The purpose of this research note is to introduce and overview both the teaching and research applications of autobiographical essay writing. Grounded in occupational socialization theory and teacher reflection, the authors propose that autobiography can be a powerful tool in helping preservice and in-service teachers more deeply reflect on their…

Integrated writing tasks, which require students to incorporate information from multiple sources into their writing, are gaining attention in language assessment and writing instruction due to their alignment with the expectations of academic and professional writing. Understanding what aspects of integrated tasks are perceived as challenging by…

Students need feedback from instructors to learn from their mistakes and improve their academic skills. Responding to student writing is a central and necessary component of the instructor-student feedback loop. There are many forms of feedback on written assignments, and not all of them have the same role in supporting student learning. For…

This paper introduces a project to develop a digital academic writing tool at Leeds Beckett University (LBU). Essay X-ray is an interactive online tool designed to help students get to grips with the structure and style of academic writing and was developed using the Articulate Storyline 360 platform. The aim was to expand LBU's academic skills…

This article explores how arguments are made in student essays through the use of writing and visual resources. The data set comprises 54 essays with a passing grade from students in their final year of upper secondary school in Sweden. The data is analysed using a multimodal approach to knowledge representation on arguments in essays, involving…

Generative AI has become a quotidian discussion topic in many writing departments, and the conversations often focus on the negative aspects or the disruptions it has caused. A growing number of teachers and scholars, though, have embraced the new technology and welcomed it into their classrooms. In the Spring 2024 semester, students in my…

The aim of this project was to identify ways in which students are using Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) technologies for the planning and researching stage of essay style assignments. The study recruited 30 students from various subject areas and levels of study and with different self-reported levels of confidence in using GAI tools.…

The technology company OpenAI released a generative artificial intelligence program that can create detailed written responses, write essays, poetry, code, and much more, in response to short written prompts. It had been years in the making and had been exposed to over 40 gigabytes of text, webpages, images, and other content. ChatGPT is a large…

The five-paragraph essay is highly controversial, and yet it has also been a useful format for composition. In this essay we explain why, despite its limits, students need to go along with the format to make what use and get what advantage of it. We then demonstrate that valuing the philosophical, historical, cultural, and educational backgrounds…

This study explores undergraduate students' use of ChatGPT when writing essays. Three students were tasked with writing two essays each for a coursework component for a Cambridge qualification facilitated by access to ChatGPT. After writing the essays, they participated in semi-structured interviews about their experiences of using the technology.…

Performing complex tasks such as writing an argumentative essay and providing high-quality argumentative peer feedback are challenging for higher education students. This study aims to explore whether and how students' argumentation performance during peer feedback activities and essay writing is related to their culture and gender. In this…

Chemistry education research demonstrates the value of open-ended writing tasks, such as writing-to-learn (WTL) assignments, for supporting students' learning with topics including reasoning about reaction mechanisms. The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI)technology, such as chatbots ChatGPT and Bard, raises concerns regarding…

This article examined student experiences before and after an essay writing assignment that required the use of ChatGPT within an undergraduate engineering course. Utilizing a pre-post study design, we gathered data from 24 participants to evaluate ChatGPT's support for both completing and grading an essay assignment, exploring its educational…

The value of generative AI tools in higher education has received considerable attention. Although there are many proponents of its value as a learning tool, many are concerned with the issues regarding academic integrity and its use by students to compose written assessments. This study evaluates and compares the output of three commonly used…

With sustainability becoming a familiar concept in society, higher education institutions have also started playing a more active role in this field, showing an increasing interest in students' comprehension of sustainability. This interest has led to the need for developing methods of assessing students' sustainability knowledge, as observed in…