標，以顯示學生在兩篇草稿的進步程度。訪談資料則用於探討部落格的功能、學生遇到的困難和需要何種教師支援。至於學生的寫作態度，則以前後測問卷的分數差距 (score difference) 為主，再以訪談紀錄作為佐證資料或疑點澄清。最後，與教室情境有關的發現，則以教師日誌和訪談資料為主。 本研究的主要發現如下： 1. 生有自己偏好的校訂類型 (types of changes in multiple revisions)。 2. 作班的四位高三學生在內容和組織方面有顯著進步。 3. 級部落格在過程寫作的每個階段都有不同功能。 4.多次校訂的枯燥須加以克服，以及建議實施老師與學生間的迷你會議。 5.在信心、焦慮、實用性與偏好四方面，學生寫作態度改變。 6.教室情境所衍生的幾項發現。 最後，本研究對過程寫作在實際教學上應用與未來研究方向提供建議。 / Over the past decades of practice in process writing, criticism over “the stress on content over form” (Badger & White, 2000) and the neglect of final writing product (Barnes, 1983) has never ceased. Considering that blog has attracted scholars and learners for its unique features — self-expression, self-reflection, interactivity, and publication, this researcher integrated blog into the instruction of process writing to investigate the writing performance of the four 12th graders. The literature review covered studies on process writing, blog and three elements commonly found in both process writing and blog— feedback, self-reflection journals and e-portfolio. The participants of this study were four 12th graders of Taiwan’s high school in a blog-mediated process writing class taught by the researcher. The procedure revolved around the process writing cycle, in which these four participants repeated the recursive writing process. Data included multiple revisions, two drafts (pre-test and post-test), questionnaires on students’ writing attitude (pre-test and post-test), the teacher’s logs and interviews. First, to obtain what types of changes students made in multiple revisions, the 48 multiple revisions were coded by Yagelski’s coding schemes (1995) and Johnson’s indicators of content and organization (1994). Second, to investigate if the four participants made progress in content and organization, this researcher touched on four aspects of analysis: 1) the score differences between the pre-test and post-test drafts, 2) the length of essay, 3) a connection analysis between the multiple revisions and the two drafts and 4) a draft analysis using Johnson’s indicators of content and organization (1994). Third, the interview data helped to explore how the blog functioned in each step of process writing model, and to present the challenges students encountered and the teacher support they needed. Fourth, to discover if these students experienced any attitude changes, she also calculated the score differences between the pre-test and post-test questionnaires in students’ writing attitude and verified the questionnaire results or clarified the unclear points with interview data. Finally, some other classroom-context-related findings were also revealed in the analysis of the teachers’ logs and the interview data. The major findings were listed as below: 1) students showed preference for making some types of changes in multiple revisions; 2) the four students in the blog-mediated process writing class gained significant progress in content and organization; 3) the class blog functioned differently in each step of process writing model; 4) the boredom of doing multiple revisions and the teacher-student mini conference were the challenges encountered and the teacher support recommended; 5) there were writing attitude changes in the four categories — confidence, anxiety, usefulness and preference; and 6) several findings were also revealed in the context of classroom. Some pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research on process writing were presented at the end of the thesis.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the teaching of non-fiction texts looks like in grade 3 in three different classes and how the students in these classes are being prepared for the subsample that tests the ability to write a non-fiction text in the national test in Swedish and Swedish as a second language. I have, based on the purpose, issued three question that form the basis of this study. They are: What tasks does the students in these classes implement in Swedish lessons dealing with non-fiction? What models are used in Swedish teaching in these three classes dealing with non-fiction? How are the students being prepared for the subsample that tests the ability to write a non-fiction text in the national test in Swedish and Swedish as a second language? The methods used to carry out this study are observation and interview. The purpose of using these methods are to gain knowledge and to be able to explain a social phenomenon, in this case how the teaching of non-fiction texts looks like in grade 3. The theoretical concepts that are relevant for the implementation of this study are the writing discourses of Genre and Process. The result is that all of the teachers that featured in this study prepared their student for the national test in Swedish by implementing similar tasks in their teaching, which the students face in the national test. The students read non-fiction texts, selected relevant words from the texts and wrote their own non-fiction text during the lessons I observed. I detected two separate models used in the teaching, which are Genre pedagogy and Process writing. None of the teachers in this study used the models fully, but used some parts of them in their teaching.

The method of peer response has become an important part in process oriented writing classes and is often used at universities, but not in upper secondary school. The aim of this paper is to investigate how students in upper secondary school react when introduced to peer response, and whether or not they find it a beneficial way of working when trying to improve their writing. The aim is also to find out if the students’ texts improve as a result of a peer response session. The results of my investigation show that the majority of the students who participated had positive reactions when introduced to peer response. All students agreed that the method was beneficial to improving their texts. Furthermore, according to the teacher, who read both the first and final versions of the texts, many of the students improved their texts enough after peer response to raise their grades. This confirms that peer response is, in fact, a good method to use when trying to improve students’ writing. However, even though the majority of the participants were positive to the idea of using peer response again, there were some students who prefer that only the teacher reads their assignments. This could be due to a lack of confidence concerning their own abilities or the fact that some texts are perceived as too personal and private. There will often be students who do not like to share their writing but the method could be modified and adapted to the situation of each class. Peer response can be combined with teacher response, or the groups can be reduced to pairs of two persons.

Web 2.0 technologies are increasing in popularity, offering huge possibilities, but also bringing new challenges to language learning classes. In the context of ESL and EFL teaching and learning Web 2.0 technologies, specifically blogs and wikis can be used for teaching collaborative process writing. This study investigates previous research on the use of blogs and wikis as tools for collaborative process writing in the context of ESL/EFL classrooms and identifies the advantages and disadvantages of using blogs and wikis for this purpose as well as tries to investigate how their use in ESL/EFL can be organized. The findings show that there are a number of advantages that speak for using blogs and wikis in ESL/EFL teaching and learning. However, there are also disadvantages that can interfere the successful use of blogs and wikis for collaborative process writing. As to possible ways of using blogs and wikis within ESL/EFL context, effective examples of group and pair work were identified.

The aim with this study is to explore the use of peer review in a Swedish school context. The study focuses on the role of secondary school teachers of English, and the main research question is: “What are teachers’ views of using peer review in the English classroom?” The interviews show that there are several ways and methods to work with writing such as projects that lasts for weeks or smaller task focusing on a certain area. Secondly, it is shown that peer review can be used in both written and oral tasks. Furthermore, the feedback given to the students can be oral or written, and the area of feedback alters depending on the task. Thirdly, the benefits of peer review are that it helps improve critical thinking, as well as the students’ way of discussing language. Lastly, the main challenge is the variety of language proficiency among the students, but with clear instructions, time and practice in an accepting classroom environment, this challenge does not have to be an obstacle.

Students are now required to show proficiency in writing through performance on standardized tests. Educators and researchers are looking for ways to improve persuasive and argumentative writing created by students. The writing content conference setting gives educators and students opportunities to discuss student writing in a one-on-one format in which students receive feedback. Ideally, this helps them to create multiple drafts of writing that improve with each revision. Many practitioner guides have been created that offer suggestions as to how conferences can be conducted and what types of interactions can theoretically occur. Few, however, have examined what actually happens during writing content conferences. Two case studies were conducted in an effort to describe with greater specificity key components of effective writing content conferences in a sixth-grade classroom. Students participated in five content conferences over a period of three months. Each conference was video recorded and later transcribed. The teacher-researcher describes the structured and predictable pattern in which students identified the purpose for the conference, examined a main issue of content with their teacher, and planned for future writing and future conference settings. Important issues of ownership also emerged. Effective conferences were student-directed and taken seriously by the students. The atmosphere of the conferences was safe and conducive to students taking risks. As young writers were encouraged to use their writing as means of expression for telling the stories of their lives, they often chose to write about socially taboo and thematically mature subjects. Future research should examine how workshop formats and writing content conferences affect student achievement in argumentative and informative writing.