Writing a good thesis provides a successful foundation for composing an essay. Teaching how to do that, however, is quite another matter. Teachers often say to students, "Find a thesis," or "Get a thesis," or "Bring in a thesis statement tomorrow," as if students could order one like a pizza, command it like a pet pooch, or grasp one out of thin…

The aim of this study was to explore the efficacy of two written journal techniques used to encourage teacher candidates' inquiry-based reflection regarding course textbook content. Ninety-six participants were randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions, journaling with Questions, Quotes and Reflections (Double Q R) or…

The teaching of writing, and the teaching of developmental and ESL/EFL writing in particular, has historically given priority to the sentence, often in theory and almost always in practice. The writing approach modeled here simply argues that the paragraph should be given primacy of place in ESL/EFL academic writing instruction. The…

This study contributes to public relations (PR) literature and research because it finds and highlights discrepancies between male and female PR faculty concerning their involvement or lack thereof with designated labor-intensive teaching and service responsibilities. More specifically, this study finds that more females serve as faculty advisors…

In order to complete summarization tasks L2 learners need to demonstrate both reading and writing abilities. Thus, understanding the role of these abilities is necessary for interpreting performance on such tasks. This study examined the role of reading and writing in summarization tasks completed by 64 Chinese college students. It was found word-…

This study aims to explore the effectiveness of a paradigm to teach native Cantonese-speaking university students the hierarchical structure of expository prose to improve paragraph coherence. Most of the diagnostic argumentative essays the participants in this study wrote in the course were incoherent, failing to meet readers' expectation of…

The study aimed at identifying the impact of employing brainstorming strategy on improving writing performance of English Major Students at Balqa Applied University in Jordan. The sample of the study which consisted of 80 male and female university students was distributed into two groups; experimental (taught by brainstorming strategy) and…

Reflections can be seen as powerful tools for growth and intellectual development. It is no surprise that the writing of reflections is common practice at a Federal Institute in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The research presented sought to explore possible differences in reflective writing once guidelines were presented to a group of interns in…

This study examined the effectiveness of the ANSWER Strategy (Hughes, Schumaker, & Deshler, 2005) in improving the essay composition skills of post-secondary students with developmental disabilities. The six-step strategy incorporated analyzing essay prompts, creating an outline, generating an essay response, and reviewing the answer. The…

Achieving sustained student engagement with practice in computer-based writing strategy training can be a challenge. One potential solution is to foster engagement by embedding practice in educational games; yet there is currently little research comparing the effectiveness of game-based practice versus more traditional forms of practice. In this…

A course is described that prepares graduate students in the sciences to publish research, grounding them in the processes of academic publishing and encouraging them to publish their research in a timely fashion. This article addresses some key questions about the course: What previously unmet need does it meet? What subjects does it cover? How…

This study examined the effects of goal setting for revision in an EFL writing classroom where principles of assessment "for" learning (AfL) were followed. Following draft writing, instruction, and assessment, college freshmen were put into control, goal, and goal+ groups. Before students started to revise their drafts, individuals in…

Since high school students are failing to master writing proficiency, developmental writing programs at the college level have become increasingly necessary. This article explains the lack of readiness with which students are entering college and the workplace, examines the reasons students are having trouble writing, and describes elements of…

The four-week university-sponsored summer Computer-based Writing (CBW) Program directed by the head of a special education initial teacher licensure program gave teaching interns opportunities to work with young struggling writers in a supervised clinical setting to address keyboarding skills, writing conventions and knowledge and application of…

This dissertation is a qualitative study of a curriculum I designed for composition students in the Fall of 2012. The curriculum I created is informed by the Freirean edict that a self-generated desire to "create knowledge" is far more likely to result in meaningful, holistic learning than simply "banking" information. In the…