Your article here is interesting because it goes with our chapter 8 too. Chapter 8 almost seem like a history of research to why students can't write.

http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=dbb2c493-8410-4cb8-9c5d-d690bff18311%40sessionmgr13&vid=2&hid=5

In Bower article, he stated that there are only four way to make non-native of English writer clearly. One, they need to stress or emphasize information that comes at the end of the sentences. "The ends of sentences should also be used to commutate long and complex phrases and clauses, and unfamiliar technical terms" (Bower 89). The second points is get to the point using characters as subject and actions as verb (Bower 89). "A simple and effective way to connect subjects and
verbs is to make the main characters of your sentences, which can be any entity, real or abstract, that you focus on through several sentences, the subjects of verbs expressing their actions" (Bower 90). The third part is that reader needs a sense of flow from the sentences. Bower stated that sentence need to be clear or people will not understand what is the topic is about. The last point is coherence. "To write coherent paragraphs, consider constructing them around two sections: a short opening segment (issue) and a longer subsequent segment that explains, establishes or develops the statement made in the issue" (Bower 90). There are his four points. This article would be helpful to non-native speaker.

This article is about helping bilingual writing of English using quantitative tools. The article stated that writing is harder for L2 learners. The problem was probably with composing processes, such as text structure and text organization in both languages. The article mentions that not a lot of people had exam this problem but two studies did.

"Two methodologically similar examples of this type were conducted by Kameen (1979) and Perkins (1980), who addressed various syntactic structures and productivity measures in the English writing of ELL university students. Kameen examined the ability of syntactic measures to predict good- versus poor-quality writing. Measures were applied to assess numerous writing features, including number, length, and types of T-units and clauses. The variables that predicted the participants' writing abilities included T-unit length, clause length, and incidence of the passive voice. Perkins (1980) investigated whether numerous linguistic measures (e.g., total number of T-units, T-unit length, number of error-free T-units) could predict students' holistic writing scores on expository texts as compared to outcomes on a standardized measure of English writing. Participants were advanced ELL university students from various countries. Results revealed that error-free T-units per composition, number of words in error-free T-units per composition, errors per T-unit, and total errors were significant predictors of the holistic writing scores. (Danzak)"

Danzak think that Perkins and Kameen need more research. Danzak study 20 ELLs and he had no information about their parent's education background. Danzak had the student write about their autobiographies. Danzak had the teacher read aloud the prompt and briefly discussed the topic with the class. Then the student were given 30 minutes to address the prompt (Danzak). After Danzak collected the writing simple, Danzak would coded for lexical sophistication based on Ravid's (2006) Noun Scale. "This instrument was developed as both a ranking and a classifying tool and was applied here as a way of ranking nouns on a scale of 1-10, designating them as levels that range from concrete countable (level 1) to derived abstract (level 10)" (Danzak). At the end, Danzak's result show that students know how to apply knowledge-telling strategy to their writing rather then strategically planning, composing, revising their writing.

Solving the English as a Second Language writer's Dilemma
http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ881565.pdf

This article was writing by Thomas Nowalk. It's about teaching ESL students how to write academic essays. The author had done studies since 2004 to improved ESL writing. What he got was that students see grammar and correctness as most important for writing. "Students see vocabulary as closely related to grammar and correctness. Students value group work as a useful way to acquire the first two. Students value journal writing as another useful way to practice writing" (Nowalk). What the author discover after observating lots of classes that student view rules, grammar, and vocabulary as critical. Having multiple writing processes help students meeting writing task and students favor group activities. The author also suggested a approach called Trivium Arts. Trivium Arts refers grammar, logic and rhetoric (Nowalk). Nowalk stated that composition a composition that are similar to Trivium Arts is progymnasmate, declamation or practice speeches. Nowalk believe that these practice would help ESL student learn how to write better.

Multimodal composition in a college ESL class: New tools, traditional norms
By Dong-shin Shin and Tony Cimasko
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S8755461508000649

This article is about looking into better writing and communication through multimodal. Both authors stated that multimodal approaches to composition provide writers a powerful tools for sharing knowledge and self-expression. Multimodal would mean computers, digital multimedia, audio-visual to help writers. "The multimodal approach to writing has become more significant with the transfer of writing from paper-based books to computer screens, in that writers have more choices for making and representing meanings" (Cimasko, Shin). The authors continue on by stating that ESL writing course who used multimodal find it to help express their cultural and ethnic backgrounds. This article tells us how the authors did their studies. The authors allowed the student to choose how they are going to write and what kind of visual they would like to put on it. What the authors conclusion was that teacher need to expose the students to many different kind of multimodal texts and strategies. The authors also stated that ESL students who are familiar with multimodal will not automatically used some of the multimodal, such as web page design. The authors suggested that researcher should look deeper into the student's past experiences and present attitudes regarding multimodal composition. I understand that visual aid would help ESL students have better understanding of their topics but what I want to know is how are student supposed to use multimodal in a scholarly paper?

http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=3&hid=2&sid=1c56911a-e037-44ec-9990-9f640b653506%40sessionmgr15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=aph&AN=59814104

I got this from library. Title is called "Helping Student become better writer" by Thompson, Christine Love.

1. The articles I chose is called "Helping Students Become Better Writers" by Christine Love Thompson. Thompson wrote that she was a teacher who make student prewrite, draft, revise and publish (Kappan 57). Thompson really believed that a good paper have to be grammar free. What Thompson discovered was that it takes day for students to finished a product. "Most students didn't have the stamina or the motivation to labor through all the stages" (Kappan 58). Thompson review her own method. Thompson developed her own writing check list. "The checklist included content with a focuses on writer's techniques" (Kappan 59). The checklist included interesting introduction, figuratie language, metaphor and idioms (Kappan 59). The story should have beginning, middle, ending and focus on vocabulary to make the story more exciting (Kappan 59). Thompson was really trying to get the children to write from their point of view. Thompson also has the students peer read and she found it help students on their own writing. "Writing programs that encourage students to use their voice, rather than emphasizing mechanics and conventions tend to increase students awareness that writing is meaningful and individual (Kappan 60). Thompson advices for other teacher is to emphasize more on quality, content, creativity and writer's craft: what is the story the student is trying to write (Kappan 61).
After reading this article, I realized that it sounds good. I feel that this is what we do in English 30E. We help student made plan on what to write and made student peer read each other.