Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pennsylvania State University, 2006. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This dissertation examines the multimodal discourse of academic posters from three disciplines, namely, Chemistry, Speech & Hearing Sciences and Linguistics, in an attempt to unravel how writers from different disciplinary communities build their communicative purposes into the verbal and visual modes in their posters. The analytical framework adopted for this study builds upon the one proposed by D’Angelo(2010), which incorporates Hyland’s metadiscourse model (2005) and Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual grammar paradigm (2006) for the verbal and visual analyses respectively, and supplements it with multimodal content analysis adapted from Jones’s (2007) model. Follow-up interviews with members of the discourse communities were also conducted to enhance the validity of the results. The findings reveal that there exist a wide range of differences in the use of metadiscourse markers (e.g. hedges, boosters, evidentials, code glosses) across the three group texts pertaining to disciplinary influences. There is also evidence that academics in different subjects value some of the same qualities in the texts necessitated either by the peculiar context of poster presentations (e.g. frame markers, engagement markers) or a need to maintain scientific formality (e.g. self-mentions). Visually, the concern for the context and ‘scientificness’ continue to exert great influences, rendering a myriad of visual manifestations (e.g. framing, modality) that are commonly shared across the data, whereas the cross-discipline discrepancy mainly narrows down to the image usage(functions and types). / published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

The current study investigated the efficacy of using a writing intervention based in the self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) approach for teaching paragraph writing skills to three students with epilepsy who struggled with writing. Individuals with epilepsy often have difficulties with the same cognitive processes that are involved in the writing process such as attention, working memory, and self-regulation. The study used a multiple baseline approach and participants' paragraphs were examined across the following WIAT-II paragraph scoring domains: number of words written, mechanics, organization, vocabulary, and total paragraph score. Effects on participants' self-efficacy beliefs towards paragraph writing were also examined. Results revealed an improvement in number of words written, paragraph organization, overall writing quality, and self-efficacy towards writing for all participants following the ten week intervention. Limitations to the study and implications for educators are discussed. / Graduate / 0525 / 0529

The current study investigated the efficacy of using a writing intervention based in the self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) approach for teaching paragraph writing skills to three students with epilepsy who struggled with writing. Individuals with epilepsy often have difficulties with the same cognitive processes that are involved in the writing process such as attention, working memory, and self-regulation. The study used a multiple baseline approach and participants' paragraphs were examined across the following WIAT-II paragraph scoring domains: number of words written, mechanics, organization, vocabulary, and total paragraph score. Effects on participants' self-efficacy beliefs towards paragraph writing were also examined. Results revealed an improvement in number of words written, paragraph organization, overall writing quality, and self-efficacy towards writing for all participants following the ten week intervention. Limitations to the study and implications for educators are discussed. / Graduate / 0525 / 0529

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2007. / Title from title page screen, viewed on April 8, 2008. Dissertation Committee: Gerald Savage (chair), Ronald Fortune, Ronald Strickland. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 180-189) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1984. / Title from title page screen, viewed June 2, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Janice Neuleib (chair), Russell Rutter, Maurice A. Scharton, William C. Woodson, William E. Piland. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-165) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Mothers of Sparta is a collection of thirteen personal essays that examine place—knowing one’s place, and finding one’s place in the world. The narrative arc chronicles the narrator’s childhood, young adulthood, marriage and child rearing years, ultimately encompassing the difficulties of raising a child who, due to brain damage, faces an uncertain future. As the narrator grows older, place shifts from a concrete knowledge of the physical world around her, to learning her place within gendered and regional social constructs, and defining her place through roles such as wife, mother, student and writer. These essays are diverse in style. Woven throughout is a theme of violence, weighted with visceral language: the violence of accident and death, the violence that occurs in nature and in domestic spaces, and the violence that often goes unnoticed because we live in a violent world.

To discover possible avenues for countering low attendance at the University of Southern Indiana's writing center by students in the two pre-core curriculum basic writing classes, this study explored the basic writing students' reasons for not attending the writing center. Since their attitudes toward writing and collaboration as well as some of their perceptions of the writing center seemed likely to influence their decision to attend or not attend, the study explored these areas as well. A survey of students in nineteen sections of the two classes, General Studies 098 and English 100, was the main method used in the study, with interviews with several volunteers from these courses supplementing the surveys. These methods resulted in a number of findings. First, the majority of students in both the surveys and interviews expressed preference for feedback from instructors over other resources, including writing consultants. The surveys also revealed possible gender and ethnicity differences in attitudes toward writing center use, including that males might be more reluctant to use the writing center than females and that non-white students were more likely to use the writing center than white students in spite of being less likely to perceive that the writing consultants care about their success. The survey results suggest a correlation between familiarity with the Writers' Room and positive perceptions of the service, although this finding was contradicted by the responses of one of the interviewed English 100 students and thus would benefit from investigation through further research. Finally, the survey results showed that even though students who expressed generally positive attitudes toward collaboration and viewed writing consultants as caring did not perceive the writing consultants as particularly helpful compared to other resources. These findings suggest that greater familiarity with the writing center--such as through required visits for students in the lower level course--might result in more students visiting as well as more positive attitudes toward the writing center.

The purpose of this study was to develop a model to augment critical thinking and create knowledge through writing in the social sciences of agriculture. Without a conceptual model or a blue-print of writing in the social sciences of agriculture, teaching writing is hard. This study was divided into three phases, and each phase was reported and analyzed using independent research methods. Not only were the data reported as separate sets of findings, but also the data from each phase of the study were synthesized and reported as a mixed-methods study, which was a model to augment critical thinking and create knowledge through writing in the social sciences of agriculture. Five methods were used to collect the data: qualitative theory evaluation, qualitative interviews, qualitative focus groups, Q-sort interviews, and modeling methods. Using the qualitative theory evaluation, the researcher found three prominent theories and seven conceptual models of writing. Each writing theory and conceptual model brought a unique perspective to writing research. In conclusion, the social cognitive theory of writing was the most complete writing theory and the writing proficiency as a complex integrated skill conceptual model was the most complete. Qualitative interviews with eight faculty members in social sciences of agriculture revealed the writing factors that augment critical thinking and create knowledge. The researcher concluded that the ability to present and defend a topic to a variety of public audiences; opportunities for writing repetition; and rich, timely feedback were the writing factors faculty members believed augment critical thinking and create knowledge. The focus group interviews with 15 students in social sciences of agriculture revealed the characteristics of strong writers. The researcher concluded that adapting prose to fit the audience, applying writing to real-world scenarios, developing a strong argument, having a specific voice, and understanding grammar and mechanics should be used to help students develop writing skills. The data from the review of literature, the qualitative interviews, and the qualitative focus groups were used to develop the Q-sort interview statements. Q-sort interviews with four students, three faculty members, and three administrators revealed three factors that define writing in the social sciences of agriculture. The researcher concluded that writing in college courses can be categorized into three categories: writing as a process, writing as an application and a development of thought, and writing as an advanced skill guided by complex reasoning. The data from the first four studies were collapsed to identify the writing factors that augment critical thinking and create knowledge in the social sciences of agriculture. From this data, the researcher developed the model to augment critical thinking and create knowledge through writing in the social sciences of agriculture. Additionally, the researcher concluded there are 12 writing factors that augment critical thinking and create knowledge in the social sciences of agriculture (e.g., using real-world scenarios; researching and understanding how ideas are connected; and presenting and defending agricultural topics to a variety of public audiences).