This thesis contains the results of my research between 1994 and 1998 into the uses of fictional autobiography in personal development. The topic arose out of my observation, both of my own experience and the experience of students attending my creative writing courses, that writing fictional autobiography as part of a writing apprenticeship not only enabled the development of writing skills and the finding of a writing 'voice', but often had a therapeutic effect on the writer's relationship with himor herself, and with his or her significant others. I set out to explore this observation through an examination of my creative writing course 'Autobiography and Fiction' (subsequently called 'Autobiography and the Imagination'), which I taught at the University of Sussex Centre for Continuing Education from 1991 to 1996. I issued questionnaires to all 78 students who had taken this course, to generate data on the benefits of engaging in the writing of fictional autobiography. I also conducted interviews on the same topic with 5 of these students. I analysed the resulting data using the theory of the Germani American psychoanalyst Karen Horney, and to a lesser extent that of object relations theorists D.W. Winnicott, Christopher Bollas and Marion Milner. Where appropriate, I also used theory of literary and social narrative. The thesis presents the three main findings of the research, namely, that the writing of fictional autobiography (1) can facilitate a closer contact with the inner life, resulting in a stronger sense of identity and the finding of a 'writing voice'; (2) can help to reveal and work through problems of identity which cause writer's block; and (3) can provide a means of're-writing' self-narratives which have been 'written' in the psyche by family and society. The thesis concludes with some suggestions as to how fictional autobiography might be used in a self-analytic or psychoanalytic context.

It has long been accepted in the field of EFL teaching and learning that writing in a foreign language by learners is a complex practice that involves not only cognition, but also psychology. With this in mind, in the present study, social-psychological and social-cognitive research frameworks were adopted to explore the relationship between the writing attitudes, apprehension and self-efficacy of Saudi learners of English, and their writing performance, with a view to expanding the frontiers of current scholarship. This relationship was investigated on two levels: that of writing in general, and that of writing specific types of text. This relationship has been neglected in previous research; in addition, the scope of past studies of Saudi students has been limited to only one of the two traditional genders. The current study was designed to contribute to filling these gaps. The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter One introduces the objectives, research question, theoretical framework and background of the study. Chapter Two reviews the related literature. Chapter Three describes the sample population, data collection and procedures. Chapter Four deals with the data analyses. Chapter Five discusses the findings and implications of the investigation. Chapter Six presents a summary and conclusions. The research found no correlation between psychological characteristics and writing performance in general, nor between psychological characteristics and the writing of narrative and persuasive text types, in particular. Overall, the results conflict with those of previous studies, in that it was found that rather than psychological characteristics influencing writing performance gender difference influenced writing performance, and the psychological characteristics did not influence anything, it was the other way round, gender difference also influenced psychological characteristics. This thesis thus contributes to the growing body of knowledge in the field of EFL, by providing evidence that the influence of psychological characteristics on writing is not salient in every socio-cultural context, and that the writers' gender can have an effect on their writing performance.

Writing skills are important for social and civic participation, educational achievement and employment (European Commission, 2012). However, a third to a half of Scottish students did not attain required writing standards at upper elementary and lower high school grades in 2014 (Scottish Government, 2015). Similarly, many students do not obtain the required skills in the USA (Graham et al., 2014). This study aimed to improve the writing skills of mainstream upper elementary and lower high school students. It took place in a largely rural Local Authority in Southern Scotland which was mid-range on measures of deprivation. The literature was reviewed on effective writing interventions for school-aged mainstream students. The interventions with the largest impacts around the target grades were: CIRC (Durukan, 2011); Collaborative Dialogic Learning (Alfassi, 2009); CSRI (Torrance et al., 2007); Jigsaw (Sahin, 2011); individual IT access in lessons (Snyder, 1993); individual IT access at home and school (Lowther et al., 2003); peer assistance with revision (Boscoli et al.,2004); process and product goals (Schunk et al., 1993); SRSD (Brunstein et al., 2011); summarisation (Chang et al., 2002); visualisation/imagery instruction (Jampole et al., 1994). An online survey of teachers’ current practices and beliefs about the teaching of writing was administered. The response rate was 23% (N=345) of the 1490 Local Authority-employed teachers in the region. Notable findings were: the respondents’ most frequently used practice was grammar instruction, an ineffective intervention (Graham et al., 2012; Graham et al., 2007). Many were using some evidence-based practices but not at optimum frequencies, and some were never using some of them. About 40% of respondents felt students had insufficient IT to support their writing and most would use IT more frequently if they had more up-to-date equipment, better internet access and extra training. Under half of elementary and high school respondents with English degrees felt Initial Teacher Education was adequate preparation to teach writing, while only 29% of high school respondents without English degrees felt adequately prepared to teach writing. Most viewed In Service Education more favourably but substantial numbers of respondents still felt inadequately prepared, particularly high school teachers without English degrees. All the high school respondents with English degrees and 91% of elementary respondents felt they were effective teachers of writing, but only 48% of high school respondents without English degrees felt they were effective at teaching writing. An evidence-based intervention was developed, the six-week Write Away programme, which included writing strategy instruction, self-regulation strategies and peer revision. It shared many features with CSRI (Torrance et al., 2007) and SRSD (Harris et al., 2009). Distinctive differences included that it incorporated Boscolo et al.'s (2004) model of peer revision rather than the think alouds used in CSRI, pupils did not create their own self-regulatory statements, pupils did not collaborate during drafting, pupils needed not spend long planning provided they revised their work, the finished essays would be displayed and peer revision continued following the teaching phase. This study was quasi-experimental and used both quantitative and qualitative methods. Participation was offered to large elementary schools which had two P6 (grade 5) pupil-only classes to allow for control and intervention classes. Two schools volunteered. Which pupils were in which condition depended on which teachers delivered the interventions. The control classes in both schools followed an on-going parallel intervention – the Big Writing programme (Wilson, 2012). Both schools were in towns and had similar pupil numbers (Eastfield=390, Westfield =361). The percentage entitled to Free School Meals in P4 to P7 at Eastfield was 11.8%, at Westfield it was 9.9%. The average age of the pupils was 10 years 7 months and numbers of male and female participants were broadly the same. Participation was also offered to all the region’s high schools. Only one responded with the requisite conditions for participation. This school (roll= 544) was in the largest town in the region. The percentage entitled to Free School Meals was 13.8%. The average age of the S2 (grade 8) students was 13 years 6 months and there was a preponderance of female participants. The online survey had shown that intervening with non-English specialists might be beneficial. This was compared with delivery by, or in combination with, English teachers. Social Studies was chosen because of its writing demands. A control and three different intervention conditions were used: English teacher only; Social Studies teacher only; English teacher and Social Studies teacher. Which students were in which condition depended on which teachers delivered the interventions. This was determined by the school, either by self-selection or randomly. Measures at both elementary and high school were the same. Teacher and student questionnaires were administered pre and post-test. Participant students were given written tasks pre and post-test. The length of the written tasks and plans were recorded. The written tasks were assessed by the researcher using a rubric developed by the researcher. There was a post-test focus group of intervention teachers at each level. Implementation fidelity was assessed through teacher logs and lesson observations by the researcher. Descriptive statistics were produced for the pupil/student questionnaires, task and plan word lengths and the written task scores for different elements and overall writing quality. Responses to open questions were categorized into themes and tabulated where possible. The teachers’ responses in the focus groups were collated into themes. Intervention and control writing scores pre and post-test and task and plan word length were analysed using Student’s t-tests. Student questionnaire post-test responses from the different conditions were compared with a theoretical distribution of equal values using the Chi-square test. Effect sizes were calculated for mean pupil/student questionnaire responses, task and plan mean word lengths and written task scores. High school student questionnaire responses at post-test were analysed using the Mann-Whitney test because the students were unlikely to be normally distributed. The Write Away programme led to large positive effect sizes for writing quality at P6 (ES: Eastfield= 2.89, N=25; Westfield = 2.70, N=19) and S2 (ES: Social Studies intervention = 1.37, N= 17; Social Studies and English intervention= 1.20, N=20; English intervention = 0.87, N=21). Effect sizes at P6 were double those of the most successful condition at S2. The Social Studies teacher and elementary intervention teachers felt the intervention improved writing quality and intended to do it again. However, the English specialists did not feel it made an impact and did not like it. The intervention successfully included peer revision of each other’s texts (Boscolo et al., 2004) at both elementary and high school levels in a programme of strategy instruction and self-regulation which resulted in large writing quality improvements. The study showed that high school Non-English specialists could deliver interventions with large effects on writing quality. The Social Studies teacher delivered the intervention with the greatest fidelity, improved writing quality the most and reported an increase in understanding of the subject, especially for more able students. The survey showed a need for In Service and this intervention could be used at upper elementary level and with high school non-English specialists in the appropriate genres. This applies to the UK and USA. Implications for practice, policy and future research are further discussed. This was the first study to investigate writing strategy instruction and self-regulation as part of an evidence-based intervention in Scotland.

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1996. / Title from title page screen, viewed June 1, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Janice Neuleib (chair), Heather Graves, Ray Lewis White. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-172) and abstract. Also available in print.

O Livro do Desassossego, chamado por Fernando Pessoa de autobiografia sem fatos, diário lúcido ou ao acaso, entre outras tantas classificações, atribuído a Vicente Guedes e a Bernardo Soares, seu heterônimo e semi-heterônimo, respectivamente, apresenta temáticas e estratégias textuais várias que podem aproximá-lo da literatura intimista. Motivado aparentemente pela reflexão íntima ou por um minucioso exame de consciência, essa voz narrativa autoral, que é observadora atenta da vida cotidiana circundante, considerada reles e comezinha, registra suas impressões pessoais num pretenso diário íntimo ficcional. Tais recursos, utilizados pela escrita intimista, bem como o texto fragmentário formado pelas anotações desse eu solitário e entediado, parecem ser uma tentativa de constituí-lo como sujeito. Além da complexa elaboração textual (cujos fragmentos soltos, a diarística e a narrativa autobiográfica são exemplos), que torna a escrita intimista ainda mais sui generis na obra, há outra problemática, não menos significativa - a condição editorial a que o Livro do Desassossego ficou sujeito, visto que, inacabado, foi ordenado e publicado postumamente, de acordo com as escolhas e critérios de seus organizadores. Esta tese, pois, à luz da escrita de si, delineia e analisa brevemente os sujeitos possivelmente constituídos em três edições do projeto da prosa pessoana em questão - as de Teresa Sobral Cunha, Jerónimo Pizzarro e Richard Zenith -, a fim de verificar se e como a ordenação desse complexo material deixado, com fins de publicação da obra, contribuiu para evidenciar o processo de busca ontológica desse(s) eu(s) ficcional(is). / TheBook of Disquiet, referred to by Fernando Pessoa as a factless autobiography, a lucid diary or a random diary, among so many other designations, and attributed to Vicente Guedes and to Bernardo Soares, his heteronym and semi-heteronym, respectively, presents diverse themes and writing strategies that may place it in the vicinity of Intimism. Apparently motivated by an intimate reflection or by thorough soul-searching, this authorial narrative voice an attentive observer of the surrounding daily life, which is considered vulgar and mundane records its personal impressions in a presumed fictional intimate diary. Such devices, which are used in writing of the self and the fragmentary text formed by the notes of this lonely and bored self, seem to be an attempt to constitute it as a subject. In addition to the complex text construction (examples of which are loose fragments, diaries and autobiographical narratives), which renders the writing of the self even more unique in the work, there is another and not less important issue the publishing condition to which The Book of Disquiet was subject. Left unfinished, it was posthumously ordered and published according to the organizers choices and criteria. Thus, this thesis, in the light of writing of the self, outlines and briefly analyzes the subjects possibly constituted in three editions of Pessoas prose project in question the ones organized by Teresa Sobral Cunha, by Jerónimo Pizzarro and by Richard Zenith , so as to check whether and how the ordering of this complex material, with the purpose of publishing the work, has contributed to reveal the process of ontological search for this fictional self or these fictional selves.

O objetivo principal desta dissertação foi analisar, sob uma ótica intimista, o corpus poético do poeta português Joaquim José Cesário Verde(1855-1886). A idéia da escrita de si, da constituição do sujeito através da palavra escrita, remonta desde gregos e egípcios, ganhando força no final de Idade Média através das memórias, dos diários e dos livre de raison, e explodindo definitivamente enquanto gênero com as autobiografias. Analisando como o eu se constitui dentro do poema, e, conseqüentemente, as crises de consciência e do mundo, é possível observar como este mesmo eu caminha para um desconcerto, para a última e definitiva crise, que é o abandono da arte como forma de se conciliar consigo e com o mundo. / The principal objective of this dissertation analyzed, under an intimism optics , the poetic corpus of the Portuguese poet Joaquim José Cesário Verde (1855-1886). The idea of the writing of the self, of the constitution of the subject through the written word, remounts from Greeks and Egyptians, gaining strength in the end of Middle Ages through the memories, the diaries and of release of raison, and exploding definitely while type with the autobiographies. Analyzing as I it is constituted inside the poem, and, consequently, the crises of conscience and of the world, it is possible to notice how this one himself. I walks for a confusion, for the last and definite crisis, which is the desertion of the art like the form of being reconciled by you and by the world.

O Livro do Desassossego, chamado por Fernando Pessoa de autobiografia sem fatos, diário lúcido ou ao acaso, entre outras tantas classificações, atribuído a Vicente Guedes e a Bernardo Soares, seu heterônimo e semi-heterônimo, respectivamente, apresenta temáticas e estratégias textuais várias que podem aproximá-lo da literatura intimista. Motivado aparentemente pela reflexão íntima ou por um minucioso exame de consciência, essa voz narrativa autoral, que é observadora atenta da vida cotidiana circundante, considerada reles e comezinha, registra suas impressões pessoais num pretenso diário íntimo ficcional. Tais recursos, utilizados pela escrita intimista, bem como o texto fragmentário formado pelas anotações desse eu solitário e entediado, parecem ser uma tentativa de constituí-lo como sujeito. Além da complexa elaboração textual (cujos fragmentos soltos, a diarística e a narrativa autobiográfica são exemplos), que torna a escrita intimista ainda mais sui generis na obra, há outra problemática, não menos significativa - a condição editorial a que o Livro do Desassossego ficou sujeito, visto que, inacabado, foi ordenado e publicado postumamente, de acordo com as escolhas e critérios de seus organizadores. Esta tese, pois, à luz da escrita de si, delineia e analisa brevemente os sujeitos possivelmente constituídos em três edições do projeto da prosa pessoana em questão - as de Teresa Sobral Cunha, Jerónimo Pizzarro e Richard Zenith -, a fim de verificar se e como a ordenação desse complexo material deixado, com fins de publicação da obra, contribuiu para evidenciar o processo de busca ontológica desse(s) eu(s) ficcional(is). / TheBook of Disquiet, referred to by Fernando Pessoa as a factless autobiography, a lucid diary or a random diary, among so many other designations, and attributed to Vicente Guedes and to Bernardo Soares, his heteronym and semi-heteronym, respectively, presents diverse themes and writing strategies that may place it in the vicinity of Intimism. Apparently motivated by an intimate reflection or by thorough soul-searching, this authorial narrative voice an attentive observer of the surrounding daily life, which is considered vulgar and mundane records its personal impressions in a presumed fictional intimate diary. Such devices, which are used in writing of the self and the fragmentary text formed by the notes of this lonely and bored self, seem to be an attempt to constitute it as a subject. In addition to the complex text construction (examples of which are loose fragments, diaries and autobiographical narratives), which renders the writing of the self even more unique in the work, there is another and not less important issue the publishing condition to which The Book of Disquiet was subject. Left unfinished, it was posthumously ordered and published according to the organizers choices and criteria. Thus, this thesis, in the light of writing of the self, outlines and briefly analyzes the subjects possibly constituted in three editions of Pessoas prose project in question the ones organized by Teresa Sobral Cunha, by Jerónimo Pizzarro and by Richard Zenith , so as to check whether and how the ordering of this complex material, with the purpose of publishing the work, has contributed to reveal the process of ontological search for this fictional self or these fictional selves.

Témoin des principaux événements géopolitiques de la première moitié du XXème siècle (l’effondrement de l’empire habsbourgeois, la Seconde Guerre mondiale, l’Anschluss et le procès de Nuremberg), Rezzori examine les contours de son identité dans le cadre des écritures de soi. Son but est d’interroger les conditions nécessaires à l’affirmation d’une voix individuelle alors que la réalité est entraînée dans un inexorable processus de dislocation et d’hétérogénéisation et qu’elle confronte le sujet à l’épreuve du décentrement et de la déterritorialisation. Loin de céder au pessimisme, Rezzori assume ses fêlures grâce à l’écriture autobiographique dont il remet en cause les modalités. Pour qu’elle intègre la part de négativité inhérente à son moi, l’auteur la fonde sur une stratégie mémorielle singulière : celle de l’Epochenverschleppung. Cette dernière le place dans une position anachronique, sans le couper du présent parce qu’elle l’oblige à sonder de manière critique les pertes endurées à la lumière du présent. Écrire ses déchirures dans un espace autobiographique renouvelé permet à Rezzori de laisser des traces et de résister ainsi au pouvoir d’effacement de l’Histoire. / Having witnessed the major geopolitical events of the first half of the 20th century (the fall of the Habsburg Empire, the Second World War, the Anschluss and the Nuremberg Trials), Rezzori explores the outlines of his own identity through his autobiographical writing. He aims to investigate the conditions that are necessary for asserting an individual voice in a reality characterised by a process of dislocation and disintegration, in which the subject is faced with its own decentralisation and deterritorialisation. Far from wallowing in pessimism, Rezzori confronts the crevices of his self in his autobiographical writing, while at the same time questioning the methods of such writing. In order to embrace the element of negativity that his self comprises, the author bases his autobiographical writing, in both its hypothetical and referential forms, on a unique memorial strategy: that of Epochenverschleppung. This places Rezzori in an anachronistic position without cutting him off from the present as it challenges him to examine past losses critically in the light of the present. By exploring the fissures in his identity in a renewed autobiographical space, Rezzori leaves his own imprint and thereby counteracts the obliterating power of History.

O objetivo principal desta dissertação foi analisar, sob uma ótica intimista, o corpus poético do poeta português Joaquim José Cesário Verde(1855-1886). A idéia da escrita de si, da constituição do sujeito através da palavra escrita, remonta desde gregos e egípcios, ganhando força no final de Idade Média através das memórias, dos diários e dos livre de raison, e explodindo definitivamente enquanto gênero com as autobiografias. Analisando como o eu se constitui dentro do poema, e, conseqüentemente, as crises de consciência e do mundo, é possível observar como este mesmo eu caminha para um desconcerto, para a última e definitiva crise, que é o abandono da arte como forma de se conciliar consigo e com o mundo. / The principal objective of this dissertation analyzed, under an intimism optics , the poetic corpus of the Portuguese poet Joaquim José Cesário Verde (1855-1886). The idea of the writing of the self, of the constitution of the subject through the written word, remounts from Greeks and Egyptians, gaining strength in the end of Middle Ages through the memories, the diaries and of release of raison, and exploding definitely while type with the autobiographies. Analyzing as I it is constituted inside the poem, and, consequently, the crises of conscience and of the world, it is possible to notice how this one himself. I walks for a confusion, for the last and definite crisis, which is the desertion of the art like the form of being reconciled by you and by the world.