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One of the fundamental problems facing writing instructors who use collaboration is that traditional assessment measures, such as in-class essay exams, undermine rather than support such writing activities that are rooted in social construction theory. While the use of collaboration in writing classrooms continues to grow, the field of assessment remains virtually silent about the compatibility of traditional assessment methods with collaborative writing tasks such as group work and peer review. This thesis discusses social construction and assessment theories, their relation to collaboration, and the current role of both in writing classrooms.

The needs of business and industry dictate that students be taught skills transferable to the workplace. Teaching collaborative writing for real-world application to the field of technical writing is one way to help prepare students for future employment in scientific and technical industries where the communication of technical information is part of conducting daily business.

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This thesis rhetorically analyzes the Outcomes Statement (OS) developed by "The Outcomes Collective" (a group of writing program administrators) for First-Year Composition. The OS was designed to create curricular consensus with regard to First-Year Composition both within and across postsecondary institutions. Though postmodern undertones permeate the OS, it can be interpreted from a purely modernist perspective. The thesis includes a chapter with suggestions on revising the OS to control this ambiguity.

This thesis follows five second language (L2) students in an introductory composition class at California State University, San Bernardino. The study investigates their perceptions and responses to grammatical coded feedback provided by their writing instructor. The results showed that students wanted, expected, appreciated and understood the coded feedback that was given to them.

Research has demonstrated the positive effects on reading achievement measures when content is conditioned as a reinforcer for prolonged reading. While previous research has focused on conditioning narrative texts on the relation to increased comprehension, there is no current research on the effects of conditioning informational texts. Experiment 1 examined whether the effects of conditioning narrative texts as a reinforcer extends to technical writing for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) content for third graders with and without Individualized Education Plans. We replicated the conditioning procedures used with elementary-aged participants in previous studies for narratives texts. Using a four-step, peer-collaborative procedure, peer interactions were paired with reading activities to condition narrative texts as reinforcers for prolonged reading. Results indicated that reinforcement value of conditioned narrative texts did not transfer to STEM texts. Experiment 2 examined whether the effects of conditioning STEM texts as reinforcer extends to narrative texts. Academic achievement was also measured after conditioned reinforcement for STEM texts was established using the four-step peer collaborative procedure. Results indicated that the reinforcement value for STEM texts did not transfer to narrative texts. Keywords: conditioned reinforcement, narrative, pairing, peers

How do ELA spaces, here defined as classroom practices, curricula, and assignments, invite students to locate “their” voice? To enact one? To what extent do or might pedagogical approaches to and community norms for a class discussion; the possibility and opportunity to lean into uncertainty; the texts students read and are exposed to; and the kinds of writing assignments and different narrative perspectives with which they experiment each play a role in shaping that voice? The chapters that follow will explore occasions and sites where voice may be located in different iterations in the ELA secondary classroom. Based on student claims and written responses on which I report in this dissertation, ELA spaces emerge as a kind of laboratory theater for locating a writerly identity. The results of my research suggest that Harkness pedagogy; reading and writing in response to literature; dialectical journaling; essaying that embraces uncertainty; experiment and play with different narrative perspectives; and being in conversation with literature are all promising pedagogical approaches to ELA instruction whose aim is to help writers locate and develop their own writerly voice.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / El objetivo de este trabajo es proponer un esquema alternativo en la enseñanza de redacción comercial en español. Para este propósito, el trabajo se enfoca en los vacíos y limitaciones observados en la mayoría de los textos de redacción comercial en español utilizados en las universidades americanas e hispanas, no sólo desde el punto de vista del conocimiento sino también de su aplicación. Es una propuesta válida para enriquecer la enseñanza de redacción comercial en los estudiantes que desean desarrollar sus habilidades comunicativas a través de la elaboración de documentos comerciales usados por las empresas modernas y globales.

Argumentation is widely regarded as both a productive path and a critical objective of education. However, poor performance remains a serious problem at all ages in assessments of expository writing in which students are asked to make an argument in support of a claim. An apprenticeship model is proposed as a mechanism in the development of skill in dialogic argumentation, with this skill serving as a bridge to individual written argument. In a multi-week intervention, young adolescents were paired with a series of both more skilled and similarly skilled partners, anonymously, in conducting one-on-one electronic dialogs on controversial issues. A comparison group was included who engaged in the same intervention and assessments, but their dialogic partners were confined to similar ability peers. The more skilled adult partner displayed skilled forms of counterargument and use of evidence to support claims as well as frequent questioning with respect to the partner’s statements and meta-talk about the discourse itself. Effects on students’ individual argument skill on a new topic were assessed by means of both a (solitary) individually constructed dialog and an individual essay. In both the dialogs and essays, the experimental group showed greater skills in using evidence to support a claim, generating advanced counterarguments, and constructing integrative critical arguments coordinating two contrasting claims, relative to the comparison group. These results lend support to the power of apprenticeship in individual argument skill development. Both groups also advanced in individual dialogic argument skills following their engagement in argumentation, a result thereby demonstrating the passage of higher-order intellectual skills from a social to individual level. Besides their educational implications, the theoretical significance of these results in relation to both an apprenticeship model and a dialogical model of argument skill development was discussed.