Writing & Learning

Questioning the effects of Web 2.0 on the development of writing skills

Each 12-month subscription to MY Access!® College Edition includes: 10 college-level writing tasks. Self-paced, on- and off-line lessons to guide you through the writing process: planning, organizing, drafting, revising, and editing. Immediate scoring and individualized feedback through a powerful, award-winning artificial intelligence scoring engine. Detailed, prescriptive revision plans that target the key traits of writing: focus, content development, organization, language use, and grammar. A writing portfolio enabling you to monitor your progress. A word processor with editing and writing tools including a thesaurus, grammar-checker, spell-checker, and word bank to help you vary and develop your vocabulary.

This book provides practical advice to students who are learning to write according to the conventions in biology. (Published April 2009)

An online guide for students in the discipline of biology. Includes why write in biology, how to approach assignments in biology, and web resources for writing in biology

Providing the reader with the tools they'll need to be successful writers in college and their profession, A Short Guide to Writing about Biology emphasizes writing as a way of examining, evaluating, and sharing ideas. The text teaches how to read critically, study, evaluate and report data, and how to communicate information clearly and logically. Also given detailed advice on locating useful sources, interpreting the results of statistical tests, maintaining effective laboratory and field notebooks, writing effective research proposals and poster presentations, writing effective applications, and communicating information to both professional and general audiences.

The Embodied Literacies Project is a two-part study of college writing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In year one (Y1), EL investigated FYC students' transfer of rhetorical knowledge across print, digital, and oral media. In Year 2 (Y2), EL examined the same students' transfer of rhetorical knowledge across media, time, and both in-class and out-of-class writing situations.

These students arrived at Stanford as fairly confident writers: most reported that coming out of high school they were "very confident." By spring of their first year, however, that confidence had slipped considerably, though by graduation and into their first year beyond Stanford their confidence levels were again fairly high;

Visual elements in writing increased gradually during their years at Stanford, as did the use of web pages, audio and video files, and presentational slides;

Students generally reported writing quite a bit in their first year (from 60 to more than 100 pages), then even more in their second and third year, then dropping off in the amount of writing in their fourth year;

Students entered Stanford with a fairly wide range of writing abilities; During their first year, students reported being assigned to do eighteen different kinds of writing; this broad range of genre persisted through the four years, though the ratio differed from year to year;

This is a general guide for writing most basic biology laboratory reports. The format may vary depending on the class and the teacher so it is important to check with the professor when there are any questions. A very good reference is the book Writing in Biology by Jan A. Pechenik, and page numbers referring to each of the five sections of a laboratory report are given. For details on writing a particular section, click on the appropriate link.

1. Participants who scored high in rhetorical awareness of audience in their freshman year showed their greatest amount of growth in subsequent years, indicating this variable as statistically significant (p>.0001). 2. Writing development is non-linear; students develop at different paces, sometimes regressing across years, particularly as they are learning the nuances of genre-specific writing within disciplines. 3. Participants reported that conversations about writing with teachers, professors, teaching assistants, and post-doctoral fellows had the greatest impact on their writing development. 4. While positive feedback appears to increase student-writers' confidence, descriptive constructive criticism may be most salient to helping students move their writing forward. 5. Students valued feedback at all stages of the writing process, but especially early on in the process when feedback clarified teacher expectations, and clearly connected to writing and revision processes.

An online guide for students in the discipline of history. Includes why write in history, how to approach assignments in history and web resources for writing in history.

An introduction to writing in Biology; Practical tips for scientific writing; Professors' perspectives on student writing