EXPLORING TERTIARY ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC WRITING DIFFICULTIES

Academic Writing for International Graduate Students

The high percentage of international students currently enrolled in many graduate engineering programs in North America presents an additional pedagogical challenge for faculty. Many professors find that they are spending an inordinate amount of their time doing something that is not explicitly stated in their job descriptions—correcting the writing of their international students. This paper d...

The ‘Other’ English: Thoughts on EAP and Academic Writing

Exploring the Use of Focused Freewriting in Developing Academic Writing

Focused freewriting, broadly defined as writing without stopping and editing about a specific topic, has been viewed and used as a powerful tool for developing student writing in a wide spectrum of educational contexts. This study aimed to further explore the use of focused freewriting in the context of promoting students’ academic skills development, particularly in the area of academic writin...

The Effects of Sentence-Combining Instruction on the Writing of Fourth-Grade Students With Writing Difficulties

One area of writing that may be particularly problematic for less skilled writers and writers with learning disabilities is constructing well-formed sentences. In this single-subject design study, sentence-combining practice with a peerassistance component was used to improve the writing ability of 6 fourth-grade students with and without learning disabilities. The results support the use of se...

Identifying Gaps in Academic Writing of ESL Students

There is growing evidence that the lack of competence of university ESL (English as a second language) students in academic writing affects their overall academic performance. Olivas and Li (2006) connected low second-language proficiency levels in English to poor academic performance of international students studying at both university and college levels in the United States. Although, many E...