Contexts for writing,writing in context

The role of context variables is emphasized in recent research on writing, from which a great variety of meanings of the word ‘context’ emerges. The aim of this paper is to investigate some aspects of the identification of context variables in writing research by focusing on three main functions of context:

1. context as a condition for communication, i.e. the ground the writer creates in order to communicate with the reader
2. context as task environment, i.e. the situational variables (task objectives, motivational aspects, media, etc.) which can influence the writing process and/or product
3. context as an interactive framework, i.e. context as constituted by what people are doing, as well as by when and where they are doing it.

     

Collaborative writing practices and writing support technologies

This article explores some relationships between collaborative writing practices and writing support technologies. It attempts to illustrate the range of ways in which technologies are used. It examines the relationships of particular technologies and practices with how the writers view the process in which they are engaged. The implications of the findings for thinking about the role of computers in supporting writing, and facilitating collaborative writing in particular, are discussed.     

Backwards writing: An unexpected ability in writing

Summary The case of a left-handed female patient is described who presented serious problems in learning how to write during childhood, particularly in relation to directionality and letter sequence. The patient then learned to write correctly with her left hand, but practiced and maintained her ability to write backwards (from the last letter to the first). Implications of the case are discussed.Send Correspondence to Dr. Alfredo Ardila, Miami Institute of Psychology of the Caribbean Center for Advanced Studies, 8180 NW 36 Street, Second floor, Miami, Florida 33166-6612.     

Your writing

过年的时候最不可或缺的就是美食了。赶紧来《舞文弄墨》跟大家分享一下您最喜欢的一道茶是怎么做出来的吧！     

合作写作在英语专业写作教学中的探索

针对《高等学校英语专业英语教学大纲》对英语专业学生不同阶段的写作要求,笔者决心将合作学习运用到英语基础写作中,要求学生在写作过程中进行合作,并试图证实合作学习的实施能够显著提高学生的英语短文写作水平,增强写作动机和兴趣。     

过程写作法在英语写作教学中的应用

英语写作一直都是语言学习者难以把握的一项,也是英语教师在教学中的重难点。在实施过程中,英语写作教学的效果不尽人意,大部分教师依然运用写作教学法,学生欠缺有效的写作方法,因此提高英语写作能力还需假以时日。在本文中,笔者运用先进的教学理论进行试验探究,希望能够研究出英语过程写作教学的有效课堂,探究出一系列可以有效提升课堂写作教学的方法,从而达到"有效教学"的目标。     

Effects of writing beliefs and planning on writing performance

White and Bruning (2005) distinguished two sets of writing beliefs: transactional and transmissional beliefs. In this paper we analyse their beliefs scale and suggest two hypotheses about how such beliefs relate to writing performance. The single-process hypothesis treats the beliefs as different amounts of engagement, whereas the dual-process hypothesis claims that the beliefs represent different types of engagement. We then describe the results of an experiment with 84 university students as participants that assessed the relationship between writing beliefs, different forms of pre-planning and different aspects of writing performance. Our results support the dual-process hypothesis, and suggest that transactional beliefs are about the preference for a top-down strategy or a bottom-up strategy, while transmissional beliefs are about the content that is written about. These beliefs interact in their effects on text quality, the amount and type of revision carried out, and the extent to which writers develop their understanding. They also moderate the effectiveness of outlining as a strategy.     

Learning to teach writing through tutoring and journal writing

Structured reflection on practical teaching experiences may help pre‐service teachers to integrate their learning and analyze their actions to become more effective learners and teachers. This study reports on 12 pre‐service English as a second language (ESL) teachers’ individual tutoring of learners of English language writing. The data of the study are the writing journal entries that the pre‐service ESL teachers maintained during their tutoring experience. These journals had common elements: all were used by the pre‐service teachers to consider what funds of knowledge they bring to their teaching of ESL learners, to evaluate their roles as writers, learners and teachers and to reflect on the educational, social and cultural implications of teaching writing in English to speakers of other languages. This article describes ways in which both native and non‐native English speaking pre‐service teachers adapted their instruction to meet the particular needs of individual ESL writers and what they learned in the process. It provides insight regarding the value of using tutoring and reflection generally in teacher education and specifically in the preparation of teachers of ESL.     

培养写作兴趣,提高写作能力

提起写作文,一部分学生就怕写甚至个别学生拒写,即使写也东抄西凑,缺乏文采,不够深刻,主要原因是无话可说,没有写作的材料,真是"巧妇难为无米之炊"。要想让学生克服怕写作文的念头,提高写作能力,就必须调动学生写作的积极性,多积累写作素材,让其在写作实践中体会到写作的乐趣,进而提高写作能力。     

Implicit writing beliefs and their relation to writing quality

Writers have beliefs that may influence engagement during writing and consequently effect writing quality. Students completed a writing beliefs inventory that identified transmissional and transactional beliefs. Transmissional beliefs reflect limited cognitive and affective engagement during writing whereas transactional beliefs reflect higher engagement. Relations between writing beliefs and writing quality were examined with a different group of students. ANOVA results indicated that students with low transactional beliefs scored low on organization and overall writing quality and students with high transactional beliefs scored high on idea-content development, organization, voice, sentence fluency, conventions, and overall writing quality. Results indicate that individuals hold implicit writing beliefs that can be measured and that relate in stable and predictable ways to writing quality.     

对外汉语写作教学之"疯狂写作"导入法探析

根据多年在对外汉语写作教学第一线的经验,摸索出"疯狂写作"导入课堂的理念和方法,旨在引领学习者以放松、忘我的状态进行无主题、无限制的自由写作,经多年教学实践证明,该方法在消除学习者对写作的畏难情绪,短期内提高汉语写作速度、增强对汉语写作的自信,以及指引教师合理有效地设计课堂教学等方面都起到了一定的积极作用,是辅助对外汉语写作教学的一种有意义的尝试.     

合作写作--元认知支持应用于作文教学的尝试

英国学者Fiona Yarrow和Keith J.Topping创立的配对写作模式,是一种非常灵活的结构性合作写作体系,它以整合元认知和社会互动的方法支持学生的写作发展。其中,带有元认知支持的配对写作流程图,不仅能有效地提高学生的写作成绩,而且能激发写作兴趣,增强自信心及自我效能感,培养协作精神。因此,该研究具有较高的理论意义和实践价值,是一项极具创新的作文教改实验,值得我们研究与借鉴。     

Learning science through writing: associations with prior conceptions of writing and perceptions of a writing program

Students in a large undergraduate biology course were expected to write a scientific report as a key part of their course design. This study investigates the quality of learning arising from the writing experience and how it relates to the quality of students’ preconceptions of learning through writing and their perceptions of their writing program that led to their report. Closed‐ended questionnaires investigating student conceptions and perceptions of writing, and approaches to writing, were completed by 121 students. Significant associations were found amongst qualitatively different prior and post conceptions of writing, approaches to writing and achievement. The results of the analyses suggest that the effective support of student experiences of writing reports requires teachers to be aware of the type of conceptions that students bring to their course and the perceptions they hold about the purpose of the writing program in which they are engaged.     

Analysing argumentative writing

This article presents a framework which has proven helpful in analysing senior secondary academic writing from a linguistic and cognitive perspective, revealing a connection between those two aspects, consistent with a Vygotskian view of the development of thinking through language. It involves a close examination of linguistic and cognitive features of students' writing for features of intentional design, which are borrowed from Design Theory, namely Contingency, Complexity and Specification. Writers' means of inserting their views into their writing is also investigated. The framework is given at the end of the article and annotations for its application and several illustrations are given in the body of the article. Its use is intended to assist teachers in identifying, very specifically, which particular aspects of a student's writing need attention.     

Children writing: Multimodality and assessment in the writing classroom

Multimedia has had a widely recognised impact on society, but it is still under‐represented in the literacy pedagogies of many schools. This may relate to the way we view assessment for literacy, which is still almost wholly monomodal. Students assessed at a low level as producers of verbal text may respond positively when working multimodally, but the only assessment instruments we have do not reveal this. In a class of 26 ten‐year‐olds in Victoria, Australia, with rich access to computers, five children performed at a very low level when working with verbal expression only, but responded remarkably when invited to work multimodally. A programme of text production was monitored and the results analysed, progressing from handwritten monomodal work, through stages of multimodality to full multimodal expression. The results suggest strongly that some children need multimodal scaffolding in order to communicate complex ideas effectively. This, however, requires an acceptance of multimodal texts as part of the primary literacy curriculum. It is therefore suggested that assessment of multimodal composition, both narrative and other texts, should be developed to help teachers accept the value of introducing multimodal literacies into the classroom.     

“写作”辨义

写作历来被认为是“经国之大业,不朽之盛事”。在现代社会,更成为一个人必须具有的素质。从写作学的现代观念出发,对写作概念进行溯源,并描述它嬗变的轨迹,梳理“写作”的各种不同称谓,弄清现代“写作学”和传统“章观”、“作论”之间的联系与区别,对写作学的发展具有重要意义。     

On good writing

1. ON PHILOSOPHICAL STYLE. By Brand Blanshard. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1954; pp. 69. $1.00.

2. THE MAGIC OF WORDS. By The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Birkett. London: Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, 1953. pp. 15. 2s net.

3. GUIDE FOR AIR FORCE WRITING, Air Force Manual 11–3. By the Department of the Air Force. Washington, D. C: 1954; pp. 133. (For use by USAF officers and Air Force ROTC cadets; not sold publicly.)

4. HOW TO MAKE SENSE. By Rudolf Flesch. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1954; PP‐ 202‐ $2.75.

5. PLAIN WORDS: THEIR ABC. By Sir Ernest Gowers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1954; pp. vii+298+viii. $2.50.

6. The essays on Language, Rhetoric, Sign and Symbol in GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD. In vols. 2 and 3 of 54 vols. Edited by Robert M. Hutchins. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1952‐

7. GROWTH AND STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. By Otto Jespersen. Ninth Edition. Garden City, New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1955; pp. vi+274. $0.95.

8. KNOW YOUR READER: THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH TO READABILITY. By George R. Klare and Byron Buck. New York: Hermitage House, 1954; pp. 191. $2–95‐

9. RECURRENT MALADIES IN SCHOLARLY WRITING. By Eugene S. McCartney. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1953; PP‐ xi+141. $2.50.

10. THE CONCISE USAGE AND ABUSAGE. By Eric Partridge. New York: Philosophical Library, 1954; pp. ix+219. $3.50.

11. ASPECTS OF READABILITY IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES. By Eleanor M. Peterson, Ph.D. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1954; PP‐ ix+118. $3.50.     

笼天地于形内 挫万物于笔端──谈观察与写作

观察是人们认识客观世界的基础,它也是写作练习中重要的一步。观察是一种能力,要培养这种能力就需要循序渐进、按部就班地训练,本文便着重介绍了培养观察能力的方法与步骤。     

写作行为的动力系统

写作动力问题具有复杂性和潜隐性。受社会使命的驱使，顺应时代和社会的需要而写作的社会意识，抒发与表露生活感受，与读“神交”的宣泄意识，痴爱迷恋，在强迫性心理造成的“核爆”的冲击下写作的潜隐意识，是写作行为动力系统中的三个主要机组。