Teachers who offer undergraduate courses agree widely on the importance of writing assignments to further undergraduate education. And yet, there is a great deal of variance among teachers in their writing assignments; some teachers assign no writing whatsoever. To determine the variables that influence the decisions of teachers about whether to…

This study examines links between essay quality and text elaboration and text cohesion. For this study, 35 students wrote two essays (on two different prompts) and for each, were given 15 minutes to elaborate on their original text. An expert in discourse comprehension then modified the original and elaborated essays to increase cohesion,…

Employers of marketing graduates view good writing as a core marketing skill, but many marketing students are weak writers. The improvement of student writing should therefore be an important objective in a well-designed marketing curriculum. One-page papers combine the effective teaching of marketing concepts with writing instruction while…

This case study discusses an assessment project in which a rubric was used to evaluate information literacy (IL) skills as reflected in undergraduate students' research papers. Subsequent analysis sought relationships between the students' IL skills and their contact with the library through various channels. The project proved far longer and more…

Objectivity has long been contentious in American journalism. Many practitioners call it essential to a news organization's credibility. Critics, however, hold objectivity is impossible and urge reporters simply to reveal their biases. For educators, teaching objectivity is challenging. Some, seeking a middle ground, instead urge fairness and…

The present study was aimed at examining whether grammatical accuracy and gender were significant predictors of the use of request strategy (direct or indirect). Participants were 39 seventh semester students (29 males and 10 females) majoring in an International Business Management program at a public higher education institution in Bali. Their…

There is no comprehensive guide for teaching psychological writing, and little is known about how often instructors teach the topic. We present a best practices guide for teaching psychological writing beyond just American Psychological Association style, discuss psychology-specific writing assignments, and examine psychological writing…

The psychometric measures of accuracy, reliability and validity of peer assessment are critical qualities for its use as a supplement to instructor grading. In this study, we seek to determine which factors related to peer review are the most influential on these psychometric measures, with a primary focus on the accuracy of peer assessment or how…

This action research project sought to investigate the role of explicit citation vocabulary instruction in the learning of citation style guidelines for an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing course at an English-medium university in Northern Thailand. The participants consisted of 120 undergraduate students enrolled in the EAP writing…

An important topic in writing research has been the use of cohesive features. Much of this research has focused on local and text cohesion. The few studies that have studied global cohesion have been restricted to first language writing. This study investigates the development of local, global, and text cohesion in the writing of 57 language (L2)…

Adult second/foreign language acquisition is extremely challenging for many learners, with pronunciation often the one aspect in which otherwise very proficient language users fall short. Although a great deal of research has found that formal instruction in phonetics/phonology may improve learner pronunciation, no study has yet addressed the…

The use of massive open online courses (MOOCs) to expand students' access to higher education has raised questions regarding the extent to which this course model can provide and assess authentic, higher level student learning. In response to this need, MOOC platforms have begun utilizing automated essay scoring (AES) systems that allow…

Metacognition directly contributes to learning, performance, and beliefs about the self as a learner. This paper describes the rationale, implementation, and assessment of a weekly online reflection activity based on instructor prompts designed for post-secondary students who aspire to be elementary school teachers. Our study defines four…

We have developed a process-oriented chemistry laboratory curriculum for non-science majors. The purpose of this study is both to explore university students' understanding of chemistry processes and to evaluate the quality of evidence students use to support their claims regarding chemistry processes in a process-oriented chemistry laboratory…

Previous research suggests that audio feedback may be an important mechanism for facilitating effective and timely assignment feedback. The present study examined expectations and experiences of audio and written feedback provided through "turnitin for iPad®" from students within the same cohort and assignment. The results showed that…