In this discussion, we consider how the use of scenario-based assessment (SBA) can provide students with a way of developing the digital communication skills that business communication research has found they will need for the workplace, alongside other aspects of professional competence. This is because SBA can be employed to engage learners in…

Computer-mediated collaborative writing has been increasingly implemented in L2 contexts due to wider awareness of affordances and benefits of Web 2.0 technologies. A systematic review of empirical studies over the recent decade is called forth in order to arouse broadened knowledge and provide new insights in this promising area. This study…

This study investigates the use of face-to-face and computer-mediated peer review in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing course to examine how different interaction modes affect comment categories, students' revisions, and their perceptions of peer feedback. The participants were an intact class of 13 students at a Taiwanese university.…

The wiki is an excellent tool for student collaboration and teacher assessment. Students' comfort with online social networking makes the wiki a perfect forum for students to coauthor works and to respond to each other's writing. In this article, the author discusses how to use a wiki to promote discussion and aid students with writing. He tested…

This study explored how college freshmen at a mid-sized public university in north-eastern United States used Twitter, an anytime/anywhere writing technology, to support and promote the writing process by using tweets as a pre-writing activity. Two of the authors taught a joint course of First Year Seminar and Basic Reading in which the same group…

This study investigates Web-based, project oriented, many-to-many collaborative writing for academic purposes. Thirty-eight Fulbright scholars in an orientation program at a large Midwestern university used a Web-based word processing tool to collaboratively plan and report on a research project. The purpose of this study is to explore and…

Students are entering a workforce that demands competency in writing both for explicit communication through e-mail as well as in products in the company's day-to-day dealings. Strategies for teaching students to communicate in writing have been evaluated extensively in a face-to-face environment. Many of those successful strategies have been…

Background: This study involved a bicoastal project between four composition classes, two in California and two in Pennsylvania. The focus was on how students read, write, and converse about ethnic and spiritual distinctiveness and the role of writing in identity development. Purpose: The researchers exercised a variety of methods (diverse…

Just as the spoken word, virtual discourse in the listserv-assisted composition class unites the writer and the audience into a group. On-line writing takes the form of dialogue, and the reading of the on-line text does not shatter the audience but gathers them into collectivity. Since writing on the listserv is less rule-governed, students are…

This book presents 93 essays that offer guidance, reassurance, and commentary on the many activities leading up to and surrounding classroom instruction in first-year composition. Essays in the book are written by instructors who teach in community colleges, liberal arts colleges, state university systems, and research institutions. The 14 section…

The 2007 meeting of the English Think Tank published here represents a sample of the English Think Tank V presentations. In reading these papers one is struck by the imagination and expertise possessed by so many members in the field. The paper topics fall roughly into four categories--assessment, diversity, literacy, and technology. This…

This paper describes a graduate-level scientific/academic writing course for non-native speakers (NNS) of English at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Israel, which is taught in a technology-enhanced or blended learning environment. The use and integration of electronic discourses, such as email and Powerpoint, on-screen marking…