Kaplan (1966) has claimed that certain organizational problems in non-native speakers' writing are due to the influence of L1 rhetorical patterns. Based on an examination of 600 papers written in English by students from different cultural backgrounds, Kaplan concluded that the Oriental students developed their ideas in an indirect, inwardly spiralling pattern. Such circular development contrasted with the linear structure of paragraphs written by English speakers.While Kaplan's conceptualizations have received considerable attention, there is a central problem with his analysis: his claims were based solely on compositions written in English.In this thesis, I examine 30 paragraphs of Chinese expository prose and 30 paragraphs of English expository prose randomly chosen from contemporary writings to see if they conform to Kaplan's model. In the first chapter, I present certain problems in the teaching of composition concerning paragraph development. A literature review is presented in Chapter Two. Chapter Three is a brief description of the modes and organization of expository Prose that Chinese students learn. Chapter Four shows the modes and organization of English expository prose. In Chapter Five, a representative sample of 30 paragraphs of Chinese expository prose examined are discussed. Chapter Six is discussion of representative English paragraphs. A brief discussion of the results of the examination is presented in Chapter Seven. Finally, a brief summary concludes the thesis.

The purpose of this case study was to examine the effectiveness of a technique known as re-creation on student writing abilities in ENG 104 section 95 during the spring semester of 1992. Re-creation, already used almost exclusively in England and Australia, invites a writer to divulge his or her personal interpretation of a literary text by rewriting given aspects of it. In section 95, the instructor devoted the entire range of assignments to re-creative writing tasks, using four dramatic scripts and the motion pictures that had been adapted from them as literary texts. The instructor carefully developed re-creative writing assignments and a reasonable criteria with which to grade them. He closely monitored how the students adapted to re-creative writing, and discovered that four students exemplified the main different styles of writing that emerged from re-creation. The case study does indicate that all of the twenty-one students coulddo the work that re-creation involves; some experienced only minor successes with it, but other students, including some top achievers who would probably have done well in any writing class, found broad new avenues for creative expression of their personal responses to literature. / Department of English

This study examined curriculum and instructional strategies that would address the educational needs of African American males in a college composition course. Traditional roles of didactic teacher expecting students to absorb facts are unbeneficial for African American males. As I began teaching a composition course, with a predominant population of African American male students, I understood the modern curriculum model was ineffective in engaging students and developing academic and personal potential. I searched for another curriculum, which accommodated Afrocentric ideals of the African American community and the learning styles of the men. Central to Afrocentric values are cooperation, a spirit of collectivity, relationships, and respect; these values can be incorporated into a post-modern approach to curriculum development for a college composition course. The question, ‘What is College Level Writing’ posed by Sullivan and Tinberg, provided four principles that college writing possess. These principles were used to evaluate whether components of Afrocentric and Doll’s curriculum supported college writing skills. Hip hop is one literary life experience to utilize in the classroom. The learner is asked to reflect, interact and question cultural and academic concepts through discussions and student based learning. Incorporation of Afrocentric ideals through dialogue, alternative viewpoints and information strengthen instruction and learning. Doll encourages thinking and self-identity growth. By utilizing Doll post-modern curriculum, Sullivan’s four principles of college composition and Afrocentricism for my African American male students, I am able to design a culturally responsive pedagogy. / Department of Educational Studies

Research in psychological type theory – especially that done by Jensen and DiTiberio on type and composition – has offered writing teachers another way to understand the different writing processes of their students. One aspect of composition that has not been researched with regard to psychological type theory is the writing style of students. This study proposes a relationship between psychological type theory (specifically the sensing and intuition continuum) and the writing styles of First Year Composition students. Seventy-two students participated in the study, taking the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and submitting their diagnostic essays to be analyzed using Corbett's stylistic analysis. The results suggest a relationship between writing style and personality type that teachers can use to tailor lesson plans for students (in areas such as revision and audience awareness) to increase student growth. / Department of English

The purpose of this study was to determine what effects The Christensen Rhetoric Program, a method of teaching sentence and paragraph development, (1) had upon the attitudes of college freshmen toward written composition and (2) had upon their persistence in using free modifiers after a lapse of time and instruction.

This dissertation investigates the expression of contrastive transitions in the ESL/EFL (English as a Second Language/English as a Foreign Language) writing of university students of Arabic language background. For this purpose, an experimental group of 30 freshmen at Sohar University in Oman whose native language is Arabic served as the experimental group. They did three tasks, two writing activities and a cloze test, ranging from semi controlled (free writing) to the highly controlled cloze test. A control group of 30 Ball State University freshmen in Muncie, Indiana who speak English as a native language performed the same three tasks.For the first task, the subjects wrote about one of 15 possible topics. They then performed the second task, which was writing about a different topic, and were also provided a list of 35 contrastive transitions to use at their discretion. For the third task, the subjects inserted contrastive transitions in the blanks of the doze test, marking the confidence in their choices on scales provided in the margins.This study indicates that the Arabic ESL/EFL students use contrastive transitions when writing contrastively in English. However, the expression of these contrastive transitions is relatively inadequate and limited compared to that of their native-English speaking peers. The Arabic students show a high rate of success in their expression of but as a contrastive transition. However, they show a lower rate of success in their expression of other contrastive transitions. Furthermore, the difference in the levels of confidence in the choices between appropriate and inappropriate contrastive transitions used in a controlled context shows they have little or no idea if their choices are correct or not. / Department of English

In this dissertation, I explore a writing center tutor training model based on the theories and practices of Gertrude Buck, a nineteenth-century teacher and scholar. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Buck was among the few offering an alternative to the dominant view of writing as a tool to reflect existing ideas objectively and correctly. She instead held a Deweyan view of language as a practice that allowed students to explore knowledge and come to a better understanding of themselves, others, and their communities.I examine evidence that effects of prescriptive nineteenth century trends linger in our contemporary writing center setting at Ball State University; next, I describe the process of creating a tutor training model over the course of a semester as I introduce Buck's ideas, observing how Buck's principles are discussed and implemented in writing center sessions and staff training situations. Specifically, I ask the following questions for the descriptive study that I conduct: What practices emerge as a result of using the principles of Gertrude Buck in writing center tutor training? What are the relationships among this tutor training process, tutors' perceptions of writing, and their resulting practices and approaches toward tutoring writing?Findings from the descriptive study demonstrate that the use of Gertrude Buck's principles in our writing center enabled tutors to openly, productively discuss the complexities of writing and language and to more confidently meet the needs ofdiverse writers in a range of situations. The use of Gertrude Buck's principles, which emphasize collaboration, an inductive approach to learning, and continuous reflection on the relationship between practice and theory, in fact have a broader application beyond writing centers. Writing center administrators, tutors, and teachers of writing can benefit from Buck's principles as a guide for examining their own practice and theory connections and creating models for teaching and tutoring to fit their specific contexts. / Department of English

This exploratory study describes microlinguistic errors in composition written by a population of forty adult students enrolled in advanced English classes in three English language teaching institutions in Dakar, Senegal. The subjects had Wolof as their L1, French as their L2 and English as their L3.The study indicates that EFL learners in this context made intralingual and transfer errors; however the latter type was predominant. Most of the borrowing was from French, very little from Wolof. Researchers have suggested as the reason for extensive negative transfer the similarity of the L2 and L3 and the necessity to get one's meaning across. This study concludes that there may be other causes of borrowing: prestige associated with tolerance of breaches and societal predilections for borrowing. Arguments for this claim are found in the native language and the culture of the population involved; it is argued that in the Senegalese situation one needs cultural, sociological and historical information to account for transfer from French as a linguistic behavior.Pedagogical implications are drawn from the findings of the study, suggestions concerning the teaching of English in contexts similar to that of Senegal are made, and avenues are suggested for future research in the area. / Department of English

The study implied that a basic writer's overall abilities, shown through a type of "emotional intelligence quotient" [EQ], could help in determining that individual's inherent abilities in the writing classroom. Using prompted and timed writings plus two EQ surveys, developed by the investigator, the study analyzed students' emotional cognition in their writing environments. EQ qualities displayed while interacting with their instructor and peers or self-disclosed EQ qualities displayed in surveys or metacognitive writings were interpreted and compared to portfolio assessments by outside readers.During the spring semester of 1996, 409 students enrolled in 27 Ball State University English 102 basic writing classes. From 7 classes, 108 sample subjects accomplished surveys and prompts. Fifty randomly-selected subjects of the 108 were scrutinized. Comparisons of the two samples were detailed. Providing a close look at the 50 random-sampled group, 13 students occupying opposing levels at particular scoring-range margins were further detailed. Portfolio results, course grades, and how classroom teachers viewed their classroom students' emotional intelligence skills were the quantitative data compared with two EQ surveys' results.The study's governing gaze revealed self-disclosed, emotional dynamics of basic writers. It surrounded those disclosures with particulars on the biology of emotions. It extended the views on students' personality types as determined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The study combined the conceptual knowledge of the biology of our emotions and the specific knowledge of personality traits to explain certain dimensions of the composing process. With the beginnings of a comprehensive synthesis, we may better understand how basic writers begin to evolve as effective writers and thinkers.Whether two surveys and portfolio assessments can determine a relationship between basic writers' emotional intelligence and how appropriately they write is still undecided. The statistical results are not as convincing as would be desired for any clear breakthrough. However, the descriptive information, written by the students themselves, coupled with information about preferred and inferior traits, displayed a nucleus of support for the hypothesis: a predisposition toward the four categories of emotional intelligence relates to basic writing skills and composing processes. / Department of English

Teachers confront the problem of plagiarism when they give research assignments. These research projects vary according to the way in which the professor, the department and the discipline defines research. To investigate research across the disciplines, I interviewed six professors who teach research assignments in their classes and six students who attempted to complete these assignments during the academic period of summer semester (1993) through fall semester (1994) at Ball State University.Specifically, I observed six disciplines--English, history, philosophy and religious studies, anthropology, physics, and biology--to assess the teachers' procedures for teaching research, and their explanations of how research could go wrong.Six student volunteers were observed throughout their research assignment as they gathered sources, accumulated data, observed experiments, wrote papers and compiled11a Works Cited list. After students completed their research assignments, I requested that each instructor evaluate the assignments and conclude whether it constituted legitimate, effective research. Although all six student researchers had difficulties completing their assignments, by the end of the semester four out of the six produced successful research projects. One student received an F on her project because she plagiarized, while another earned a C because she did not complete the assignment effectively. The students who did well on their research projects exhibited discipline-specific skills and the following general characteristics: the ability to gather sources, focus topics, authenticate sources, employ disciplinary language, adhere to citation and documentation format guidelines, and use computer and lab equipment. Indicators of possible plagiarism in research projects included: students using unspecified format (such as an older MLA format), writing that revealed improvement several skill levels above previous writing, uncited elevated language and phraseology, and a lack of sources in the bibliography. / Department of English