In web surveys, no interviewer is present to clarify question comprehension problems, which can be particularly prevalent among respondents with low literacy skills. Although plain language is used in various contexts to improve text comprehensibility, its use in social science questionnaires has not been investigated to date. Using a…

Writing ability is an essential skill for college students to improve their school performance and complete their academic writing tasks. Proficient English writing skills are also highly advantageous for their future career prospects and personal growth. However, many English learners face difficulties in various aspects of English writing. The…

This study investigated the impact of Google Docs on the academic writing improvement of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Conducted over a 13-week period during the 2022/23 academic year at an Ethiopian university, the research examined how this digital tool affects writing quality and student perceptions. Utilizing a sequential…

This study explores how students' perceptions of themselves as thinkers and communicators within a STEM discipline are impacted by structured peer review. Quantitative and qualitative coding led to thematic analysis of students' reflective writing papers produced during partial-credit companion courses called writing circles, which are weekly peer…

In assessment contexts, the domain definition inference requires accurate documentation of linguistic demands in a specific target domain for precise measurement. The present study examines several aspects of repetitions in academic lecture settings to offer the domain definition inference for academic listening tests. To do this, I analyzed the…

The Grand Challenges for Assessment in Higher Education project was launched in 2020 when Singer-Freeman and Robinson identified a list of important challenges in higher education assessment. As part of the Grand Challenges project, volunteers have been discussing the future of accreditation and how assessment professionals can use findings to…

Doctoral supervision is a subtle but complex form of teaching in higher education, where supervisor-to-candidate expectations including support around the literature are important, but supervisory practices and candidate starting points can be disparate and expectations are not always discussed. This paper uses autoethnographic reflections and a…

Dependency distance has increasingly become a key measure of interest in cross-linguistic corpus studies from multiple perspectives. Based on a syntactically annotated corpus of 400 PhD dissertation abstracts written by native English (L1) and English as a foreign language (L2) academic writers, the current study investigated the mean dependency…

I have had some success with academic writing. Yet, even after publishing in journals like the Teachers College Record, I still find myself running into moments of doubt about my voice, the purpose of my writing, and how to make my work have the impact it deserves. I offer this commentary to you - the academic writer (at any career stage) - and…

In this article, the author offers suggestions to assist in taming "The Imposter Monster." What is that? Understanding that while academic writing can often be a daunting prospect for an early career researcher there are strategies that help. Author Marie Stewart writes one of the key strategies that her helped navigate this challenging…

The demand for a creative workforce has never been higher, yet schools struggle to teach and assess creativity among students efficiently. Compositions are an effective way to incorporate creativity across the curriculum; however, essays are time consuming to evaluate for quality or creativity. This study explored (a) if high creativity scores are…

Vocabulary is a prominent contributor to reading comprehension. However, little is known about how students with disabilities with lower vocabulary performance respond to Tier 1 instruction, or how their vocabulary knowledge relates to their content acquisition. To examine the differential impact of Tier 1 instruction for U.S. middle school…

Purpose: There are many aspects of words that can influence our lexical processing, and the words we are exposed to influence our opportunities for language and reading development. The purpose of this study is to establish a more comprehensive understanding of the lexical challenges and opportunities students face. Method: We explore the latent…

The research process is usually construed as linear, from registration to graduation, defined by completion within a certain period. This notion of a linear 'pipeline' has been critiqued for its embeddedness in a managerial discourse and the way it constrains transformation. Here, we focus on how writing support gets ensnared in 'pipeline…

An important part of college learning is the ability to comprehend complex texts. Research indicates that epistemic beliefs--views about what knowledge is like and how people come to know--may guide readers' goals and behaviors. Metaphor is a tool for uncovering individual's beliefs. This article reports on a study examining 90 beginning…