The Praxis of Online Social Learning to Improve Academic Writing and Research in Under-Graduate Students - Article Example

COM 201 Assignment Name Student ID Course Instructor Date COM 201 Assignment Method used to obtain the articles The method of searching for the right journals included mining the article databases and the bibliographies of the previously available literature materials. Citations included the information required to get an article from a database. The specifications include; the authors names, name of the journal article, volume, issue, and the pagination. The bibliographies were obtained from books or other sources of similar literature. Bibliographies appear at the end of the literature material. The bibliographies of interest were then picked and used in the bibliography databases. Article databases allowed the looking up of bibliographies by use of the subject. The article databases provided articles related to the topic of interest without the use of other article details such as author name; volume; and issue number. Most libraries are linked to various databases in various subject aspects. Most subjects are not limited to only a particular database. Majority of databases cover numerous sets of journals and a similar search in another database produces distinct results (Carroll, et al 2013).The role of peer review is to evaluate the quality of articles before publication. Peer reviewed journal is not published if does not meet the specifications of the specific field. Steps of reading the articles The first step of reading the articles involved the understanding of the topic. It gives a summary of the work of the article and specifies the contents of the paper. The title ought to catch the attention of the reader. The next step involved reading the abstract to gain the required understanding of what the paper is about. The next step involved going through the paper taking note of the topics and the subtopics. Reading the introduction is very significant because it portrays the author’s knowledge and familiarizes the reader with the objectives of the study. The Results is also an important section of the paper. The discussion provided a brief explanation of the results. The next step involved checking through the article and putting boxes on that do not have numbers in them followed by skimming through the paragraphs with boxes. After critical evaluation of the main sections of the paper, it was possible to summarize the paper and reflect on the issues addressed in the paper. Reading for Plea Sure and Creativity among College Students The article is about a case study conducted to determine the correlation between reading for contentment and creativeness amongst university students. Previous studies showed that reading for pleasure has significantly decreased within the last few decades. Creative readers develop affluent fancy and are more involved in creative activities. Creative reading has numerous advantages; for instance, creative people have the tendency of viewing negative issues from a positive perspective. It was discovered that people who scored high grades in the Scale of Creative Attributes and Behavior (SCAB), attained high points in the creativeness measure and reading for pleasure. This study aimed to further explore the aspects of reading for pleasure. A total 225 students participated in the study. The Reading for Pleasure Scale was utilized. It estimated the capability of a student to read from distinct sources beyond the normal class work. The summation of the results produced the overall scale. Higher scales indicated high reading for pleasure capability. The SCAB scale measured five personality factors based on Kelly’s (2004) scale. The results showed that there was positive correlation between reading for pleasure and creativity. The study found out that creative writing works are very significant in university students. According to the author, reading for pleasure decreases loneliness. The limitation of this study is that it was not gender sensitive. All the participants were female students. Future research ought to explore the distinct reading methods of the individuals who portrayed creativity through reading for pleasure test. On personal reflection on study, i have attained higher overall academic grades as a result of pleasure reading in comparison to my non-pleasure reading colleagues. Also, reading for pleasure in children is significant in the expansion of a child’s cognitive ability. Reading for pleasure is vital for a child’s vocabulary development. “I can’t say it any better”: Critical reading as a threshold concept in helping postgraduate Arab students become critical and original writers This research was carried out to find out the effect of teaching language –based academic skills on the student critical writing ability. Plagiarism is a major issue in Universities and Colleges. In the previous decades, Universities offered students with handbooks that had information about the institution’s regulations concerning plagiarism. However, when students were caught in actions of plagiarism, most argued than they were trained on plagiarism avoidance. Hence, universities have developed programs to train students on academic writing. This article reports on the academic training programs that have failed in most of the universities. The study was conducted at the British University in Dubai (BUiD). Most students who enroll for masters program ought to have attained academic writing skills; however, it is not always the case. This research evaluates the content of the academic training programs offered to students who enroll for master programs at the BUiD. The study involved a team of students from one program registered in units with parallel assessment roles. The students selected involved M.Ed students; seven of which portrayed poor scholarly writing skills. The report showed that most students who had poor academic writing skills were not adequately critical. Data collection methods included analyzing samples of the participants’ written work and assessing Turnitin reports on student’s ability to utilize sources. According to the author, for students to change their way of thinking, students ought to enhance their reading methodology. Students were later given similar critique tests and majority of the students showed improved grades. The critical reading improves skills of academic writing. On a personal reflection, reading more content and frequent writing are the main issues to improve academic writing. The more students read, the more they understand different writing styles and plagiarism avoidance; a student is able to create and express complex thoughts. Using Transactional Strategies to Improve English Reading Comprehension and Summary Writing Abilities of Students in English for Arts and Design Course The article reports on a study conducted to evaluate student’s ability to read to summarize what they have written. Learners with poor English reading and summary writing skills undergo difficulties during English-based lessons. The article reports that most students do not have proper writing skills and that 80% of high school students attain higher grades if they integrate transactional strategies.The objectives of this study was to; evaluate English reading and summarizing capabilities; asses the language ability of students in comparison to the standards set; and to compare the perceptions of students who use transactional strategies. The study involved 62 students from Bangkok University. English reading comprehension tests and questionnaires were used as tools for data collection. English comprehension tests were used in the determination of capability prior to and after reading. The English comprehension and summarizing tests were provided to students prior to treatment. The students then underwent lesson plans and given the similar tests. The pre-learning and the post-learning scores were analyzed and results showed that after the lesson, the scores of the participants improved. The improved post-scores resulted from the learning process and the students highly rated the transactional strategy. This study showed the significance of transactional study lessons. The implication of such lessons is that it is time consuming. On a personal reflection, comprehension strategy enhances creative reading. The strategies aim at directing the reader to develop self awareness of their own understanding during reading. It plays a significant role in the gaining of the main concepts and development needed to summarize the content. Bibliography Carroll, JA, Diaz, A, Meiklejohn, J, Newcomb, M, Adkins, B 2013 ‘Collaboration and competition on a wiki: The praxis of online social learning to improve academic writing and research in under-graduate students,’ Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 513-525. Read More