Kuh (2008) describes the capstone as a "culminating experience" students undertake close to graduation often involving "a project of some sort that integrates and applies what they've learned" (p. 11). The senior thesis is one form of the capstone in which students write an analytic paper under faculty supervision, typically as…

This paper offers a retrospective narrative review of research on L2 writing strategies and a prospective discussion of potential theoretical and pedagogical relevant lines of inquiry to be explored in future research agendas. The retrospective analysis will synthesize the main trends observed in the conceptualization of writing strategies as well…

LAK-18, the 8th International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge, was hosted by the University of Sydney, Australia, from March 5 to 9, 2018. Traditionally, authors of papers that have received high scores through the review process of the conference are invited to extend their paper and submit it for a special issue of this journal.…

Prominent Feature Analysis (PFA) is a reliable and valid writing assessment tool, derived from the writing it is used to assess. PFA, used to assess on-demand expository essays in Grades 3-12, uncovers positive and negative characteristics of a sample. To extend PFA to a new academic level and genre, I assessed scientific writing of 208…

This article describes how four English language arts teachers formed an inquiry group to design approaches to writing assessment that would support and foster student writers' agency, empowerment, and freedom. They hoped that by focusing assessment on students' articulation of their writing processes rather than on rubrics or final products, they…

This article presents an empirical evaluation of the validity and reliability of a peer-assessment activity to improve academic writing competences. Specifically, we explored a large group of psychology undergraduate students with different initial writing skills. Participants (n = 365) produced two different essays, which were evaluated by their…

Providing meaningful feedback to student writers is a nuanced, fully human endeavor. Thus, teaching preservice teachers, in all disciplines, to respond to students' writing is a complex task, one that requires intentional instruction and practice. In this article, we use practitioner inquiry to analyze our experiences and teaching approaches with…

This mixed method study aimed to investigate (i) EFL instructors' beliefs about written corrective feedback (WCF) (ii) whether these beliefs are congruent with their classroom practices. Firstly, a questionnaire was administered to 25 English instructors to understand their beliefs regarding WCF. Later, randomly chosen 175 student writing…

The study developed a model of linguistic constructs to predict writing quality for college basic writers and analyzed how those constructs changed following instruction. Analysis used a corpus of argumentative essays from a quasi-experimental, instructional study with 252 students (MacArthur, Philippakos, & Ianetta, 2015) that found large…

Mindfulness, or present-moment awareness, and its associated qualities of calm/relaxation, nonjudgment, intentionality, concentration, and compassion, are increasingly being used to help cultivate self-awareness, attention, and optimal learning experiences. After defining mindfulness and selecting key concepts, we apply the construct and features…

The present study examined issues pertaining to the reliability of writing assessment in the elementary grades, and among samples of struggling and nonstruggling writers. The present study also extended nascent research on the reliability and the practical applications of automated essay scoring (AES) systems in Response to Intervention frameworks…

The Malaysian government has long recognized the significance of mastering the English language among its citizenry. The government has planned, and subsequently, implemented many policies to ensure Malaysians master the English language. Although civil servants have a strong desire to master the English language to perform their duties more…

Despite extensive research attention that has been paid to second language (SL) or foreign language (FL) learners' argumentative writing, most research has focused on the structural features characteristic of such writers. There have not been many systematic attempts to identify the quality of argument features SL or FL writers rely on, and how…

Economic education is an essential prerequisite for coping with economic-characterised problems in various life spheres, especially with socio-economic problems in the societal sphere. Making informed and reasoned decisions on socio-economic problems requires domain-specific content knowledge and domain-specific argumentation skills. Economic…

The rhetorically complex concluding components of academic written texts often challenge novice writers, having to summarise their arguments and stance, and offer prospective comments on future developments concerning the subject matter. With an aim to elucidate the lexicogrammatical expressions of such prospective comments in essay conclusions,…