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This thesis attempts to determine if the acquisition of rhetorical and grammatical skills such as a sense of audience and organization are best attained through an alternate pedagogy based on a methodology from Wendy Bishop or if they are better attained through a traditional approach.

For this study an attempt was made to bridge the disciplines of linguistics and composition in order to examine factors contributing to textual coherence. Pairs of descriptive texts written by fifty college students were examined in order to identify the factors which differentiate quality and topic. Students were asked to compose a descriptive paragraph on the topic of fall. They were then encouraged to use their five senses, given leaves, and asked to compose a paragraph describing the leaves. The pairs of texts thus elicited were evaluated for preference by readers. The ANOVA revealed a significant difference (p=.001) between the two topics with fall texts preferred over the more specific leaves texts. Results suggest that encouraging students to use their five senses does not improve their writing. It may be more important to move through various levels of abstraction than to merely focus on sensory detail. The texts were also scored holistically by two trained evaluators. Results of this grading were used to choose five high- and five low-coherence texts on each of the two topics. These 20 texts were then analyzed in terms of the tagmemic referential hierarchy. A MANOVA was done to examine the dependent variables of Slot (location in time or space), Role (purpose or reason), and Cohesion (sociocultural context) in relation to quality and topic for these texts. Slot was found to be significant for both quality (p=.025) and topic (p=.004). Role was significant only for quality (p=.001). Cohesion was nonsignificant for either quality or topic. These results suggest that students should: (a) be encouraged to locate their texts in time and space in order to develop an adequate context for readers; (b) be encouraged to include purposes and reasons for the statements they make; and (c) be encouraged, where appropriate, to include a focus on humans and their activities (either literal or figurative) since such reference is a distinguishing feature of high-coherence texts.

Poor academic performance and high failure rates in South African tertiary institutions have lead to a need for intervention of some sort. Academic performance is said to be strongly influenced by one’s academic writing ability. Therefore, this study aimed to determine how much influence academic writing ability has on academic performance. It also aimed to establish which measure - the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or Wechsler Individual Achievement Test II (WIAT-II) - is a more accurate measure of academic writing. Lastly, the research aimed to determine whether any differences between English First Language (EFL) and English Additional Language (EAL) students’ exist. A convenience sample of 125 first-year Psychology students from the University of the Witwatersrand wrote argumentative essays that were analysed quantitatively using the IELTS and WIAT-II scoring system. Correlations and t-tests, as well as regression and reliability analyses were used to investigate the aims and establish the results. From the results it was evident that the IELTS and WIAT-II are both adequate measures of academic writing. However, the results showed that academic writing ability is not a major predictor of and contributor towards academic performance. Significant differences in performance were noted between groups of EFL and EAL students on all measures. The results also showed that failure rates were not as high in this sample as in previous statistics. Further investigation is required in order to determine other factors that contribute to one’s academic performance. Other aspects of academic literacy such as reading and speaking, as well as previous preparedness or intelligence, may need to be considered as determining factors of academic success.

The purpose of this study is an investigation of instructors‟ perceptions of composition learning objectives focusing on which should be taught and which should be emphasized. The researcher observed that instructors do not regard all course objectives in English Composition courses equally; emphasizing some and giving others brief consideration. From this observation, this study was developed to measure objectives as well as to examine principal reasons for the differences in perception. Using an 18-question (16 content area and two demographic) survey based on content areas chosen to mirror general learning objectives in composition courses, along with six focused interviews, the researcher discovered some levels of agreement, some of disagreement, and some areas of neutrality. The researcher has established some connections and some disconnects between some of the general learning objectives from English Composition courses, which are intriguing and thought provoking. Since instructors deliver instruction using learning objectives as the goals to be achieved in the English Composition courses they teach, it is prudent to be concerned with how these objectives are perceived and implemented by the users. The data collected conclusively reflects instructors‟ perceptions of learning objectives are not all the same. As the researcher measured instructors‟ perceptions of English Composition learning objectives, the results demonstrate that there are stronger relationships with some of the learning objectives, and some objectives have no relationships; some objectives are well matched and others are not. The purpose of this study, understanding relationships between instructors‟ perceptions of learning objectives in FY English Composition courses, will provide us with research to help improve objectives and positively impact instruction.

Bartholomae contends that "a reading course is necessarily a writing course and a writing course must be a course in reading." At most community colleges, however, reading and writing are still taught as if they were independent of each other. The course on which this curriculum study is based, English 07, Writing and Reading Improvement, represents a revision of that traditional approach, for it combines instruction in reading and writing to create a comprehensive class in developmental English. This dissertation describes the salient pedagogical features of English 07, from its rejection of the skills approach to language instruction to its treatment of reading and writing as complementary activities. The results of this study indicate that teaching reading with writing in the same course can be a viable alternative to teaching these skills separately. Success rates of students in English 07 consistently exceeded those of students enrolled in more traditional classes in which reading and writing remained isolated from one another. English 07 students also enjoyed a relatively high rate of success in subsequent first year English classes, approaching a level of achievement equal to that of students in the general population of the college. In addition, the study revealed several curricular elements that seem to have been unusually important in helping students develop their literate abilities. The course's emphasis upon reading and writing as complementary processes of composition, its thematic focus upon the self, the structure and sequence of reading and writing assignments, and the social relations in the classroom all emerged as significant influences in students' attempts to transform themselves into literate members of the academy. Clowes notes that successful integration "little evidence exists of developmental theory for the into the practice of remediation," and Berthoff asserts that "we need more research in teaching reading and writing together." This study answers those calls by demonstrating how reading and writing can be melded together to create an effective developmental English course. This dissertation should thus provide other community-college practitioners with an immediate theoretical framework and a model curriculum for helping students become more proficient readers and more accomplished writers. / Ed. D.

A theoretical construct for examining the use of reading in composing, developed from the literature review and pilot study, was tested using audio-videotaped protocols of students composing two drafts of an essay, followed by retrospective interviews. Fifteen skilled and fifteen unskilled college writers, so designated by tests and a writing sample given by the English department, participated in the study at a rural, two-year technical college in a Sunbelt state during the 1984-85 school year. The construct for examining reading in composing included the focus of reading: word, multi-word, sentence, multi-sentence, paragraph, multi-paragraph, and draft levels; the purpose of reading: to verify, clarify, provide direction, edit, or refresh memory; the effect (or outcome) of reading: no/change or change, using Faigley and Witte's revision classification scheme to describe changes; and the amount of reading, which was a count of all occurrences of reading. The construct was useful in identifying the aspects of reading in composing. Thus, a major benefit of the study is empirical data on reading-in-composing for both skilled and unskilled writers. A profile of each group's use of reading was developed. Then a comparison of reading by the two groups was made using chi-square and percents. The findings revealed that (1) 29 of the 30 students were readers of their texts; (2) the skilled writers wrote and read twice as much as the unskilled writers did, but the proportion in both drafts was the same; (3) reading occurred within and between drafts for both groups; (4) both groups read most often at the multi-word level; (5) both groups read for all five purposes and when ranked by frequency, the order was the same for both groups; (6) the effect of reading differed significantly in the no-change/change categories with the skilled writers making more changes. Findings which were statistically significant included: the size of the corpus; the focus of reading; the difference in no-change/change decisions; and the categories of change at surface, meaning-preserving and meaning-changing levels. The study confirmed that writing is a recursive process with reading as a major component and that both skilled and unskilled writers are readers of their texts. The study revealed that protocol analysis and the Faigley and Witte classification scheme for revision can work well together. Second, the amount, focus, purpose, and effect of reading can be examined through thinking-aloud composing protocols. Third, reading is a more appropriate term than re-reading to describe the reading which occurs during the composing process. / Ed. D.

The problem this study was concerned with was that of determining the criteria and consistency of college freshman composition in the United States. The purposes were to describe and rank the evaluator factors and criteria reportedly used and actually used; to assess the consistency of evaluations; and to identify relationships between scores assigned freshman writing and various characteristics of evaluators, including evaluator's type of school.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Responding to Student Writing: Strategies for a Distance-Teaching Context identifies viable response techniques for a unique discourse community. An overview of paradigmatic shifts in writing and reading theory, 'frameworks of response' developed to classify response statements for research purposes, and an overview of research in the field provide the theoretical basis for the evaluation of the empirical study. The research comprises a three-fold exploration of the response strategies adopted by Unisa lecturers to the writing of Practical English (PENl00-3) students. In the first phase the focus falls on the effect of intervention on the students' revised drafts of four divergent marking strategies - coded correction, minimal marking, taped response and self assessment. All the experimental strategies tested result in statistically-significant improvement levels in the revised draft. The benefits of self assessment and rewriting, even without tutorial intervention, were demonstrated. The study is unique by virtue of its distance-teaching context, its sample size of 1750 and in the high significance levels achieved. The second phase of the research consisted of a questionnaire that determined 2640 students' expectations with respect to marking, the value of commentary, their perceptions of markers' roles and their opinions of the experimental strategies tested. Their responses were also correlated with their final Practical English examination results. The third phase examined tutorial response. The framework of response, developed for the purpose, revealed that present response strategies represent a regression to the traditional product-orientated approach to writing that contradicts the cognitive and rhetorical axiological basis of the course. There is thus a disjunction between the teaching and theoretical practices. The final chapter bridges this gap by examining issues of audience, transparency, ownership, timing of intervention and training. The researcher believes that she has successfully identified practical and innovative strategies that assist lecturers in a distance-teaching context to break away from old response blueprints. / English Studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (English)