• Title/Summary/Keyword: effective writing

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Enhancing Writing Skills Through Portfolios

  • Rafik-Galea, Shameem
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.9 no.2
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    • pp.17-33
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    • 2003
  • College going students who are non-native speakers of English enrolled in English language programmes are not acquiring the needed academic writing skills. Many of these students do not have positive attitudes towards writing, thus forcing language instructors to look for ways of motivating students to write in order to improve writing skills. This action research project investigates the use of portfolio writing to improve writing ability among pre-university students. Research on the use of portfolio writing suggests that it is a useful way for developing interest in writing and for developing effective writing skills over a period of time. Portfolios support the best thinking in composition pedagogy in that it encourages process writing. Although the portfolio is considered a writing product, as a whole it is evidence of the students writing process. An important feature in using portfolios is that students are able to focus on their writing without constantly worrying about grades. Instructors have noticed that students make greater improvement in their writing when their focus is shifted from punitive feedback through letter grades to constructive feedback in the form of suggestions for further revision. This paper describes the use of writing portfolios as an effective means of teaching writing. The findings revealed that writing portfolios helped develop confidence in writing and decreased anxiety towards writing. (217 words)

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Character Writing Using Multi-Fingered Hands : Grasp Modeling and Compliance Analysis (다지 손을 이용한 문자 쓰기 : 파지 모델링 및 컴플라이언스 특성 해석)

  • Kim, Byoung-Ho;Yeo, Hee-Joo
    • Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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    • v.7 no.11
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    • pp.927-932
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    • 2001
  • When people write a character with a pen stably, proper compliance planning is necessary. In this paper, after investigating the property of character writing task, we propose a fundamental grasp model for character writing and also analyze compliance characteristics for effective character writing using multi-fingered hands. For this, the general stiffness relation of multi-fingered hand is firstly described. Next, we investigate the grasp configurations for grasping a pen and then, we analyze the conditions of the specified stiffness matrix in the operational space to successfully and more effectively achieve the given character writing task. Through the analysis, an effective grasp modeling for successful character writing is shown. And also, we conclude that the operational compliance characteristics should be properly planned for character writing, stably and precisely.

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Analysis of Science Writing Tasks in Korean and American Science Textbooks (한국과 미국의 초등과학 교과서 과학 글쓰기 과제 분석)

  • Koo, Sul Ki;Park, Il-Woo
    • Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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    • v.31 no.4
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    • pp.463-480
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    • 2012
  • This study is intended to investigate the frequency of scientific writing tasks in Korean and American science textbooks, to compare the differences in types of posing the writing tasks according to the level of the children's scientific cognition, and to analyze the differences in the organization and development of writing ones of each chapter and thus to propose an effective way of presenting scientific writing in science textbooks. Korean 'Science' and 'Experiment Observation Workbook'and Macmillan Mcgraw-Hill(MMH) Science for fourth graders were analyzed for the purpose. The results are as follows: First, Korean textbooks contain more science writing tasks per pages, and less per chapters than MMH one. Both text books provide balanced amount of science writing tasks, yet MMH especially does systematic exercises for each chapter. Second, the qualitative analysis of the textbooks' scientific writing shows that both textbooks contain a significant amount of "understanding" and "explanatory" writing, which reflects that the purpose of writing in science textbooks is leaning towards acquiring and verifying scientific concepts. In American textbooks, however, writings utilizing extensive cognition process and materials are also present. It is necessary for textbooks to present diverse and expressive writing assignments including personal opinions. Third, there are differences in organization and development of science writing tasks. Science writing tasks in Korean textbooks are present independently with lesson objectives of the chapters and practices, while those in MMH are systematically developed. Based on these results, it is necessary to systemize the textbooks' way of presenting writing tasks for effective teaching and learning. By organizing the writing materials and thus developing diverse materials, and by implementing extensive cognitive process in the writing activities, textbooks will be able to contribute in attracting the students' interests and in improving their scientific knowledge.

Effects of Cornell Typed Science Journal Writing on Elementary Students' Science-Related Attitude (코넬식 과학일지 쓰기가 초등학생의 과학 관련 태도에 미치는 영향)

  • Yeo, Sang-Ihn;Lee, Dae Han
    • Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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    • v.33 no.2
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    • pp.415-426
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    • 2014
  • This study aimed to investigate the effects of Cornell typed science journal writing on elementary students' science-related attitude by gender and academic achievement. The subjects of study were 109 elementary students (5th grade). The experimental group performed Cornell typed science journal writing and the control group maintained traditional lectures for one semester. Science-related attitudes of this study are classified into scientific attitudes (7 sub-domains) and attitudes toward science (5 sub-domains). The collected data were analyzed by ANCOVA with SPSS. The results of study were as follows: Several sub-domain (voluntariness, cooperation, perception about science and scientist) of science-related attitudes positively changed in experimental group. Cornell typed science journal writing was especially effective on improving scientific attitude in male students, and attitude toward science in female students. Also, science journal writing was effective on improving science-related attitude (both scientific attitude and attitude toward science) in high-achieving group, but not effective in low-achieving group.

A Study on the Features of Writing Rater in TOPIK Writing Assessment (한국어능력시험(TOPIK) 쓰기 평가의 채점 특성 연구)

  • Ahn, Su-hyun;Kim, Chung-sook
    • Journal of Korean language education
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    • v.28 no.1
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    • pp.173-196
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    • 2017
  • Writing is a subjective and performative activity. Writing ability has multi-facets and compoundness. To understand the examinees's writing ability accurately and provide effective writing scores, raters first ought to have the competency regarding assessment. Therefore, this study is significant as a fundamental research about rater's characteristics on the TOPIK writing assessment. 150 scripts of the 47th TOPIK examinees were selected randomly, and were further rated independently by 20 raters. The many-facet Rasch model was used to generate individualized feedback reports on each rater's relative severity and consistency with respect to particular categories of the rating scale. This study was analyzed using the FACETS ver 3.71.4 program. Overfit and misfit raters showed many difficulties for noticing the difference between assessment factors and interpreting the criteria. Writing raters appear to have much confusion when interpreting the assessment criteria, and especially, overfit and misfit teachers interpret the criteria arbitrarily. The main reason of overfit and misfit is the confusion about assessment factors and criteria in finding basis for scoring. Therefore, there needs to be more training and research is needed for raters based on this type of writing assessment characteristics. This study is recognized significantly in that it collectively examined writing assessment characteristics of writing raters, and visually confirmed the assessment error aspects of writing assessment.

Lessons Learned from Twelve Korean Teachers of College-level EFL Writing

  • Kim, Mi-Kyung
    • Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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    • v.3 no.2
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    • pp.181-210
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    • 2003
  • The purpose of the study was to investigate how Korean EFL writing instructors give feedback to their students' writing and what influences their feedback. A total of 12 Korean EFL instructors in Korean universities teaching freshman English and intermediate EFL writing courses provided their feedback given on students' writing samples and participated in interviews. Interviews were analyzed qualitatively with a constant comparative approach and some data from writing samples and questionnaires produced descriptive statistics. The first lesson from the results of the study was that grammar was still the most frequent concern in giving feedback on students' writing. Contrary to the participants' report, comments on content and organization were not produced very often. The second lesson came from the interview data. Some aspects of teacher feedback seemed mostly influenced by their beliefs on L2 writing and experience in teaching L2 writing. The final and major lesson was that teachers chose how they would give comments on students' writing depending on whether they found their feedback helpful in students learning to write. EFL writing teachers can produce effective feedback by clearly communicating their beliefs about L2 writing and criteria in their feedback to students in their EFL writing classrooms.

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Effects of Ongoing Feedback on Students' Attitudes towards Writing

  • Yang, Tae-Sun
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.16 no.1
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    • pp.171-188
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    • 2009
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of ongoing feedback from the professor in students' processes of learning and developing writing skills. Specifically, the researcher was concerned with how ongoing feedback affected students' attitudes towards writing because in EFL contexts, motivating students to write is a first step to engage them in a challenging journey of academic writing. 20 freshmen taking a writing course, "Paragraph & Essay Writing", at A university participated in this study and they were asked to complete the questionnaire at the end of the spring semester 2009. The results revealed that receiving ongoing feedback from the professor had a positive influence on affective domain, was helpful to develop learning strategies, and was valuable in learning outcomes. However, they also expressed negative opinions: feeling a burden, focusing on forms, and feeling confused. To reflect their opinions, the following four suggestions were made to create a more effective learning environment: promoting learner autonomy, facilitating individual writing conferences, giving balanced feedback in between form and content, and using judicious feedback through careful streaming.

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Integration of Computerized Feedback to Improve Interactive Use of Written Feedback in English Writing Class

  • CHOI, Jaeho
    • Educational Technology International
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    • v.12 no.2
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    • pp.71-94
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    • 2011
  • How can an automated essay scoring (AES) program, which provides feedback for essays, be a formative tool for improving ESL writing? In spite of the increasing demands for English writing proficiency, English writing instruction has not been effective for teaching and learning because of a lack of timely and accurate feedback. In this context, AES as a possible solution has been gaining the attention of educators and scholars in ESL/EFL writing education because it can provide consistent and prompt feedback for student writers. This experimental study examined the impact of different types of feedback for a college ESL writing program using the Criterion AES system. The results reveal the positive impact of AES in a college-level ESL course and differences between the teacher's feedback and the AES feedback. The findings suggest that AES can be effectively integrated into ESL writing instruction as a formative assessment tool.

Development of the Environment Writing Workbook to Enhance Environmental Literacy of Elementary School Student (환경 소양 신장을 위한 환경논술 워크북 개발)

  • Lee, Sung-Hee;Jin, Oak-Hwa;Choi, Don-Hyung
    • Hwankyungkyoyuk
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    • v.20 no.4
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    • pp.39-50
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    • 2007
  • The purpose of this paper is to development of the environment writing workbook to enhance environmental literacy of elementary school student. To achieve the purpose, the concrete paper processes are as follows. First, in order to development of the environment writing workbook to enhance environmental literacy, Writing of Environment Club students did various writing activities as an experiment. The environment writing workbook is developed using the students product feedback. Second, the environment writing workbook was used for the 5th graders in the elementary school for 10 weeks to see how the environment writing workbook would enhance the students' environmental literacy. The results of this paper are as follows. It's application was meaningful in the level of p<.05 in point of view of environmental literacy as a result of the pre-post test in the experiment group, who is one of the 5th grade classes in the elementary school. In conclusion, the environment writing workbook is very effective to enhance the seven parts of environmental literacy out of eleven. It is necessary because the environment writing helps to think of environmental issue deeply, learn about regional environmental problems, establish sound environment sense of value, give the opportunities to participate in activities.

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A Case of Evaluation Categories on Team teaching-based Technical Writing and Presentation Class

  • Jo, Cheolwoo;Nam, Kyoung-Woan
    • Journal of Engineering Education Research
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    • v.17 no.5
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    • pp.13-16
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    • 2014
  • This paper describes the evaluation procedures which was applied to the team teaching-based technical writing and presentation class. Among the various evaluations for the class, three major cases are introduced. Self-established goal evaluation, presentation evaluation and team evaluation are those. Each evaluation is designed to promote or evaluate student activities from the class. And it was found to be effective for team-based writing class.