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1
Ahmed, Abdel Hamid Mohamed Abdel Hamid. "The EFL essay writing difficulties of Egyptian student teachers of English : implications for essay writing curriculum and instruction." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/120146.
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The current study is conducted with the aim of investigating the essay writing difficulties of Egyptian student teachers of English. More specifically, it attempts to fulfil the following three aims: explore the focuses of teaching essay writing at one of the pioneering faculties of education in Egypt; investigate the different essay writing practices used by Egyptian essay writing teachers from teachers as well as their students’ perspectives; and identify the essay writing difficulties encountered by Egyptian student teachers of English at the concerned faculty of education from both students and their teachers’ perspectives. The current study adopts an interpretive methodology that uses a sequential mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis. Therefore, I administered a questionnaire to 165 student teachers of English and 7 essay writing teachers, conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 14 student teachers of English and 7 essay writing teachers, and observed nine essay writing sessions of different teachers. Data is analysed quantitatively using SPSS descriptive statistics and qualitatively using exploratory content analysis. Findings of the current study reveal that there are eleven focuses of teaching essay writing at the concerned faculty of education. These focuses have been classified into four main categories: Mechanics/Language, Content, Structure/Layout and Practising Writing. Findings also shed light on the essay writing teachers’ practices in relation to planning, teaching, feedback and assessment. Finally, findings show that student teachers of English encounter the following difficulties in their essay writing: planning difficulties, organisational difficulties including coherence, cohesion, and stylistic difficulties, lexical problems, and technical difficulties including grammar, punctuation, spelling and revision and editing. According to the above mentioned findings, a theoretical writing model has been devised and a pedagogical process genre approach to teaching EFL essay writing in Egypt has been proposed. Implications for essay writing curriculum planning and instruction are also included. Finally, suggestions for further research are provided.
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Westrup, Rebecca Anne. "Writing narratives : an exploration of undergraduate students' relationships with essay writing." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.539645.
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Malie, Tebogo Ma'Khopotso. "Improve your essay writing : the essential guide." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/21239.
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Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The application designed is an attempt to solve the problems that students face in writing well balanced academic essays. These are essays that are correct in structure and form, coherent and cohesive, well referenced, and not plagiarised. These concerns are addressed in five basic units. These are "Where to Start", "The Basic Structure", "Paragraphing", "Referencing" and "Exercises". The exercises serve as a summary of all the units. This application derived out of the needs of the students of the University of Botswana. The content was a result of a needs analysis done through observation and interviews. The evaluation of the application was done by the students themselves and fellow students at Stellenbosch University.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie voorlegging is 'n soeke na 'n oplossing vir die probleme wat studente ondervind om 'n goed-gebalanseerde akademiese essay (werkstuk, proefskrif, tesis) te skryf. Hierdie is essays wat in struktuur en vorm korrek is, duidelik en relevant is, korrekte verwysings het en nie nageskryf (plagiaat) is nie. Die probleme is in vyf afdelings bespreek; nl. "Waar om te Begin", "Die Basiese Struktuur", "Paragrawe", "Verwysings" en "Oefeninge". Die oefeninge dien as opsomming vir al die eenhede. Hierdie voorlegging het ontstaan uit ’n behoefte van die studente by die Universiteit Botswana. Die inhoud was die resultaat van 'n behoefte-analise wat deur observasie en onderhoude gedoen is. Die evaluasie is deur die betrokke studente en studente aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch gedoen.
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Подолкова, Світлана Віталіївна, Светлана Витальевна Подолкова, and Svitlana Vitaliivna Podolkova. "Essay as a form of academic writing." Thesis, Sumy State University, 2019. https://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/77009.
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Common information society actualizes the problem of foreign language study
by students and graduate students of non-linguistic specialties. The benefit of acquiring
skills to write academically gives opportunity to participate in international
conferences, to publish research papers in various journals.
Actuality of the paper is determined by the importance of academic writing,
particularly academic essays, for contemporary students and post-graduate students, as
they are expected to write a lot of written works like dissertation, thesis writing,
coursework writing, research paper writing, and essay writing, etc. Academic writing
teaches students to analyze and choose useful information for further research, to look
at the ideas from a different prospective and to convey concepts and obtained results
best to their target readers.
5
LaBarge, Emily. "The essay as art form." Thesis, Royal College of Art, 2016. http://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/1789/.
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Beginning with Montaigne’s essayistic dictum Que sais je? — ‘What do I know?’ — this PhD thesis examines the literary history, formal qualities, and theoretical underpinnings of the personal essay to both investigate and to practice its relevance as an approach to writing about art. The thesis proposes the essay as intrinsically linked to research, critical writing, and art making; it is a literary method that embodies the real experience of attempting to answer a question. The essay is a processual and reflexive mode of enquiry: a form that conveys not just the essayist’s thought, but the sense and texture of its movement as it attempts to understand its object. It is often invoked, across disciplines, in reference to the possibility of a more liberal sense of creative practice — one that conceptually and stylistically privileges collage, fragmentation, hybridity, chance, open-endedness, and the meander. Within this question of the essay as form, the thesis contains two distinct and parallel strands of analysis — subject matter and essay writing as research. At the core of the study lie two close-readings: Ana Mendieta’s Labyrinth of Venus (1982) and Le Couvent de la Tourette (1959) by Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis. In each case, the writing draws, in its tone and texture, on a range of literary influences, weaving together different voices, discussions, and approaches to enquiry. The practice of essay writing is presented alongside, part and party to, research: a method of interrogation that embraces risk and uncertainty, and simultaneously enacts its own findings as a critical-creative mode of study-via-form, and form-via-study. The thesis is presented as a book-length essay, in which the art in question is equal and intimately connected to the writing used to address it. Method and form are designed to respond to the oft-cited challenge of the essay as fundamentally unmethodical, ranging, and diverse. Research, critical study, writerly description, and storytelling are combined to elucidate and expose each other based not on surface continuity, but on a deep interconnection among ideas that, through language, cohere and become related — imbued with an affinity for one another. The consummate product is the argument, as it works across genres, disciplines, descriptive and critical models, to challenge the narrative structure and language used within contemporary writing about art.
6
Heeks, Richard James. "Discovery writing and genre." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/13802.
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This study approaches ‘discovery writing’ in relation to genre, investigating whether different genres of writing might be associated with different kinds of writing processes. Discovery writing can be thought of as writing to find out what you think, and represents a reversal of the more usual sense that ideas precede writing, or that planning should precede writing. Discovery writing has previously been approached in terms of writers’ orientations, such as whether writers are Planners or Discoverers. This study engages with these previous theories, but places an emphasis on genres of writing, and on textual features, such as how writers write fictional characters, or how writers generate arguments when writing essays. The two main types of writing investigated are fiction writing and academic writing. Particular genres include short stories, crime novels, academic articles, and student essays. 11 writers were interviewed, ranging from professional fiction authors to undergraduate students. Interviews were based on a recent piece of a writer’s own writing. Most of the writers came from a literary background, being either fiction writers or Literature students. Interviews were based on set questions, but also allowed writers to describe their writing largely in their own terms and to describe aspects of their writing that interested them. A key aspect of this approach was that of engaging writers in their own interests, from where interview questions could provide a basis for discussion. Fiction writing seemed characterized by emergent processes, where writers experienced real life events and channelled their experiences and feelings into stories. The writing of characters was often associated with discovery. A key finding for fiction writing was that even writers who planned heavily and identified themselves somewhat as Planners, also tended to discover more about their characters when writing. Academic writing was characterized by difficulty, where discovery was often described in relation to struggling to summarize arguments or with finding key words. A key conclusion from this study is that writers may be Planners or Discoverers by orientation, as previous theory has recognised. However, the things that writers plan and discover, such as plots and characters, also play an important role in their writing processes.
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Beckerling, Philippa Mary. "Wings into darkness & Poetry - An Essay." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6938.
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Dwyer, Edward J. "Using a Journalism Model for Teaching Essay Writing." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 1992. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/3381.
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House, Jud L. "Madam Pele: Novel and essay." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2006. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/37.
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Novel. My novel deals with the themes of obsession, jealousy, volatility, and revenge, while simultaneously dealing with the more benign theme of love within relationships, and holiday-mode pleasures. Divided into different narrative voices, it traces the interweaving stories of Madam Pele, Goddess of volcanoes and lava, a small lava rock, and Di and Paul, both during their past holiday in Hawaii, and in the present in Perth. Inadvertantly transporting Pele within the rock on their return from Hawaii, they unwittingly release her rage upon their city. Essay. In this essay I cover contemporary theoretical considerations, such as Modernism, Postmodernism and Fantasy, and an analysis of various influential authors' writing techniques, descriptive language and narrative-plot genres, that led me to want to write my novel Madam Pele as a contemporary mythical fantasy. I then detail the devices, (such as voices, patterns, free verse, active verbs and so on) that I used to achieve this result - the implausable becoming reality with the Pele myth incorporated into the contemporary world.
10
Gabier, Muhammad Saaligh. "The wedding interviews: A novella." University of the Western Cape, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/6524.
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Magister Artium - MAIt’s quite simple really. During these interviews you get to talk about anything you like. I’ll ask questions here and there to help the story along. Just be honest and try to forget about the camera. We’ll use the interview footage to complement the live footage to help tell your story. Wedding from Different Worlds is probably the most honest and authentic documentary series on television. You’re pretty lucky to star in one of the episodes. So relax and say anything.
11
Du, Toit Tania. "Portefeulje, Witskrif ; Essay, Die representasie van stilte in poësie." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13318.
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Includes bibliographical references.The objective of the essay is to examine the meaning and content in the white space or iconic white in poetry, with specific reference to the representation of silence. The investigation focuses on the existence of a universal distinguishing white grammar with poets, as it manifests in their individual works, where this white grammar includes the use of an iconic white alphabet as well as specific narratives of silence, or the unmentionable/unspeakable. Possible catalysts and factors that influence the origin, initiation and maintenance of a specific narrative within this white grammar, are discussed and considered. It is found that optimal poetry reading and assimilation implies consideration for the white grammar. The works of two established poets, namely the South African Petra Müller (Afrikaans) and the Belgian Miriam Van hee (Flemish), as well as unpublished poems by Tania du Toit (Afrikaans) are analysed and discussed to inform the investigation.
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Lu, Yanbin. "Cognitive Factors Contributing to Chinese EFL Learners’ L2 Writing Performance in Timed Essay Writing." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2010. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/alesl_diss/13.
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This study investigated cognitive factors that might influence Chinese EFL learners’ argumentative essay writing in English. The factors that were explored included English (L2) language proficiency, Chinese (L1) writing ability, genre knowledge, use of writing strategies, and working memory capacity in L1 and L2. Data were collected from 136 university students who received a battery of tests in two sessions. The tests consisted of timed essay writing tasks in L1 and L2, post-writing questionnaires for genre knowledge and use of strategies in the writing process, a timed grammaticality judgment task for L2 grammar knowledge, a receptive vocabulary test and a controlled-production vocabulary test for L2 vocabulary knowledge, and working memory span tasks in L1 and L2. Quantitative analyses using correlations, paired-samples t-test, analysis of variance and multiple regression revealed that L2 language proficiency is the most important predictor of L2 writing, followed by genre knowledge and L2 writing strategies. L1 writing ability and working memory capacity have slight impact as explanatory variables for L2 writing performance in the timed essay writing task.
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Cibella, Marc. "On Writing 2: An Essay Collection and Loose Sequel to Stephen King's On Writing." University of Akron / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1523230814234157.
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Crum, Ailsa Kirsten Laird. "Floating (a novel), and, Writing and not writing : a novel called 'Floating' (an essay)." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2017. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/8180/.
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This thesis comprises a fictional novel, Floating, and a critical essay. The essay explores the borderlines between autobiographical writing (including memoir) and fiction. Using autobiographical narrative, the essay explores the inspiration and influences for writing the novel, Floating. It considers authors’ attitudes to autobiography in fiction, drawing on the work of Jessie Kesson before examining the literary techniques used by three contemporary authors: Jeanette Winterson, Janice Galloway and Jackie Kay. It considers particular challenges of writing autobiographically including: narrative perspective, identity, truth and invention. The novel engages with themes arising in the essay, particularly those relating to the creation and assumption of identity through recounting memory.
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Schroder, Simone. "Turning nature into essays : the epistemological and poetic function of the nature essay." Thesis, University of Bath, 2017. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.760937.
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The topic of this doctoral thesis is the nature essay: a literary form that became widely used in European literature around 1800 and continues to flourish in times of ecological crisis. Blending natural history discourse, essayistic thought patterns, personal anecdotes, and lyrical descriptions, nature essays are hybrid literary texts. Their authors have often been writers with a background in science. As interdis-cursive agents they move swiftly between different knowledge formations. This equips them with a unique potential in the context of ecology. Essayistic narrators can grasp the interdisciplinary character of environmental issues because they have the ability to combine different types of knowledge. They can be encyclopae¬dic fact mongers, metaphysical ramblers and ethical counsellors. More often than not they are all in one person. Where nature essays were taken into consideration so far they were mostly discussed together with other nature-oriented nonfiction forms under the label ‘nature writing’. This study proposes a different approach in that it insists that the nature essay has to be understood as a literary form in its own right. It explores canonical works of nature writing, such as Thoreau’s Walden, often for the first time as nature essays by discussing them alongside other typical examples of this genre tradition. In order to better understand the discursive impact of this form, I frame my discussion in the context of ecocritical theory. This means that I analyse my corpus of texts with regard to the ways in which writers depict the relationships between human and nonhuman spheres. Putting a particular focus on Germanic and An-glophone literature, the present thesis investigates central paradigms in the evolu-tion of nature essay writing. It covers a time period that stretches from its roots in late eighteenth-century natural history discourse to the present, identifying key epistemological, formal, and thematic patterns of this literary form the importance of which so far has been rather neglected by literary criticism.
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Esambe, Emmanuel Ekale. "Formartive feedback and essay-writing practices for at-risk students." Thesis, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/1962.
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Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree Magister of Education in the Faculty of Education at the Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyThe core problematique of this study is to establish a collaborative intervention strategy as a model that could facilitate the design and dissemination of appropriate formative feedback during essay-writing practices with at risk ECP and first-year students.
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Teague, Sian. "Sink or swim: A memoir - and - Writing memoir: Truths, tensions, transitions: An essay." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2014. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2333.
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Burton, Gerald Lee. "Essay Writing in College Mathematics and Its Effect on Achievement." VCU Scholars Compass, 1986. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/4395.
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This experiment was designed to determine the effect essay writing has on learning introductory level college mathematics, learning mathematical skills, problem-solving and mathematical applications, and the retention of new knowledge in mathematics. The independent variable was the writing of essays. Essay writing included responding to questions assigned as homework and addressing mathematical situations presented in in-class activities. The dependent variables were overall achievement, skills, applications, and retention in each of these areas. The sample consisted of five classes of introductory-level algebra at Virginia State University. The experimental group consisted of 50 students in two classes; the control group was made up of 49 students in three classes. Achievement was measured by a twenty-question, multiple-choice test. Students took a different form of the test three times: pretest, posttest, and retention test. Mathematical skill ability was determined by subscores based on fifteen problems from the tests. The remaining five questions made up a subtest measuring the ability to solve mathematical application problems. The period of treatment was four weeks although the control group covered the material in three weeks. The essays were graded according to their completeness, accuracy, and clarity. Based on total scores the experimental group was divided into three subgroups- good writers, average writers, and poor writers. Analysis of covariance was used to test the null hypotheses. Results of this study indicated that essay writing in college mathematics classes did not improve mathematics achievement but suggested a highly positive effect on retention.
Students identified as good writers received the greatest benefit as a result of writing essays. Good writers showed higher achievement than either poor writers or students who did not write essays at all. The researcher notes that creating, explaining, practicing, and grading the essay assignments are very time-consuming activities. Even so, the treatment is recommended for mathematics teachers because of the possible effect on retention and the increased interest level of the students.
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Kanzler, Katja. "Architecture, writing, and vulnerable signification in Hermann Melville's "I and My Chimney"." Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2015. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-162997.
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The following essay discusses Herman Melville’s “I and My Chimney” (1856) as a text that engages architecture and writing as interrelated systems of signification. Fueled by a variety of historical developments, domestic architecture emerges as a powerful purveyor of meaning in the antebellum decades. Architecture, in this cultural context, is construed in analogy to writing (and, to some extent, vice versa), as creating houses-as-texts that tell stories about their inhabitants in terms of their individual, familial, and national identities. Thus conceived, domestic architecture is characteristically enlisted in the articulation and stabilization of hegemonic narratives of, e. g., gender and nationhood. Melville’s text invokes this cultural convention to cast the signifying function that architecture and writing perform as being vulnerable and in crisis.
This crisis is narrated by an idiosyncratic narrator for whom the semiotic instability documented by his narrative resonates with the social and cultural vulnerability that he experiences—his authority as master of his house and family is challenged in the course of the tale, along with the structural integrity of his chimney with which he wants to symbolically reinforce his authority.
I argue that this crisis of signification performs double work in the text. On the one hand, it serves to articulate the anxiety of mid-nineteenth-century cultural elites about what they perceive as a cultural decline. On the other hand, allegedly dysfunctional signification unfolds a critical potential, bringing to light things which ‘functional’ signification had worked to conceal and thereby unlocking hermetic narratives of self, family, and nation.
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Kalikokha, Chimwemwe. "The perceptions of a group of first year undergraduate Malawian students of the essay writing process." Click here to access this resource online, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10292/396.
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The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of the essay writing process of first year undergraduates at Chancellor College (University of Malawi) and to a lesser extent those of the lecturers responsible for teaching academic skills. A mixed methods design, combining qualitative and quantitative techniques, was employed in order to obtain richer data for deeper understanding of the students’ writing process. Two hundred students from the humanities and social science faculties responded to a self-completion questionnaire towards the end of semester one. Based on the students’ responses, an open-ended questionnaire was administered to four full time English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors. Findings from this study indicate that most students find it very challenging to obtain sufficient and relevant source text information, paraphrase or summarise information, and use an appropriate academic writing style. As solutions to these challenges, the students suggested the need for timely essay writing instruction, availability of resources for essay writing, increased amount of time spent on essay writing instruction, and discipline specific instruction in essay writing. EAP instructors identified lack of teaching and learning materials, large EAP classes, and students’ negative attitude towards the EAP course, as some of the challenges they encounter when teaching the course. The EAP instructors proposed an increase in the number of staff members, making students aware of the significance of the EAP course at an early stage, and the availability of up to date resources, as some of the ways in which the teaching of the course can be improved. Overall, the findings seem to suggest that difficulties that students encounter during the writing process and teaching challenges that EAP instructors face, have great impact on students’ perception of academic writing as well as their approach to writing tasks. The findings also suggest a lack of dialogue between the students and their lecturers. This is evident in students’ unawareness of the nature of the writing demands of their lecturers and disciplines; students’ desire to have timely essay writing instruction; and the lecturers’ concerns about students’ negative attitude towards the EAP course.
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Zheng, Bin. "Negotiating languages and literacies : intermediate level Chinese heritage learners' essay writing." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/44352.
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With the interrelated trends of globalization and immigration, Chinese heritage language (CHL) learners have become a noticeable and growing constituent in language programs in postsecondary institutions. Despite impressive oral vernacular proficiency, they typically lack formal and sophisticated registers and their HL literacy is often underdeveloped. Although it has been widely acknowledged that the major goal of university HL education is to cultivate formal registers and develop literacy for academic or professional success, the research literature includes very few studies on university CHL learners’ Chinese literacy, and particularly essay writing proficiency.
This thesis investigates intermediate level CHL learners’ HL essay writing, providing a detailed description of the unique features of their Chinese essays by close examination of their writing samples both on local and global levels. Furthermore, from the sociocultural perspective of literacy, the study explores the CHL learners’ daily language and literacy practice through one on one semi-structured interviews, which offers a greater understanding of the factors that have contributed to the existing features of their essay writing.
This study finds that the CHL learners’ essay writing demonstrates their active use of all the language and literacy resources in their language repertoire. Their essay writing also shows certain amounts of hybridity and syncretism, characterized by a lack of formal vocabulary, transfer of syntax, organization and rhetorical strategies from the dominant language- English, on the one hand, their use of certain sophisticated words and set phrases, on the other hand, reflects the HL assets that they bring to Chinese classes and language production. Furthermore, the interviews reveal that English, Mandarin and Cantonese are practiced in different domains of the CHL learners’ lives, with English as their dominant language. Their literacy activities are far more mediated by English than Chinese, and their use of Mandarin and Cantonese is more oral than written. The thesis concludes that the ecology of the languages and literacies in the CHL learners’ lives strongly influences the features of their essay writing on both local and global levels.
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Wood, Danielle. "The Alphabet of Light and Dark : A Novel and Accompanying Essay." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2003. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/303.
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This thesis comprises n novel titled The Alphabet of Light and Dark and an accompanying essay titled ''The Skeleton of a Mermaid: Writing The Alphabet of Light and Dark'. The novel tells the story of Essie Lewis, an oceanographer in Western Australia, who returns to her home in Tasmania at the time of her grandfather's death. She inherits a sea chest full of strange treasures- among them a paper nautilus shell, a wedding band, a coil of fair hair, a coconut, and a thruppence piece coated in nacre.
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Kanzler, Katja. "Architecture, writing, and vulnerable signification in Hermann Melville's "I and My Chimney"." Universitätsverlag Winter, 2009. https://tud.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A28583.
Full textAbstract:
The following essay discusses Herman Melville’s “I and My Chimney” (1856) as a text that engages architecture and writing as interrelated systems of signification. Fueled by a variety of historical developments, domestic architecture emerges as a powerful purveyor of meaning in the antebellum decades. Architecture, in this cultural context, is construed in analogy to writing (and, to some extent, vice versa), as creating houses-as-texts that tell stories about their inhabitants in terms of their individual, familial, and national identities. Thus conceived, domestic architecture is characteristically enlisted in the articulation and stabilization of hegemonic narratives of, e. g., gender and nationhood. Melville’s text invokes this cultural convention to cast the signifying function that architecture and writing perform as being vulnerable and in crisis.
This crisis is narrated by an idiosyncratic narrator for whom the semiotic instability documented by his narrative resonates with the social and cultural vulnerability that he experiences—his authority as master of his house and family is challenged in the course of the tale, along with the structural integrity of his chimney with which he wants to symbolically reinforce his authority.
I argue that this crisis of signification performs double work in the text. On the one hand, it serves to articulate the anxiety of mid-nineteenth-century cultural elites about what they perceive as a cultural decline. On the other hand, allegedly dysfunctional signification unfolds a critical potential, bringing to light things which ‘functional’ signification had worked to conceal and thereby unlocking hermetic narratives of self, family, and nation.
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Cailes, John. "Following the game." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2001. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1016.
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This thesis consists of a collection of seventeen short stories and a critical essay of approximately 8000 words. Selected stories from this collection are discussed at varying length in the essay. Within the essay I have attempted to look at- and in one case in particular to demonstrate - the operation of some of the theories put forward by several literary critics- notably, Roland Barthes, Wolfgang lser, Mikhail Bakhtin and, to a lesser degree directly, Norman Holland. Not all of my stories were written with the specific purpose of having them conform to or elucidate a model: rather, to preserve what to my mind is implied in the term 'creative writing', only a few - one, perhaps - came to life as a technical exercise and the process of that tale's evolution is referenced in the essay.
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Murphy, Rashida. "The Historian’s Daughter (A novel); Monsters and Memory (An essay)." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2015. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1708.
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This thesis comprises two parts, a novel and an essay. ‘The Historian’s Daughter’ is a work of fiction based on family memories and historical research that speaks to the trauma of abandonment and displacement in an immigrant family living in Australia. The accompanying essay is titled ‘Monsters and Memory’ and is an autoethnographical text which combines theoretical, experiential and embodied research to argue that the inclusion of women’s stories, particularly those of trauma and abuse, must be foregrounded in any exploration of cultural and diasporic memory. Drawing primarily on the work of Said (1978, 1993, 1999, 2001), Bhabha (1990, 1994), Caruth (1995), Kuhn (1999), Metta (2010), Barrett (2010), Reed-Danahay (1997), Ellis (2004), Kapur (2001) and Mohanty (2004), this thesis contributes to current debates in Australia about bicultural identity, refugees and migrants. The novel is located in three countries, India, Iran and Australia, and this allows me to explore the concept of ‘home’ in a rapidly changing world when ‘home’ is no longer a place of refuge and safety. Returning home, therefore, can be fraught with political danger, as in the case of post-revolutionary Iran and post-Rajiv Gandhi assassination India.
This is a novel about what happens to a family when a loving mother abruptly walks out on them. Using a first-person narrative, the novel encompasses the narrator’s abandonment as a child in India, her subsequent relocation to Australia, her relationship with her menacing father and her attempt to locate and rescue her sister from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Using a fractured chronology, the narrative has four sections that loop back and forth as the story unfolds.
My interest in the complexities of voluntary migration or forced exile from so-called Third- World countries to a First-World country such as Australia prompted my immersion in the stories that women told of their experiences of living in a ‘safe’ country. I was consumed by a desire to ‘hear’ women’s voices, in particular, the voices of Indian and Iranian women speaking accented English. I was interested in their responses to particular written texts and whether those stories accurately represented their bicultural ‘belongings.’ Therefore, I initiated a Reading Group and invited them, over an eighteen-month period, to read four published texts written by Indian and Iranian women. The objective was to record the readers’ responses to the literature they read, with an understanding that they would also read ‘The Historian’s Daughter’ as it evolved. As cultural observer, participant and researcher in the study, I was able to discern “multiple layers of consciousness” and to challenge my own beliefs as a first generation immigrant woman in Australia (Ellis & Bochner, 2000; Ellis, 2004; Anderson, 2006).
Reconciling the divide between remaining faithful to memory in all its complexity and slipperiness as well as being mindful of the familial issues involved in recreating events from the past is one of the challenges this thesis grapples with. The dilemma of representing family uncritically is balanced by a desire to reclaim the ‘power of the text to change the world’ and make it a better place (Ellis, 2004). This thesis investigates the power of storytelling as a framework for thinking about the world. I am aware that my personal experiences of race, identity and sexual violence have impacted on both parts of this thesis. It is these experiences, supported by theoretical research, that I offer in the context of providing insights into broader cultural issues within specific immigrant communities in Australia.
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Westkaemper, Lisa. "Tiger; a stage play, and a reflective essay detailing the writing process." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2002. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3167/.
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This thesis includes a full length play and a separate section describing the creation of this play. The play depicts family members struggling with the direct and indirect ramifications of alcoholism, depression, and suicide. The play is composed of two acts; act one contains eight scenes, and act two contains six scenes. It is set in the 1950s and 1960s and takes place in various areas of the family home, at a wedding reception, and at a funeral. The essay section includes a description of the process, a record of changes in the play's direction, notations of personal discoveries, and a self evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the play.
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Butler, Michele Jean. "Understanding the aesthetic effect of the familiar essay and its importance in the composition class." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1987. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/406.
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Earley, Deja Anne. "Keeping Gardens: Poetry and Essay." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2005. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd943.doc.
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Moriarty, Megan Marie. "A Forecast." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/77477.
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A Forecast is a manuscript of poems that explores themes of longing, loss, uncertainty, time, place, and love. The poems also attempt to explore and adorn these themes through inventiveness and imagination. While inhabiting this imaginative landscape, the poems play with notions of perception, acting as objective witnesses to very subjective persons, places, and things. These poems are held together by their movement through stasis, fascination with weather, seasons, and the future, and the fragmented yet illuminated spaces they occupy, where the extraordinary seems ordinary and the ordinary seems extraordinary. What results is a series of explorations through a dreamlike world, led by a voice who wonders, hesitates, and hides, all the while trying to say something, to shape the world and tug you into it.Master of Fine Arts
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Krämer, Raimund. "Wissenschaftliches Schreiben. - 2., überarb. Aufl." Universität Potsdam, 2009. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/texte_eingeschraenkt_welttrends/2009/3699/.
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Wie schreibe ich einen Literaturbericht? Was gehört in einen Exzerpt? Wer sich mit den Schwierigkeiten des wissenschaftlichen Schreibens herumschlägt, kann sich an den WeltTrends – Lehrtext Nr. 4 wenden. In kurzen und präzisen Kapiteln wird dem Leser der korrekte Umgang mit den verschiedenen Anforderungen wissenschaftlicher Arbeit, wozu auch Protokolle und Referate zählen, nahe gebracht. Insbesondere die klare, strukturierte Darstellung der jeweiligen Anforderungen kann eine große Hilfe für den Anfänger darstellen.
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Hoskins, Sherria Linda. "The development of undergraduates' approaches to studying and essay writing in higher education." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/439.
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Higher education has undergone a massive expansion particularly over the last twenty years. However,the value of this expansion is difficult to as certain. Despite a growing field of research in to adult learning in higher education little is known about the type of learning developed in this system. Biggs (1996) expressed concern that university learning is represented by increased knowledge and assessment requiring students to reproduce content, not demonstrate critical thinking. He claimed that this type of learning exists even in course-work essay writing. These concerns formed the theoretical framework for the current research, which explored the development of approaches to studying (using the ASI) and course-work essay writing in highere ducation. Students were not examined as homogeneous but as traditional and non-traditional entrants with different experiences of learning. Students' approaches to essay writing were measured using the Essay Writing Process Questionnaire (EWPQ) and the Essay Writing Orientation Questionnaire (EWOQ). The development of these tools was informed by a Grounded Theory of course-work essay writing, developed in the current research using focus group data. Results revealed that the meaning orientation of the ASI and understanding orientation of the EWOQ increased systematically across all age groups. Deadline motivationin essay writing and a generic reproducing orientation decreased across a ll age groups. This indicates that traditional aged students' previous experience of learning may have predisposed them to less sophisticated le rning styles. Few changes were observed in students' writing processes across the year sof a degree. Approaches to studying and essay writing orientations did not become less sophisticated with exposure to higher education but neither did sophistication increase. Fligher education did not compensate for traditional students' previous experience. Their learning styles remain the same across the three years of a degree. These findings fail to support Biggs' concerns that surface type approaches increase with exposure to university. However, neither do they indicate that higher education, specifically essay writing, encourage critical thinking and understanding. Rather university maintains the level of deep and surface approaches to studying and essay writing with which students enter university.
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Passannanti, Erminia. "Essay writing, lyric diction and poetic translation in the work of Franco Fortini." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.406749.
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Albaaly, Emad Ahmed Mohamed Solima. "The impact of the interactive whiteboard on medical school students' ESL essay writing." Thesis, Durham University, 2010. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/563/.
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This study aimed to investigate the impact of the interactive whiteboard (IWB) on the Egyptian medical school students’ ESL (English as a Second Language) essay writing and attitudes towards writing. The study clarified the evidence regarding Egyptian medical students’ relative weakness in writing as compared to the other language skills. It therefore investigated the general areas of writing, and identified the writing skills essential for the medical students, and designed a module based on these identified skills. An experimental design was adopted. The sample was composed of sixty students randomly selected and later divided into two separate groups: one intervention group which was taught by the IWB and a control group by the traditional method which involved teaching with a pen and paper, and a whiteboard. Four instruments were used: 1) a writing micro-skill questionnaire investigating specialists’ views on the skills important to the medical students; 2) a writing test assessing students’ achievement in ESL essay writing; 3) a writing attitude survey assessing students’ views about writing before and after both methods were used. These instruments were applied to both groups, as well as an additional IWB Attitude survey assessing students’ views about the IWB before and after the intervention for the intervention group. Results reveal that twenty nine writing skills were required by students, according to the specialists’ views and, more importantly, the IWB had no positive impact on the Egyptian students’ attainment in ESL essay writing (a non- significant effect size of -0.18). By contrast, it is revealed that the IWB had a positive impact on students’ attitudes towards both writing (effect size of 1.88) and towards the board itself.
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Fisher, Joan E. "The Intelligent Essay Assessor Autograder and Its Effect on Reducing College Writing Anxiety." Thesis, Keiser University, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10265396.
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Writing anxiety impedes meta-cognitive writing strategies, which results in a decline in writing skills amongst college freshman composition students. This study examined the effect autograders have on reducing writing anxiety. This paper presented (a) was there significant difference in students’ writing anxiety based on autograder usage for evaluation, (b) was there significant difference in writing anxiety on the basis gender, and (c) was there significant difference in writing anxiety on the basis of age. The participants were 129 community college undergraduate composition students, 67 male students and 62 female students, of first year English Composition Community College classes 2017. The samples were selected using purposive sampling. The data were collected from the Daly/Miller Writing Apprehensive Test adapted for Survey Monkey as a pretest to determine a baseline writing anxiety scale and as a post-test from an experimental group using an autograder to evaluate the writing and a control group using an instructor to evaluate the writing following an in-class writing. Then, the data were analyzed quantitatively using ANCOVA and ANOVA. The result showed no statistically significant difference on the basis of autograder usage, gender, or age. However, the findings confirmed previous research on community college students and indicated community college students’ exhibit writing anxiety. In addition the study almost resulted in statistical significance on the basis of gender and age. Closer analysis revealed students’ writing anxiety decreased with each writing attempt.
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Aracena, Alan, Marcelo Fernández, Cristóbal Fuentes, Temer Verónica González, Francisca Vera, and María Paz Zúñiga. "An Analytical Assessment of the Performance of EFL University Students in Essay Writing." Tesis, Universidad de Chile, 2006. http://www.repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/110382.
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Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa.Writing is a complex linguistic ability that needs years of practice in order to be mastered. As a matter of fact, it is an ability that can never be fully acquired. Its acquisition involves a series of cognitive processes and socio-linguistic factors. Actually, writing may be considered an extension and reflection of one’s interests, knowledge and perspectives, which are transcribed into words to keep them in the permanent mind across time. Since 1970, the writing process has been of major concern for the academic field, considering the growing status of writing not only as a way of practicing other abilities, but as an independent skill of communication. Within the same field, universities have given an increasingly important role to written activities, using exams and papers in order to measure the students’ writing competence for a variety of purposes, such as assessment, evaluation and as a tool to choose possible candidates to enter these institutions. The latter has led to the development of different types of tests which reflect the student’s capability in English as a second language. This research aims at the presentation of important aspects about the writing process, placing emphasis on English as a second language, and a study of 4th year students of Linguistics of the University of Chile in essay writing, in order to, first, cover the aspects evaluators might consider when assessing writing, and second, the results this kind of study may offer.
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Berman, Robert. "Transfer of writing skills between languages : L1 versus L2 teaching of persuasive essay writing to intermediate-level Icelandic EFL students." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.306878.
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Moffett, Patricia. "Saphira, the snake priestess : a novel, and; Minoan is not Greek : an essay." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2011. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/457.
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The creative project of the novel, Saphira, the Snake Priestess, embodied two goals. The first was to write a novel to appeal to what I have termed the sub Young Adult reader, the reader of around fourteen years of age. The second was to introduce this age group to the remarkable Minoan civilisation of around 1600BC. The novel aims to stimulate interest in the subjects of Ancient History and Mythology that inform studies in English and Literature in the later years of secondary school. The essay, Minoan is not Greek, explains some of the reasons for the distinction between the Minoan and the later Mycenaean and Greek civilisations. As explained in the essay, the creative project is an historical novel, not a work of history. The first section of the essay discusses some of the novels that have appeal for the student of around fourteen years of age. The second section of the essay explores the way in which a novel may be written about a civilisation, from which there is no deciphered writing, based on archaeology, artefacts and mythology. In the last section of the essay on the relevant mythology, there is a brief indication of the psychological basis for the archetypal motifs that have persisted in the western tradition. Both novel and essay show the reader that Minoan achievements were distinct from later developments on the Greek mainland and represent the first efflorescence of western civilisation.
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Masha, Khanyisa Rose. "A case study investigating the essay writing skills of Eastern Cape Technikon education students using the Writing Process Workshop language software." Thesis, Link to the online version, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019/1104.
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Clarken, Rehema M. "EFL Education in Mainland China| Word Memorization and Essay Writing among High School Sophomores." Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10684273.
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This dissertation explores English as a Foreign Language instruction within the context of the contemporary Chinese education system. Basic outlines chart the historical development of EFL studies in the United States and China framing the question of what each community values as important measures of success when assessing language learning. While traditional Chinese methods value strict memorization of vast word lists ([special characters omitted], BeiDanCi, BDC) the US educational community stresses essay writing—particularly on standardized tests such as the ACT, SAT, and TOEFL, which are required for university admissions. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and writing ability among Grade 10 Chinese high schoolers in a megalopolis in mainland China. Students’ vocabulary knowledge was measured with Nation’s Vocabulary Size Test, and students’ writing ability was assessed with an essay graded using the TOEFL iBT ® Integrated Writing Rubrics. The results validate previous findings among different L2 populations by observing a moderate correlation between vocabulary knowledge and writing ability.
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Schanding, Brian. "Shell Noun Use in Argumentative Essay Writing of English Learners and Native English Speakers." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1458814364.
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Castaldo, Márcia Martins. "Redação no vestibular: a língua cindida." Universidade de São Paulo, 2009. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/48/48134/tde-15092009-140633/.
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Ao término da Educação Básica, espera-se que um indivíduo esteja habilitado a redigir adequadamente em qualquer situação, que saiba interagir com a palavra para a produção escrita nos diversos gêneros textuais em circulação. Embora tais expectativas se realizem em alguns casos, em geral, a realidade vivenciada é diversa: mesmo após completarem os ensinos Fundamental e Médio, muitos sujeitos elaboram textos repletos de desvios, marcas que expõem as muitas dificuldades com a produção escrita, as quais revelam uma língua cindida entre um saber-dizer e um dever-dizer. Questionamentos sobre o que leva a essa cisão motivaram esta pesquisa. Considerando-se a perspectiva sócio-histórica, os conceitos bakhtinianos de gênero, dialogismo e polifonia, bem como preceitos da Lingüísitca Textual, o trabalho consistiu na análise de elementos composicionais da redação dissertativa de vestibular, gênero que desafia estudantes interessados em ingressar no Ensino Superior. Mais especificamente, foram analisados: (a) a norma lingüística, (b) os índices de pessoalidade e (c) a macroarticulação em uma amostra de 374 redações (1% do total) produzidas por candidatos inscritos no Vestibular-2007 promovido pela FUVEST (Fundação Universitária para o Vestibular) São Paulo, Brasil. Foram analisadas, também, algumas relações entre o perfil sócio-histórico dos candidatos e os perfis de escrita verificados nos textos. Depreendeu-se, das observações realizadas, que a excessiva preocupação com o outro, com o molde e com a demonstração do saber-fazer interfere no movimento de exteriorização do discurso: em vez de tentar levar ao texto seu universo e sua idéia, o estudante se propõe à tarefa de levar, para o papel, mundo e idéias presumidos do interlocutor e da interlocução, vivencia um confronto - e não uma negociação - entre um saber-dizer que se esvaece diante de um dever-dizer e cinde a língua. As observações realizadas revelaram, ainda uma escolarização que, no âmbito de sua atuação, parece não promover satisfatoriamente condições para o desenvolvimento de estratégias para o diálogo entre os saberes, parece não promover satisfatoriamente a possibilidade de escrever com autonomia.After concluding high school, students are expected to be able to write proficiently in any situation. They are supposed to interact with words in order to produce texts in the diverse genres currently circulating. Although some of these expectations are sometimes met, in general, the reality is different. Even after having fulfilled the academic requirements of high school, many students produce texts with several deviations, which signal difficulties with writing. This also reveals a schism between knowing-how-to-say-it and should-say. Questioning the reasons for this schism was the starting point for research. Based on sociohistorical patterns, bakhtinian concepts for genres of discourse, dialogism, and polyphony, as well as the Textual Linguistics precepts, this work consisted in analyzing the elements found in the Writing Essays from students participating in Standardized College Entrance Exams for the public universities in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. This is a genre of text which challenges students who want to enter into a college career. Specifically, the topics analyzed were: (a) proficiency in standard Portuguese , (b) personal input and (c) macroarticulation in a sample of 374 essays (1% of the total) from the entrance exam that was ministered through FUVEST (Foundation for College Entrance Exams), São Paulo, Brazil, from the year 2007. The analysis included also the relationship between the candidates socio-historic profile and the writing patterns found in their work. Through this analysis I could detect an exaggerated concern with the other one, with following a model, and with a concern in demonstrating the knowing-how-to-say-it. These concerns interfere with the movement of the discourse exteriorization: instead of putting in the text their own world view and their own ideas, students try to present a perspective that agrees with a presumed readers world view and ideas foreign to themselves: a confrontation and not an exchange between the knowhow- to-say-it and the should-say that schisms the language. My observations revealed also a schooling process that does not seem to promote satisfactory conditions to develop strategies that foster the dialogue among the diverse facets of knowledge, and does not promote the individuals self-reliance in their own writing.
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Williams, Karen L. "The beach house : a novel and, Exorcising Sarah's ghosts : (re)creating the self : an accompanying essay." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2006. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/327.
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Guidry, Cameron J. "Pieces| A Collection of Short Stories and an Essay on Humor as a Source of Engagement in Fiction." Thesis, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10268796.
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Humor is an ever-present aspect of American Literature, and, in particular, short fiction. While the construction of the comedic has been studied and broken down into its constituent parts, the reasons for its application are less studied and understood. This dissertation examines the application of humor and the comedic in the works of American writers: Raymond Carver, Flannery O’Connor, George Saunders, and Denis Johnson in order to gain understanding about the decision to include humor in a variety of their works. The goal of the critical introduction portion of Pieces is to illustrate the use of comedy as a means of creating engagement in works of short fiction, which may be less engaging as a matter of plot or character, and then to come to a conclusion about the decisions these authors make about humor while writing. The creative portion of Pieces is a collection of short fiction, which attempts to illustrate the same comedic application.
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Brito, Cristiane Carvalho de Paula. "Escrita no vestibular : quando o sujeito (des)aparece." [s.n.], 2004. http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/269244.
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Orientador: Maria Augusta Bastos de MattosDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-03T20:45:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Brito_CristianeCarvalhodePaula_M.pdf: 5224912 bytes, checksum: 92864270df75ba3123f1d94ba276e53a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004
Resumo: Este trabalho,fundamentado no dialogismobakhtinianoe nos referenciais teóricos da Análise do Discurso, de linha francesa, tem o objetivo de analisar dissertações de candidato sao Vestibular da Unicamp (1999), a fim de evidenciar como a subjetivida de se constitui ao longo do texto. A subjetividade nas redações será analisada por meio de três categorias: 1. posicionamento- que nos permitirá evidenciar os recursos utilizados pelo sujeito ao se posicionarem relação ao tema (ou questões com este envolvidas) proposto para a dissertação; 2. retextualizaçáo - em que evidenciaremos os recursos utilizados pelo sujeito ao se relacionar com os trechos de textos apresentados na prova; e 3. estilo - que investigará o trabalho do sujeito com os aspectos meramente lingiiísticos. Por fim, pode-se dizer que esta pesquisa pretende, de forma mais ampla, problematizar o ensino de escrita na escola, a partir de uma visão que considera a multiplicidade dos sentidos como fundamental em qualquer trabalho com a linguagem
Abstract: This work., based on the bakhtinian diaIogism and on the principIes of French Discourse Analyzes theory, aimsanalyze essay sof candidates to the University entrance's examination for Unicamp (1999), on the purpose of evidencing how subjectivity is constituted along the textoThe subjectivity in the essays will be analyzed through three categories: 1. positioning - which wiIl enable us to evidence the means used by the candidate when discussing theme (or mattersrelatedto it) proposedto write the essay; 2. retextualization - which will enableus to evidencethe meansused by the candidate to relate withthe texts presented in the examination; and 3. style - which will investigate the candidate's work with linguistic aspects. Finally,we can say that this research intends,in a greater extension,to think about the teaching of writing in school, starting ftom a vision that considers the multiplicity of sense as fundamental in any work dealing with language
Mestrado
Ensino-Aprendizagem de Lingua Materna
Mestre em Linguística Aplicada
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Goldthwaite, Melissa A. "Writing and reading selves in context : rhetorical functions of the personal essay in composition studies." The Ohio State University, 2001. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1287401017.
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Makgai, Maselepe Colly. "Essay writing skills : a concern in Sepedi secondary schools in the Bronkhorstspruit circuit Gauteng province." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/53430.
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Essay writing is a stepping stone to broaden the learner s intellect because it helps him or her to think logically, to plan, create and synthesize information which has to be clearly understood by the reader. Brown (2002:1) asserts that it cannot be written haphazardly without following a specific structure and consolidating its ideas with its supporting ideas so that they adhere to the chosen topic . This puts a great challenge to the Grade 10 Sepedi speaking learners who as it has been established in this research do not have the skill to write meaningful essays as evidenced by their incoherent introduction, poor word choice, wrong sentence constructions and illogical paragraphing which all result in poorly structured body paragraphs and concluding paragraphs.
The study investigated the challenges which the Grade 10 Sepedi learners are facing in their essay writing and proposes ways to eliminate common errors so that learners would be able to face their educational future and corporate world with confidence. The investigation was also based on how different types of essays were taught; how essay pre-writing activities were taught to the learners by the educators before a full-fledged essay is written and how learners were taught to write a full-fledged essay. The significance of this study is that learners and educators will be empowered with essay writing skills which will also improve performance.
An in-depth review of the literature related to essay writing skills was presented. The literature review emphasized how some authors interpreted essay writing skills. Different types of essays were unpacked for the learners and educators to make them aware of their differences and their different approaches. Different skills for essay writing were also discussed which included the spider web diagram. Duncan and Clearly (1997:97) concur that writing an essay has to begin with one idea and related ideas that sprout threads to other ideas, which become their own webs .
The method for research included both qualitative and quantitative research. Data was collected from the learners and educators in the form of questionnaires, observations and essays which had already been written by learners. The data was analysed and interpreted in order to give tangible feedback and recommendations. The theoretical framework that underpins this study is based on constructivism. Constructivism is a theory based on observation and scientific study about how people learn. People construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences (@ 2004 Educational Broadcasting Corporation).
Data from the questionnaires, which consisted of twenty questions, proved that skills for essay writing are not taught by educators to the learners. Data further showed that teachers do not explain the different types of essays and their approach to the learners. Learners were also not taught how to implement process writing, the purpose of which, as endorsed by Murray and Johnson (1994:1) is the gathering of ideas, organisation of ideas, drafting, revising, and editing drafts until the final version is presented for marking . Analysis from the Grade 10 learners written essays brought to light that skills for essay writing are not used by learners during essay writing because they are not familiar with them. Important aspects such as spelling mistakes like legodu instead of lehodu and proper use of pronouns and nouns were some of the findings that needed attention.
The recommendations from the findings will help the teachers to realise that skills for essay writing can be effectively and efficiently imparted to the learners by the educator in the teaching and learning situation in order to empower the learners in essay writing.Mini Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2015.
African Languages
MA
Unrestricted
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Doss, Rodger Leonard. "A Study of Virginia Public-school Affiliated GED Instructors Who Teach Writing Skills for the Essay Component of the GED Writing Skills Test." VCU Scholars Compass, 1992. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/4526.
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The purpose of this study was to determine the demographic characteristics, instructional approach, perceptions toward inservice training, and awareness and use of adult education theory/principles of public-school affiliated GED instructors in Virginia who teach writing skills for the essay component of the GED Writing Skills Test. An additional purpose of the study was to compare student performance on a sample of GED essays to determine the relationship of student performance with teacher demographic characteristics and teacher instructional approach as identified by the product and process scale scores.
The GED teachers who participated in the study were identified through the cooperation of the Office of Adult Education of the Virginia Department of Education. Of the 169 teachers identified, 113 of them returned survey questionnaires which could be used for data analysis. Only GED programs that were offered through Virginia public schools and reimbursed through state General Adult Education Funds of the Office of Adult Education were used for this study.
Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data on teacher demographics, instructional approach, scale scores, students' essay test scores, and perceptions toward inservice training for the essay component and the awareness and use of adult learning theory/principles in the GED classroom.
Inferential statistics were used to determine significant relationships between groups of teachers in terms of their demographic variables, and between groups of teachers classified as scoring high or low on the scale scores in terms of students' mean essay scores. Also, inferential statistics were used to compare teachers' product and process group membership as defined by scale scores with their self-report classifications and to determine which teacher demographic variables were useful to predict product and process scale scores and student averaged essay test scores.
Among the results indicated by the study were: many teachers who identified themselves as using a combination of the product and process approaches to the teaching of writing skills to adults were not categorized as such by the scale scores; respondents from the surveyed population of GED instructors appeared to be more product oriented in their approach to teaching writing; teachers appear to move away from a strictly product-orientation toward more of a process-orientation as they gain more years of GED teaching experience and as they spend more time with the students; it was inconclusive whether or not any of the approaches to teaching writing skills for the essay component (product, process, or combination) as identified in this study were any better than any of the other approaches: these GED teachers want inservice training to address the addition of the essay component to the Writing Skills Test: and, these teachers appear to have a good understanding of adult education theory/principles and they appear to employ these principles in their classrooms.
Recommendations for future research are presented: these involve conducting a state-wide needs analysis to explore what GED teachers need to become more comfortable about teaching writing skills for the essay component: examining more closely the classroom practices of GED teachers who teach writing skills: and, using larger samples and different sampling techniques.
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Cusworth, Fran. "Boomtown wives: a novel and, The stage and backdrop: essay on the history of the Hopetoun-Ravensthorpe region, A great madness: essay on the social effects of WA's 21st century resources boom." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2008. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1849.
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This thesis comprises a novel entitled 'Boomtown Wives', and two essays entitled 'The Stage and Backdrop', and 'A Great Madness'. These works are about the Western Australian mining boom generally and the remote seaside town of Hopetotm in particular: my thesis explores how overseas demand for Australian commodities shapes the lives of a boomtown's residents. While this is a story with its micro focus on the personal, its broader focus is on a time of historic change, both national and international.
The current mining boom, while documented in the media, is yet to surface in Australia's contemporary literature. Its importance in our economic lives is barely reflected by its presence in our cultural lives. Mining towns and their surrounding environments have traditionally been used in the arts as symbols of alienation or loss, or depicted as part of a bygone era. I set out to write about how it is to live in a mining town now, in the midst of a boom. I didn't want to write about eccentric or displaced characters fleeing a mainstream life with which they couldn't cope. I wanted to write about the people I could see in the mining town where I lived: family people with dreams of getting ahead financially and professionally. I wanted to use the techniques of successful commercial fiction to write a dynamic and sometimes humourous story about three women's lives, and at the same time to capture the panicked greed of the resources boom.
In my story, people arrive in Hopetoun from all over the world with the hope of making their fortunes. Laetitia is married to a mine manager, fighting to earn trust and friendship in a town where her husband holds so much power. Cityslicker Jasmine is married to a mine recruitment supervisor, and has consented to this move in a bid to restore her husband's trust after her infidelity. Brigid is a struggling mother of three, trying with her tradesman husband Jack to clear crippling debts. The women join forces to open a cafe and as this sleepy town struggles to cope with the influx of mine workers, they fight to hold their marriages together and stay true to themselves. Tensions mount over an Aboriginal sacred site and a lost child, and the escalating boom drives mine workers to new extremes. This is a story about living amid the giddy heights of a resources boom, knowing that one day the bust will come.
The first essay, 'The Stage and Backdrop', examines the history of the Hopetoun-Ravensthorpe region, focusing on Aboriginal, mining and women's history. The second essay, 'A Great Madness', looks at the Western Australian mining boom of the early 21st century, and its influence on lifestyles and the economy, focussing in particular on the increased use of fly-in-fly-out workforces, labour shortages and overstretched infrastructure. Both essays illuminate ways that research into the history of mining and the Hopetoun region influenced the creation of my novel.
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McKenzie, Vahri. "As the owl discreet: Essay towards a conversation and Carly's Dance a novel." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2008. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/24.
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This thesis comprises a novel entitled Carly's Dance and an essay entitled As the Owl Discreet. Although separate works, a line runs through them that might be described as an urge to connect; each work, although self-contained, is concerned with the co-existence of opposites, or more precisely, apparent opposites. The essay's title is ironic, borrowed from Hillaire Belloc's perverse verses collected as Cautionary Tales. Discretion is exactly what the thesis tests the bounds of, as do the characters in my novel. And so do I, in using family history to motivate my research.
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Betts, Amanda. "Rogue: A Novel - and - Wonderlust: the value of wonder for readers, writers, and The Vault: A critical essay." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2018. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2122.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis consists of an original novel, Rogue, and an exegesis titled Wonderlust: the value of wonder for readers, writers, and The Vault.
Rogue is the second novel of the series titled The Vault, which is a speculative fiction duology for young adults (thirteen and above) with the possibility for crossover into adult readership. Rogue picks up the story of fifteen-year-old Hayley who, after choosing to leave her previous home of an underwater seed vault, finds herself washed onto the cliffs of Maria Island, off the coast of Tasmania. As Hayley ventures further into the terrestrial ‘real world’ of 2120, she must call on her wits, intelligence, and creativity to survive. Rogue is a story of new beginnings, discovery, belonging, relationships, choice, and responsibility.
Wonderlust: the value of wonder for readers, writers, and The Vault, is an examination of wonder which investigates the role of wonder in literature and how it can be evoked without relying on overused tropes of science fiction. The exegesis first explores the experience of wonder and its importance to us individually and collectively, along with its relationship to philosophy, psychology, nature, and science. Secondly, it investigates wonder in literature, particularly in speculative fiction: its composition, appeal, reception and potential, on and beyond the page. It specifically examines how narrative elements have been successfully manipulated to facilitate wonder in creating an original two-book series of speculative fiction for young adults titled The Vault. Thirdly, it discusses the role of wonder for the writer, both as initial impulse for creativity and as an experience during the writing process. In this, reference is made to the writing of Rogue: a novel inspired and shaped by wonder.
Ultimately, the thesis argues the value of wonder in fiction — particularly contemporary young adult fiction — and positions Rogue in this context as a work which reminds readers of the astonishments of this puzzling world, and their important place within it.