The goal of this study was to investigate the culturally afforded contradictions that ten advanced English as a Second Language (ESL) learner encountered when they posted their paper topics and exchanged feedback strategies online and contextualized some of these strategies to draft their papers. Using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT),…

Writing can be viewed as a recursive process involving both cognitive and metacognitive processes. Task, environment, individual cognition and affective processes all impact on producing written text. Recent research on the development of metacognition in young children has highlighted social constructivist and socio-cultural factors.…

The present study investigated University of Swaziland Bachelor of Education degree (B.Ed) (Primary and secondary) students' conception of the current trends in writing instruction. The extent of their conception of these trends was examined on only four selected writing ideas namely collaborative writing, the process approach to writing, teacher…

An innovative, practical guide for middle and high school teachers, this book is packed with specific ways that technology can help serve the goals of effective writing instruction. It provides ready-to-implement strategies for teaching students to compose and edit written work electronically; conduct Internet inquiry; create blogs, websites, and…

Much of the work in academic writing has focused on the cognitive rather than the affective and social aspects involved in project-based writing. Emphasis in past research has been on skills and processes of writing rather than on affective factors such as motivation, attitudes, feelings or social factors involving intrapersonal and interpersonal…

This is a qualitative case study (conducted in an urban, public school classroom in the United States) of the collaborative composing processes of two groups of first-grade students designated as English Language Learners (ELLs) as they wrote in a writing workshop context. I focused on a specific type of the students' hybrid composing practices:…

Wikis, as one of the Web 2.0 social networking tools, have been increasingly integrated into second language (L2) instruction to promote collaborative writing. This paper reports on a case study involving 35 university students at the beginning level who contributed to wiki pages over a period of 14 weeks. The affordances and constraints of using…

Presents a dialogue between the authors on what it is like to collaborate in writing young adult fiction. Discusses their writing processes, how they come up with ideas for their books, and how they get the books published. (RS)

This concise guide to writing is designed to help any academic become not only productive but truly prolific. It is a pithy, no-nonsense, no-excuses guide to maximizing the quality and quantity of scholarly output. The authors offer an accessible overview of the art of writing efficiently and effectively, provide a one-stop source for the nuts and…

Individuals mostly write texts which are directed to other persons, the readers. Even though individuals cannot rely on immediate reactions, as in spoken dialogue, they are nevertheless able to communicate successfully with them. A writing experiment focused on the role of the addressee in the writing process. Writers grouped in pairs were asked…

Illustrates, through a description and examples, the collaboration between a university class and an elementary class. Describes pen pals and collaborative book writing as two approaches that provide student writers with the opportunity to receive rehearsal of strategies such as invented spelling, writing as a process, and integrating the language…

Notes that the divisionary effect of formal corporate models that standardize collaborative processes is particularly problematic for World Wide Web hypertexts, which require ongoing, dynamic collaborations among professionals with diverse specializations. Examines collaborative processes through theory and two Web project teams interactions: one…

Noting that electronic communication places new demands on language that leads to interesting variations in written language use, this Digest summarizes insights gained from research on writing behavior and performance in the electronic age. It concludes that both the process and the content of writing are evolving in response to the increased use…

A study investigated the effect or lack of effect of peer collaboration on the writing of female freshman composition students. Four freshman composition classes conducted by two experienced instructors participated in a 3-week study. One instructor taught two classes by teacher-lecture and teacher-led discussions exclusively. Another instructor…

Digital media has become an increasingly powerful force in modern society. This volume brings together outstanding European, American and Australian research in "writing and digital media" and explores its cognitive, social and cultural implications. In addition to presenting programs of original research by internationally known…