The importance of language in the learning process of students has been studied extensively. However, little attention has been paid to the role language plays in the assessment of student writings. Students and instructors at a liberal arts and sciences college were interviewed to reveal their approaches to written assignments. The aim was to…

Problems in developing writing often comes from creative processes in developing ideas to write. Outlines are often recommended as a tool to help students organize their thoughts and structure their writing. This study aims to find out students' perceptions and the challenges the students encountered when writing an exposition text using provided…

This paper explores a suite of close writing practices and exercises that ask students to attend closely to language at the level of morpheme, word, line, sentence, or stanza. Close writing aims to move students beyond a conception of reading as mere transaction and technology, while pushing writing pedagogy beyond the development of expository…

This study investigated how English language writers in a Chinese university were able to paraphrase following instruction with an online module. Participants were separated into two groups: Group A (Individuals) and Group B (Dyads). They were then trained and assessed in their ability to complete paraphrasing tasks with a pre and posttest.…

Background: The abrupt transition to virtual language learning environments due to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought considerable challenges to educational practices. In the context of foreign/second language learning and teaching, it has become more difficult to ensure that learners have the necessary engagement and motivation levels along with…

Although regulation has become a critical method to improve the effect of collaborative writing in L2 classes, it is still not clear how the regulation activities influence peer interactions, which is important for improvement of regulation itself. This case study examined dynamic interactions of several small teams of ESL students when they…

Since writing in the disciplines (WID) is focused on learning how to write formal documents of a professional register, it is important to note that each field or discipline has its own style, structure, and format when it comes to writing, and most composition courses seldom facilitate the transfer of these specialized skills in the classroom.…

Writing anxiety is a term for a wide variety of apprehensive and pessimistic feelings about writing. The purpose of this study is to identify factors contributing to writing anxiety experienced by EFL students in writing essays and the strategies they apply to manage it. The possible factors of the anxiety were elaborated into close-ended…

Process-based composition pedagogy has ignored the question of "doneness": the criteria used to decide when a piece of writing is complete. This article uses survey results from first- and second-year composition courses to challenge common beliefs about how students determine when writing assignments are sufficiently completed. We find…

Students of all ages struggle with the multiple processes involved with writing, including planning, practice, and drafting multiple revisions. This article describes four structured writing assignments in an introductory college course, as well as eight specific strategies for helping students enhance their writing abilities.

Students in upper-level courses are expected to observe disciplinary conventions in writing assignments. Common recommendations for teaching conventions require substantial time for instructor feedback and in-class instruction. As an alternative, we tested the effectiveness of a checklist in improving students' performance of these conventions.…

Traditional writing assignments often fall short in addressing problems in college students' writing as too often these assignments fail to help students develop critical thinking skills and comprehension of course content. This article reports the use of a two-part (staged) writing assignment with postscript as a strategy for improving critical…

Intended for college students, this book of readings, exercises, and advice focuses on issues of special relevance to college students and the general tasks of writing in college. The book is divided into eight sections, each of which contains a "classic" essay, a student essay, and a how-to essay, as well as 8 to 10 other essays on the…

Presents results from a study of eight college freshman to determine differences between revising essays on-screen and on-paper. Eighty-one percent of on-screen changes were above the mechanical or word level, often related to meaning and content. Students working on-screen tended to add more information and recreate paragraphs, but sometimes…

Two groups of freshman students participated in the experiment. They were enrolled in their first ESL writing course. Before instruction, both groups were pre-tested. They wrote an essay. T-test results showed significant differences between both groups in writing ability. The experimental group made too many errors and had many writing problems.…