Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

A Critical Analysis And Comparison Of Writing Pedagogy For English Language Learners In Second Grade, Cristina Quezada

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project is to find an effective form of writing pedagogy for second grade ELL's. The two "writing programs" under study are the Writing Blueprint for Houghton Mifflin and teaching the writing process with the use of Thinking Maps.

The Politics Of Persuasion Versus The Construction Of Alternative Communities: Zines In The Writing Classroom, Aneil Rallin, Ian Barnard

English Faculty Articles and Research

We discuss how studying and creating zines in our composition classes allows our students to negotiate and explore the complexities of writing without the compulsions of many of the politically problematic commonplaces of composition pedagogy. We use zines to examine the unique ways in which their rhetorical devices address conflicts around questions of audience and diversity, as well as the particular questions that the zines raise about the politics of persuasion, our own writing practices, writing strategies that the zines suggest to us, and the construction of alternative communities.

Student Performance With And Attitudes Toward Electronic Distributed Assessment In First-Year Composition Classes, Annette Arrigucci

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In Fall 2008, UTEP's composition department implemented a pilot program to test a redesign of English 1312, their second-semester freshman composition course. In addition to a redesigned curriculum, a system of electronic distributed assessment was implemented in ten sections of English 1312. Instead of the traditional format of a class where instructors grade all student assignments, a group of teaching assistants graded student writing anonymously using standardized grading rubrics. The system, which has been used at Texas Tech University since 2002, was put in place at UTEP in order to enhance efficiency and consistency in the teaching of this course. …

Listening To Revise: Mainstream Uses Of Text-To-Speech Software In The Writing Center, Tammy Conard-Salvo, John M. Spartz

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Presentations

This presentation from the 2008 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) offers results from an a study of text-to-speech software in a writing center and explores the effect that writing centers and tutors have on students’ use of and attitudes toward technology and writing. Initial results confirm our hypothesis that Kurzweil’s text-to-speech features provides considerable benefit to students, and that students identified additional errors during the revision and editing stages of writing than during revision done independently.

Liberal Education For A Time Of Uncertainty: Reflections On Mark Van Doren's Liberal Education, Bill Koch

UNIversitas: Journal of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

For several months now I have been reading up on composition theory, and I’ve noticed that scholars like Anne Berthoff and Patricia Bizzell quote some of the seminal thinkers and philosophers of the early 20th century. These scholars (such as Cassirer, Richards, Whitehead) wrote their most influential texts during the 1930s, as if the awful gathering military storm had pressured these thinkers into formulating crystalline expressions of what the human mind must do to—as Richards puts it—“remedy our misunderstandings.”

Typed Document: Classroom Notes, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Miscellaneous class notes August 28- September 27, 2007.

Typed Document: Classroom Notes, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Dr. Saffy's notes for classes held 8:00 Tuesday and Thursday, August 30-September 25, 2007.

An Integrated Approach To Writing: Using Writer's Workshop, Step Up To Writing And Six Traits Of Writing To Teach The California State Standards, Daisy Marie Tawney

Theses Digitization Project

This project researcher designed, implemented and collected data on an integrated approach to writing instruction for her third grade students in the Etiwanda School District. The literature review showed the importance of teaching students the purpose for writing, the traits of writing and the process of writing. Research showed the effectiveness of teaching students the six traits of writing and the writing process as indicated by student writing achievement scores.

What Is College-Level Writing? - The Common Ground From Which A New Secondary Post Secondary Composition Partnership Can Be Formed, Nancy Jane Berger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the Introduction to What is "College-Level" Writing?, editors Patrick Sullivan and Howard Tinberg state that the title asks "one of the most important questions in our profession" (xiii). However, even after 418 pages of essays written from the perspectives of high school teachers, college instructors, students, and administrators, the answer remains elusive because college-level writing does not, in fact, start in college - it starts in high school - where high school teachers believe they are instilling in their college-bound students the writing skills required by post-secondary institutions. The students, meanwhile, show up in first-year composition classes to find …

La Discussió Deliberativa: Usar El Discurs De Classe Per Promoure El Pensament Crític, Mark Felton

Faculty Publications

Per potenciar el pensament creatiu a classe cal comprendre les arrels d’aquest pensament en el raonament argumentatiu. El pensament crític inclou la recerca i l’avaluació de les raons que hi ha darrere d’una afirmació. Per prendre part en aquesta activitat d’investigació, cal entendre els elements sobre els quals es discuteix i com aquests es combinen per justificar una conclusió. Les investigacions es mostren cada vegada més unànimes en el fet que els estudiants experimenten una millora substancial en el desenvolupament del pensament crític (i que aquesta millora es transfereix també a nous temes) a mesura que van adquirint experiència en …

Motivation And Identification: A Burkean Rhetorical Analysis Of The Mission Statements Of A Class Of Higher Education Organizations, Mark Razor

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand higher education organizations as if they were texts and from that perspective to determine how motive was expressed and community was created through the mission statements of a class of higher education organizations. The mission statements of Carnegie comprehensive doctoral institutions of higher education with a medical and/or veterinary school were rhetorically analyzed and the results organized into groups much as chemists organized elements into the periodic table. In addition to rhetorical studies, organizational studies were employed, especially those that employed Identification Theory. This study provides a model for understanding complex institutions, …

Bias And The Teachable Moment: Revisiting A Teacher Narrative, Darren Crovitz

Faculty Articles

Such responsibility may be vital for English teachers, especially, as we strive to establish communities of writers and spaces for critical thinking and conversation. When I sat down to write about this experience, I saw it as an opportunity to discuss a taboo situation and its positive aftermath, with the aim of demonstrating how it might be possible to use such events as points of departure in creating engaging writing assignments.

Unlv Magazine, Cate Weeks, Shane Bevell, Erin O'Donnell, Eric Leake, Lori Bachand, David G. Schwartz, David Ashley

UNLV Magazine

No abstract provided.

Preliminary Report To The Purdue Writing Lab: Assessing Usability Of The "New" Online Writing Lab (Owl) Design And Contents, Michael Salvo, H. Allen Brizee, Dana Lynn Driscoll, Morgan Sousa

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Research Reports

This report is submitted June 16, 2006 to the Purdue University Writing Lab, specifically to Linda Bergmann, Director; Tammy Conard-Salvo, Associate Director; and Karl Stolley, Lead Web Designer. Intended to inform the ongoing redesign of the Online Writing Lab (OWL), it is written to maintain the highest level of usability and user-centered design of a unique, globally-utilized information resource. This document is a preliminary report limited to initial findings from a five-step usability testing protocol conducted February 25 through March 3, 2006. This testing plan was submitted to Purdue’s Institutional Review Board’s Committee on the Use of Human Subjects (IRB) …

Writing And Metacognition: Empowering Young Authors In The Writing Workshop, Suzanne Gagne Cooke

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study is to find out if teaching the students how to use the writing process will improve the content of their work.

Bubbling Vs. Writing: Bridging The Gap Between Fourth Grade Writing Standards And Composition Theory, Pamela Lynn Dobbins

Theses Digitization Project

Currently, fourth grade writing curricula in California public schools are dictated by California State English Language Arts standards, which are measured by the California Achievement Test. In this thesis, I explore the relationship between state standards and what compositionists identify as "meaningful" writing and learning.

Narratives In A Drug Court Setting, Anna Catherina Maria Keller

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of the project is to develop and evaluate a writing unit that could be used to teach adult students in a drug court program. The project is based on theories behind narrative therapy, its use in the treatment of persons with addiction problems, and how the reframing of students' own life stories through writing can bring about change. By using writing prompts as both therapeutic and educational tools, the author hoped to improve the students' life-coping skills and their writing abilities. The unit consists of paragraph writing, essay writing, reflective writing that focused on past events, and using …

Anti-Ethnography?, Ian Barnard

English Faculty Articles and Research

"Many of the ongoing difficulties teachers face revolve around the 'translation' of disciplinary knowledge—especially critical theory—into pedagogical praxis. It often seems that our teaching lags behind our theoretical knowledge by about two decades, and sometimes we wonder if it will ever catch up. This sense of disjunction has been compounded by the difficulty of teaching postmodern understandings of subjectivity, truth, and epistemology in an increasingly commodified teaching context, where consumers expect to purchase a clear, identifiable, and literally usable product, and where 'knowledge' often means easily digestible and repeatable content rather than analytic skills, critical understandings, or complex world views. …

Owl Usability Report: Appendices, Michael Salvo, H. Allen Brizee, Dana Lynn Driscoll, Morgan Sousa

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Research Reports

This document includes appendices to the OWL Usability Report and contains survey and testing instruments, testing scripts, and testing data. It also includes information about the Creative Commons licensing associated with the OWL Usability documents produced in 2006.

Purdue Online Writing Lab (Owl) Research Report, Michael Salvo, H. Allen Brizee, Dana Lynn Driscoll, Morgan Sousa

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Research Reports

This report outlines the history of the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) and details the OWL Usability Project through the summer of 2006. The paper also discusses test methodologies, describes test methods, provides participant demographics, and presents findings and recommendations of the tests. The purpose of this report is to provide researchers, administrators, and pedagogues interested in usability and Writing Labs access to information on the Purdue OWL Usability Project. We hope our findings—and this open source approach to our research—will contribute positively to the corpus on usability and Writing Lab studies.

Relationship Between Traditional Grammar Terminology And Metacognitive Application Of Grammar Concepts, Annalisa M. Buerke

Master of Education Program Theses

This literature review revisits the debate of whether grammar instruction can improve adherence to written English conventions. However, the paper focuses on the role of traditional definitions rather than on delivery methods. Two questions guide this paper: I. Do traditional terms and definitions hinder students' understanding of grammar concepts? 2. How can teachers define grammar terms in a clearer, more accurate manner? The paper uses prominent grammarians such as C. Weaver, R. Noguchi and M. Kolin and provides a history of methodology, noting researchers' observations of traditional terms and definitions. The paper concludes that secondary teachers can supplement traditional definitions …

Examining The Skills, Attitudes, And Perceptions Of Developmental Writing Students At A Midwestern Private College, William P. Elgersma

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Postsecondary degree-granting institutions recognize that students lack necessary academic skills, but the characteristics of this at-risk population have not been as clearly identified. As well, the value of remedial programs that serve this at-risk population need to be investigated.

The survey instruments for this study were developed by the researcher. The purpose of the study was to examine the skills, attitudes, and perceptions of basic writers of a remedial writing course Academic Skills Center (ASK 060) at a private Midwestern college. Specifically, this study identified the value of the remedial writing program related to perceived level of competence and academic …

A Comparison Of Anonymous E-Peer Review Versus Identifiable E-Peer Review On College Student Writing Performance And Learning Satisfaction, Ruiling Lu

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of anonymous e-peer review with identifiable e-peer review on student writing performance and learning satisfaction. It also investigated whether anonymous e-peer review facilitated a greater amount of critical peer feedback.

Quasi-experimental design was used to test group differences on the dependent variables. Participants were 48 freshmen enrolled in two English Composition classes at Old Dominion University in the fall semester of 2003. The two intact classes taught by the same instructor were randomly assigned to the anonymous e-peer review group and the identifiable e-peer review group.

The results showed that …

The Bible And Theological Education: A Report And Reflections On A Journey, Patrick R. Keifert

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Circles And Letters: I Do; I Understand, Thomas Kitchen

MA TESOL Collection

How do we writing teachers respond to our students’ writing? How does our response affect both us and the students? Is it irresponsible to mark only a few recurring errors? Or is irresponsible to mark every error? Do students learn better when the errors are labeled or not? What about positive feedback?

This thesis explains an action research project I conducted with my reading/writing students. In the project, I explored many methods of responding to student writing, and I documented how one of those techniques affected me and my students. That technique called the reduced grammar technique focuses on recurring …

Exploring Creative Writing In The Middle School Classroom Via The Effective Use Of Multimedia, Nicole Allison Bezi

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this project is to develop a website by which students can improve their understanding of literary elements. This project will aid the students in completing some research as part of the initial stages of the WebQuest, to help them better understand the importance of literary elements.

Successful Strategies For Expository Writing, Bonnie Dee Reed

Theses Digitization Project

This study focused on creating an Integrated Expository Writing model to improve fifth and sixth grade students' abilities to write well constructed expository essays. It was developed through researching Step Up to Writing, the Six-Traits, interactive writing, play / realia, paired / shared writing, and writers' workshop.

"Is It Really A Natural Fit?": The Construction Of "Technology" In Composition Studies, Irina Fealy

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis analyzes two popular computer assisted instruction teaching platforms: Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment (DIWE) and Blackboard (BB). The major focus of the exploration is to find out whether or not these programs are really a "natural fit" with the high expectations of new rhetoric compositionists.

When English As A Second Language Students Meet Text-Responsible Writing, Miso Jung

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis follows two international freshman students in an English composition class at California State University, San Bernardino. The results indicate that the students generally experienced feeling challenged and overwhelmed about the unfamiliar topic, but detailed assignment guidelines played a key role for students to progress in understanding the assignment.

Electronic Dictionaries In The Esl Composition Class, Rebecca Lynn Rudd

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis examines the use of electronic dictionaries by ESL students. In particular, it considers how, when and why students use electronic dictionaries in their writing processes. It also explores the extent to which students use words found in an electronic dictionary appropriately in their texts and whether electronic dictionary use influences their long-term acquisition of vocabulary.