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.

This study provides an in-depth description and interpretation of student participation and interaction that occurred in computer-mediated interactive writing activities in two different classroom settings: a freshman writing class and a plant biology lab. Both classes were equipped with a network of Macintosh computers and the Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment software which was used to conduct in-class, synchronous computer-based discussions. Electronic transcripts of interactive writing activities created in both classes were archived from the beginning to the end of one semester for analysis of student participation and interaction in the computer-mediated environment. A focal point of the participant observation research in both classes occurred in a capstone event which took place halfway through the semester and involved a peer review as well as interactive discussion activity conducted in the computer-mediated environment. The capstone was designed to provide multiple data points for analysis while also serving specific content objectives for each class. The analysis of electronic interchanges revealed that student participation and interaction in the computer-mediated environment differed from the traditional, face-to-face setting in both cases by exhibiting increased participation and increased student-to-student interactions. Students responded to the CMC environment with variable timing in their responses and varied styles for using CMC as a medium for communication. The social conventions for participation and interaction in the CMC interactive writing activities were influenced by the computer interface, the behavior exhibited by the teacher and fellow students in the CMC discussions, and the nature of the topic being discussed. All students reported increased understanding of the material by being able to read responses of their peers in the on-line discussions. Three areas for improving future applications of this technology emerged from this study: (1) several students complained about having to type their messages; (2) several students reported that they felt overwhelmed by the number of messages and multiple, consecutive tangents in the CMC discussion; and (3) teachers would benefit by having more specific guidelines for designing appropriate activities for this technology which can be integrated into existing instruction and assessment activities. / Ph. D.

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)

This aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which writing skills offered in the one-year intensive English course and in the 75 hour course of Speaking and Writing Skills, prepare students for academic writing in the subjects which are offered through the medium of English. The study focused on first year Economics and Management.

In this study, I examine two writing samples using a heuristic based on Richard A. Lanham's definition of bureaucratic writing in Revising Business Prose: noun-centered, abstract, passive-voiced, dense, and vague. I apply a heuristic to bureaucratic writing to see if Lanham's definition holds and if the writing aids or hinders the information flow necessary to democracy. After analyzing the samples for nominalizations, concrete/abstract terms, active/passive verbs, clear/unclear agents, textual density, and vague text/writers' accountability, I conclude that most of Lanham's definition holds; vague writing hinders the democratic process by not being accountable; and bureaucratic writing is expensive. Writers may humanize bureaucracies by becoming accountable. A complete study requires more samples from a wider source.

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of general impression scoring by teachers and students, and to compare the criteria used in evaluating student writings. Subjects for the study were 40 eighth grade and tenth grade students of varying reading ability in regular English classes in a suburban school district. Teachers and students evaluated two sets of writings in the narrative, classificatory and descriptive modes, generated by ninth grade students in regular English classes in the same school district. In addition, a comment, citing criteria upon which evaluation was based, was made on each writing. The design for this study was an extended factorial analysis. A three way analysis of variance was computed for ability and grade for each level of quality of writing in each mode of discourse. Six hypotheses were tested. Hypotheses one and two dealt with comparison of ratings by students who differed by ability and grade. No significant differences were found. Hypotheses three and four dealt with interaction between grade, ability and mode of discourse. No significant interaction was found. Hypotheses five and six dealt with differences in evaluations between teachers and students of varying ability. A significant difference was found in how teachers and students evaluate writing (p .01). Examination of criteria used in evaluating writings indicated that teachers consistently referred to elements of the text. Students also made text-based comments. In addition, students responded subjectively, referring to common experience, interest, and memories cued by the text.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of using word processing and proofreading software in freshman composition at a community college. This study used pretest and posttest measures to determine if significant differences in the improvement of composition skills occurred between students in a composition class that did not use microcomputers and students in a composition class that did use microcomputers. Objective tests and writing samples were used as measurements. The population for the study consisted of students enrolled in freshman composition classes at a two year community college. Students self-selected enrollment in each class. Three hundred students who completed the pretest and posttest measures and completed the course were included in the study. There was no significant difference found in the improvement of writing skills between the two groups as measured by the objective test or the writing samples. There was a significant difference found in the withdrawal rate of students from the classes. The computer class had a significantly higher withdrawal rate than the non-computer class.

Errors by ESL writers involving connectives show a need for changes in the current teaching approach of composition teachers, an approach which reflects a lack of attention to the discourse function of connectives on the part of linguists and rhetoricians. More recent studies in text and functional grammars reveal that factors other than syntax control conjunctive use. These include pragmatic differences between spoken and written language, the role of semantics in defining dependency, and discourse functions of connectives. Conjunction is seen as part of a continuum of semantic dependency that is manifested as degrees of syntactic complexity. Teaching methods should take into account semantic and pragmatic factors and encourage learning of connectives through activities such as revision of student writing for content as well as mechanics.

The teaching of freshman composition can be a challenging and exciting endeavor if teachers are aware of current linguistic facts about the nature of language variations manifested by their students and the linguistic shortcomings of many textbooks. Awareness of the distinction of linguistic competence and linguistic performance can aid teachers in making freshman composition more realistic to students. These concepts are technically explained in Aspects of the Theory of Syntax by Noam Chomsky (1965), and are applied to dialect for teachers of composition by the Committee on CCCC Language Statement in Students' Right to Their Own Language (1974). With knowledge of linguistic principles, teachers can respond to their students' dialects humanistically and realistically and can teach academic English without making impressionistic and incorrect statements about non-academic variations from their students.

The purpose of this study was to examine the persistence of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students at a large multi-campus community college/baccalaureate degree-granting institution in South Florida. The study aimed to determine whether there was a relationship among a specific set of independent variables, background and defining variables (age, enrollment status, prior college education, gender, race, ethnicity, and marital status), academic integration variables (academic goal and first semester GPA), social integration variables (faculty interaction, college facilities and grounds, sense of community, college services, and student life), and environmental variables (family responsibilities, employment status, outside encouragement, and financial aid) and the dependent variable, EAP student persistence. The variables were extrapolated both from student academic transcripts and from an adapted version of the State University of New York (SUNY) Student Opinion Survey-Form A (ACT, 2006). T test and chi square analyses were performed. No relationship was found between any of the independent variables and the dependent variable. The thirteen respondents had high first semester GPA, favorable environmental support, and were socially integrated into the institution. / by Pradel R. Frank. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.