Perceptions of Writing Skill - Research and Development - College
Using Email as a Consulting Tool at the Writing Centre: Students’ perceptions and challenges.
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Transcript of Using Email as a Consulting Tool at the Writing Centre: Students’ perceptions and challenges.
Writing Centre Goals and Pedagogy
Goal:Goal:• development of students as good
academic writers by offering access and support through individual or group consultations, workshops and class seminars
Social Constructivist pedagogy
Principles
i) validating students as knowers;
ii) situating learning in students’ experiences, and
iii)defining learning as mutually constructing meaning (Marcia Baxter-Magolda, 26).
Implications for our practice• students and not their writing is our priority.
• not a first- aid station” (North, 1984: 437) to fix ‘special problems’ – read grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
• we are not teachers, we are collaborators with our students.
• consultations are student centred, offering the students an opportunity to think and talk with someone about their writing in a supportive and non-threatening manner.
Accessibility issues: What prompted the use of email?
• Best practice demands of us to be accessible to most students at all stages of writing.
• Students are advised to book appointments. However, most will ‘drop-in’.
• Students visit because they need help now, and are keen to ‘get on with it’.
Accessibility issues cont…
• only one delivery site at Buffalo City has a Writing Centre where students can walk-in and receive help on the spot.
• Other sites are 25km – 30 km away from the main Writing Centre.
• the consultant will visit on invitation by lecturers or when she has appointments with students.
The pilot group
• The pilot group was a Communications II class in the Fine Arts Department.
• Contact was lecturer initiated.
• One-on-one consultation sessions with the students after workshop in the lecture venue.
• Follow up contact session a week later
The pilot group
• Students were encouraged to email their drafts to the Writing Centre for further review.
• The size of the class (25 students) allowed for a quicker turn-around time of less than 72 hours.
• Two different tasks were submitted via email during Term 3.
Evaluation tool
• A questionnaire was administered at the beginning of 4th term to:
• Assess the effectiveness of email consultation• Assess the attitude of students towards the new
tool.
• The assessment tool had 15 items.
The Questionnaire
The items included questions on:
(i) students’ access to computers;
(ii)proficiency using popular applications especially MS Word;
(iii) the use of advanced Word tools;
(iv)the quality of service from the Writing Centre;
(v) students’ preferred form of consultation.
Findings and Discussion
nfer[U1] to the fact that a skilled interviewer, as the research instrument uses responses of [U1]I have highlighted all the instances in which you use “infer”. Try to replace the word with similar signal phrases to avoid the ‘dulling effect’ that is a result of the preponderance of one word.
nfer[U1] to the fact that a skilled interviewer, as the research instrument uses responses of [U1]I have highlighted all the instances in which you use “infer”. Try to replace the word with similar signal phrases to avoid the ‘dulling effect’ that is a result of the preponderance of one word.
nfer[U1] to the fact that a skilled interviewer, as the research instrument uses responses of [U1]I have highlighted all the instances in which you use “infer”. Try to replace the word with similar signal phrases to avoid the ‘dulling effect’ that is a result of the preponderance of one word.
infer[U1] to the fact that a skilled interviewer, as the research instrument uses responses of [U1]I have highlighted all the instances in which you use “infer”. Try to replace the word with similar signal phrases to avoid the ‘dulling effect’ that is a result of the preponderance of one word.
infer[U1] to the fact that a skilled interviewer, as the research instrument uses responses of [U1]I have highlighted all the instances in which you use “infer”. Try to replace the word with similar signal phrases to avoid the ‘dulling effect’ that is a result of the preponderance of one word.
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