English Language and Literature Commons^™

Free Schools And Self-Efficacy Beliefs : Research For An Alternative, Vanessa Phillips

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this study, I interviewed 3 graduates from Kino School, a small, private, alternative school, about their experiences with writing before, during, and after graduation in order to determine how alternative education impacted their writing self-efficacy beliefs. Kino School embraces many of the tenets of free school philosophy, which is centered on democratic learning, self-sufficiency, and student choice. This study explores how free school philosophy impacted these graduates' writing and attitudes toward writing. All three graduates described an overall experience at Kino that left them confident in their writing, expressing high writing self-efficacy beliefs. Kino School's use of creative writing, …

The May Queen: A Historical Novel, Kimber Albrechtsen, Dr. Leonard Tourney

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The objectives of my project were to identify and implement theoretical aspects of writing historical fiction, and to write the first four chapters of a historical novel. My creative text examined themes of the emergence of communism, the development of modern terrorism, and the complexity of family relationships.

Publishing Latino Culture: Marketing Race In The American Publishing Industry, Alejandra Gaeta

Whittier Scholars Program

This project details the categorization of writers and how racial authenticity has become a guiding force in publishers’ marketing decisions. This research paper examines how racial authenticity is problematic as it oversimplifies and perpetuates stereotypes while reducing the number of writers to a few Representative” voices.

Learning To Retell Stories Through Comparative Teaching: Writing And Drawing, Rachel L. Lindle

Theses and Dissertations--Art and Visual Studies

Students who are emergent readers and writers are often difficult to assess, as they are unable to communicate understanding in writing. From my observations, these students communicate ideas best through concrete forms of expression, rather than the abstract formation of letters and writing that is unfamiliar to them. Drawing provides an alternate form of expression from writing. Based on information found in literature review and personal experiences from working with students who are emergent readers and writers, pictures and drawings are a bridge to communicate ideas with these students. This form of expression and communication may be a useful assessment …

Asking And Understanding Questions: An Inquiry-Based Framework For Writing Teacher Development, Jessica Rivera-Mueller

English Faculty Publications

Teachers develop when they critically examine the questions they ask about their work because questions make pedagogical beliefs visible and available for critical reflection and revision. In a standards-based educational climate—a time when writing becomes a set of measurable skills rather than a complex social practice—teachers may feel that a critical examination of their questions is (at best) a luxury or (at worst) a distraction to work they need to accomplish. Therefore, writing teacher educators may find it increasingly challenging to help teachers engage in reflexive inquiry. This essay describes a Deweyian-informed framework that shows how addressing inquiries and critically …

Katy A To Z, Katharine Anderson, Dr. John Bennion

Journal of Undergraduate Research

When I set out several months ago to write an honors thesis, I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to do. I was going to craft a progression of essays examining myself, beginning with the most basic personal information, and slowly progressing, layer by layer, to the topics and issues which I hold deepest and closest to whatever may be considered my core. I was going to tell stories, express opinions, and in other diverse ways utilize the genre of personal essay as a means of self discovery. I hoped that the final product would in some …

Writing Awareness, Gwen Gorzelsky

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The author argues that, by practicing embodied, metaphoric ethnography, educators can revise their roles in classroom social systems and so pursue the goals of critical pedagogy.

We Know Better And It's Time To Act Like It: Ending Written Feedback, Jacob S. Rees

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have tried to demonstrate the effectiveness of written teacher feedback over the course of the last sixty years, and the results are inconclusive. Many studies point to improvement on subsequent drafts as evidence of student improvement; however, this only indicates students' abilities to follow directions. It is not an indication of autonomous writing ability. This study demonstrates that with proper curriculum support high school students can develop intentional transferability (the autonomous, intentional transferring of writing skills to varied rhetorical situations) throughout the course of one academic year without receiving any teacher written feedback.

Et Cetera, Marshall University

Et Cetera

Founded in 1953, Et Cetera is an annual literary magazine that publishes the creative writing and artwork of Marshall University students and affiliates. Et Cetera is free to the Marshall University community.

Et Cetera welcomes submissions in literary and film criticism, poetry, short stories, drama, all types of creative non-fiction, photography, and art.

Making Gatsby Great: Fitzgerald’S Revisions, Michael W. Hancock

The Great Gatsby Unit

This discussion-based activity asks students to evaluate how effectively successive drafts of a passage of dialogue in fiction communicate tone and character. Working in small groups, students read three versions (manuscript, unrevised galley proof, and first edition) of a famous passage from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Examining dialogue tags and dialogue, students identify the strengths and weakness of each version and explain why the final version is (or isn’t) the best. Students may be invited to write their own version of Fitzgerald’s passage. They will recognize the importance of revision in the writing process.

Professional Writing In The English Classroom: Let's Get Real: Using Usability To Connect Writers, Readers, And Texts, Jonathan Bush, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The article discusses the application of the concept of usability and user-centered design in the interaction between the writers and the readers in the English classroom. It is inferred that the interaction with readers is essential during the process of writing. The elements of effective lessons on usability and user-centered design are highlighted.

Disciplinary Permeations: Complicating The "Public" And The "Private" Dualism In Composition And Rhetoric, Erica E. Rogers

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

As Composition and Rhetoric rose in disciplinary status and academic legitimacy the discourse practice of negation, the positioning of texts in oppositional binaries that set the “new” over the “old,” the “novel” over the “familiar,” became embedded in academic tradition, seeming to be an inherited part of scholarship instead of an individual’s rhetorical choice and deliberate ethos strategy. Negation, when one idea or set of ideas constructed by another is critiqued, advocated, and/or redeveloped by another scholar, is a discourse practice firmly established in the Rhetorical Tradition as part of Socratic dialogues, reappears in “modern rhetoric”, and remains today as …

“Critical Habitat” And Other Stories, Jon Michael Mitchell

Honors Theses

The nature of writing, that is, storytelling, is difficult to discuss in a technical manner. Often it is easier to demonstrate by example rather than theory how storytelling does and does not work. This thesis is a collection of short stories written to practice the art of writing and storytelling. They do not follow a central theme or motif; they are self-contained projects demonstrating the application of the theories discussed in the introduction. The point of this thesis is not to show the correct way to write or provide examples of perfect stories. It is to show the learning process …

Grammar Workshop: Systematic Language Study In Reading And Writing Contexts, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Responding to claims that grammar instruction has become too limited, Zuidema describes field notebooks, mentor text, show-and-tell essays, and other strategies for engaging students in systematic language analysis.

Why And How To Increase The Amount Of Writing In Utah's Schools, Sarah Orme

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The writing culture in elementary schools and secondary schools needs to change if students are going to be equipped for their future academic and career goals. An ideal writing culture promotes advanced writing by encouraging more writing, sharing, and a sense that everyone in the classroom is a developing writer. The writing students produce shows that this type of writing culture is not being nurtured in many secondary schools. It is apparent that the ideal writing culture in secondary schools is not being achieved because of the writing students produce. Arthur Applebee and Judith Langer, in connection with the National …

Et Cetera, Marshall University

Et Cetera

Founded in 1953, Et Cetera is an annual literary magazine that publishes the creative writing and artwork of Marshall University students and affiliates. Et Cetera is free to the Marshall University community.

Et Cetera welcomes submissions in literary and film criticism, poetry, short stories, drama, all types of creative non-fiction, photography, and art.

Writing At Transitions: Using In-Class Writing As A Learning Tool, Nate Mickelson

Publications and Research

Drawing on the fundamentals of Writing to Learn pedagogy, this article describes how teachers across the disciplines can use in-class writing as a learning tool. Because in-class writing activities foreground the power of writing as a means for processing and integrating information, using writing prompts during times of transition common to every class—at the beginning or end of class, when moving from topic to topic or activity to activity, or at the conclusion of a particularly rich discussion—can serve to focus and extend student engagement. Offering practical advice and examples from his own teaching experiences, the author shows how structuring …

Writing Across Institutions: Studying The Curricular And Extracurricular Journeys Of Latina/O Students Transitioning From High School To College, Todd Ruecker

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is based on a year and a half multi-institutional study of seven Mexican American students transitioning from high school to a community college or a university. It explores the differences between high school, community college, and university literacy environments, focusing on the following: the impact of standardized testing at the high school level, the role of rhetoric and composition disciplinary expertise in shaping first-year composition (FYC) curricula, writing in the disciplines, and the digital divide between institutions. Seven case studies examine students' literacy experiences across institutions as well as both challenges and sources of support in and beyond …

Red-Marked Writing: High-Stakes Consequences On High School Writing Education, Dana Sarchet

Senior Honors Theses

The crucial role of writing in students’ educational growth and development is indisputable. Not only does the process of writing engage students in each level of Bloom’s taxonomy, but it also aids students in the development of their cognitive thinking skills. However, past and even recent statistics reveal a common trend: the vast majority of high school students lack even a basic understanding of writing. Though undoubtedly there are many issues contributing in this lapse of students’ writing abilities, high-stakes testing is a key factor in the decline of writing education in high school classrooms. In order for students to …

Dancing With Don: Or Waltzing With "Expressivism", Bronwyn Williams

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Professional Writing In The English Classroom: Beyond Language: The Grammar Of Document Design, Jonathan Bush, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The article offers guidelines in teaching professional writing in an English classroom. It highlights the elements in deciding for a good document design which include layout, fonts and color. It outlines the CRAP acronym (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity) formulated by Saul Greenberg which summarizes the essential techniques in grammar design.

Et Cetera, Marshall University

Et Cetera

Founded in 1953, Et Cetera is an annual literary magazine that publishes the creative writing and artwork of Marshall University students and affiliates. Et Cetera is free to the Marshall University community.

Et Cetera welcomes submissions in literary and film criticism, poetry, short stories, drama, all types of creative non-fiction, photography, and art.

Professional Writing In The English Classroom: Professional Writing: What You Already Know, Jonathan Bush, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The article offers the authors' insights on professional writing that are taught in the English classroom, in which it is defined as writing within professional context with genres such as formal reports, directives, and proposals. They state that many teachers learn professional writing not only from advice, but also from experience and practice. They also mention that professional writing can be integrated in all fields of English language arts classrooms that can be taught to students.

Twenty-First-Century Writing/Twentieth Century Teachers?, Ian Barnard

English Faculty Articles and Research

"My students are writing in their everyday lives—indeed, their everyday lives are written—but we (teachers—writing teachers, in particular--and education administrators, no doubt nudged by politicians and “the public”) have to a large extent failed miserably in embracing and capitalizing on that writing: email, text messaging, instant messaging, blogging, twittering, responding, video gaming, Second Lifeing. Andrea and Karen Lunsford’s recent longitudinal study of Stanford students has shown the lie to the given that students today don’t write as much as they used to (they are writing much more). Are we becoming the stodgy, ungenerous, rigid English teachers that we ourselves were …

Grades 2-4 Publishing Writing, Maria Cirello

English

This is an English language arts lesson for second through fourth graders (Grades 2-4) on publishing writing. Through this lesson, students will be able to respond to literature by socially interacting with their peers, gain an understanding of a tagline story through this lesson. In addition, they will come up with their own tagline story/poem/song/script. The lesson is tiered into three levels where students are grouped by ability. In each level students will receive a task card and can choose the activity that is of most interest to them.

Self-Reflective Essay, Megan Lewis-Johnson

Whittier Scholars Program

This project is an essay documenting the author’s inspiration and screenwriting process for their Senior Project as well as a script of the final work titled ‘Once Upon a Time’. The self-reflective essay allows the audience to better comprehend the five crucial elements in the author’s writing process which include: organic free-writing or Script vomit,” script-writing and solo show research, conscious character building, script-writing explosion marathons, and finally redrafting. The screenplay is centered around a character named Evelynn and discusses topics such as loss, pain, murder, and love.

"What Should I Write?" Helping Students Respond To Prompts, Nancy Mack

English Language and Literatures Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Teaching Creativity In Technical Communication Curricula, Curtis Robert Newbold

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis addresses the need to claim creativity as an essential component to our technical communication curricula as we prepare students for what their managers want. While many technical communication programs at universities across the country have recognized a need to teach skills beyond "writing technically," few, if any, have addressed or "claimed" a concept such as creativity that helps build these skills. I argue that creativity is what managers are looking for and what technical communication programs are already implementing. Claiming this concept will help us further define a discipline that is becoming much richer and help students develop …

Review Of "Writing The Economy: Activity, Genre, And Technology In The World Of Banking", Andrea R. Olinger

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sugar Nine: A Creative Thesis, Emily L. Dyer

Theses and Dissertations

This collection of short stories explores the different ways women tolerate violence in exchange for some form of validation. The narratives focus on women and the reverberations of small moments which carry violent mass. While the violence occasionally includes physical elements, the collection is more concerned with the ways women accept emotional and psychological violence—specifically from men. Themes, motifs and symbols from the Clytie-Helios myth are threaded throughout the collection as well as a concern for space and touch, art and the creation of art, silence and voice. All of these elements involve control as the women characters in these …