In regards to improvement, the NAPLAN results suggest that Nadia has improved 11.6% in her reading from Year 5. She has also improved in spelling, with a 17.2% increase, as well as a 19.4% increase in numeracy. These percentages all fall out of the margin of error, indicating an accurate and sound level of improvement. However, Nadia’s writing NAPLAN result indicated a 0% improvement from Year 5, as well as a 1.5% decrease in punctuation and grammar. While the decrease of 1.5% in grammar and punctuation is within the margin of error I would like to argue that we should not be seeing a decrease in results at this stage of Nadia’s schooling.
Grammar and punctuation was the only section of the NAPLAN paper where Nadia answered all questions. This data gathered gives a sound understanding of her abilities. I would like to argue that Nadia’s grammar and punctuation is effecting her
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The meta-analysis of these studies found that method yielded negative results (Anderson, 1997). This proposes that traditional methods of teaching grammar did not improve the abilities of the students. Sentence combining by contrast provides a more effective substitute to traditional grammar and punctuation instruction as it not only develops students’ written work but also improve their syntactic abilities. Furthermore, a recent study establish that instructing students to pay attention to the purpose and real-world application of grammar and punctuation in the framework of writing created stronger and more positive impacts on students’ written work (Fearn & Farnan, 2005). Largely, the studies on teaching grammar and punctuation suggest that, unconventional methods like sentence combining, have a far more significant impact than those of traditional means to develop the quality of students’ grammar and punctuation and subsequently their
328). Moreover, the research claims that error correction has serious side effects for learners as it consumes too much of the lesson time which could be better utilized doing other things (p. 329). To defend these claims, Truscott analyzed groups of students in an L1 writing class. The results showed that the groups that received error correction did not improve and the amount and style of feedback they received had no effect on their writing ability indicating that error correction within L1 language learning is ineffective (p. 330). This deduction led to analysis of research from error correction in L2 writing and this came to similar conclusions: Traditional error correction does not improve learners’ writing (p.
In the beginning of the semester, everyone was write down two goals that would be accomplished in the semester. Experience in writing papers showed me that I was weak in writing any type of papers. However, I was determined to stop repeating idea by rewording as well as writing information that is unnecessary. Also, I knew I had to improve on writing essays with no to very few mistakes, whether it is structurally or punctually. I am pleased with discontinuing any repetitions while writing, but am not so pleased about structuring and punctuating my sentences.
Many students have struggled with essays for their English class. They have difficulties due to many issues, the least of which are poor writing skills. Each person has their own area of writing which gives them the most trouble. If this lack of skill is not addressed then a student can be certain that his or her grade will fall. Personally, I have the most difficulty with conclusions, transitions, and comma usage. To address these issues I conducted research and found three effective sources; The Little seagull Handbook, Smart-words.org, and grammar.ccc.commnet.edu. These three sources assisted me in improving each of my three skills, which I struggle with.
The usage of grammar was not necessarily improved this semester as it was not a large focus of the class. Grammar simply comes along with the writing process and noticing mistakes when reviewing essays. Towards the end of the semester, I learned how to use a semicolon to make a compound sentence out of two simple sentences. I used this technique in this very essay to improve the variety in sentence
Many students have struggled with writing essays for their English classes. They have difficulties due to many issues, the least of which is poor writing skills. Each person has their own area of writing which causes them the most trouble. If this lack of skill is not addressed, then a student can be certain that his or her grade will fall. Personally, I have the most difficulty with conclusions, transitions, and comma usage. To address these issues I conducted research and found three effective sources; The Little seagull Handbook, Smart-words.org, and grammar.ccc.commnet.edu. These three sources assisted me in improving each of my three skills that I struggle with.
According to employers interviewed by the NCW, students writing skills are possibly less effective now than they were 15 to 20 years ago. This drives me to conclude that the context based approach alone is not an effective way to teach grammar and punctuation. Perhaps the modified sentence combining approach as suggested by Quible & Griffin (p.34) will improve students writing skills. For an approach to be effective, it must address teaching grammar in two folds. Firstly, the rules of punctuation and instruction on grammar must be introduced. Once the student has that basic understanding, an approach such as in-context writing, sentence combining, glossing or error labeling can be presented to help students learn to eliminate sentence level errors. It is absolutely imperative for educators to adopt a new direction in order to resolve the current dilemma Employers are facing.
Over the course of this semester, my confidence in writing has improved greatly. In high school, I didn’t really know how to write effectively. I wasn’t really sure what was considered to be “good writing” until I took AP* English. However, even while I was taking this “Advanced Placement” class, I was still trying to figure out how to really create “good writing”. I feel as if this had something to do with the fact that I never really had to work with the rules of grammar intensively. After taking this course, however, I now have a much better understanding of how to correctly use proper grammar. I also improved on using transitional phrases in my writing. I have implemented my understanding of proper grammar and transitional phrases in both my writing inside and outside of this class as a result.
My writing journey has been pretty remarkable over the years. A lot of trial and error was utilized in discovering the writing style and techniques that would give me the most sense of accomplishment. I’ve been learning through the unit learning activities so far as College Composition II will be a bit more challenging due to the expectation of being able to write an effective academic piece from a formal perspective. There is always room for improvement which is why this semester I want to work on three aspects of my writing: sentence structure, grammar, and learning how to effectively grab my audience’s attention. Sentence structure and grammar have been difficult aspects for me to grasp in my writing due to the lack of frequency in writing academic papers.
Another essential key element to improving my writing skills is by learning to “proofread and check for grammar”.
Writing a college-level essay can be tricky, especially if there is lack of inspiration or the ideas aren’t organized well enough to articulate into a draft. However, in the case of higher-level education; students are encouraged to stimulate their learning through writing, in order to acquire an analytical and understanding capacity to be successful in college. Coupled with planning, research, and hard work; writing essays for college becomes an easier task in a short time, resulting in the improvement of critical thoughts. In the article, Using Writing to Promote Reading to Learn in College, Hayes Christopher G, states that, “the written text allows both reader and writer to examine thoughts captured in time and recorded in words, thereby encouraging more complex thinking because constraints imposed by memory have been abolished by the written record” (Hayes 4). After all, more than any other invention, writing has transformed the human consciousness. This mastery gives society the ability to improve every day, by enhancing their personalities, considering that having a good use of language and information, will result in achieving great success. In the article: Reconsidering English Teaching for Improving Non-English Majors’ English writing Ability, Yuru Shen declares how, “it is self-evident that grammar plays a very important role in language learning, including English learning” (Shen 74).With this in mind, understanding that college level composition is important will
While explaining to Mrs. Harper why a sentence was incorrect could be difficult, fixing the errors came simply to me. Both of my parents are college educated with Masters degrees. Education and speaking well on a multitude of subjects were points of pride. I was too young and inexperienced to fully understand that a parent’s education would have such a major effect on a child’s language development. Under Mrs. Harper’s guidance I learned to identify why a sentence had errors and how to best correct
The book How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems and the Best Ways to Avoid Them, by Ben Yagoda, focuses on teaching readers how to eliminate errors in their writing. To engage the readers, the author uses examples from his own students’ writing. By showing other students’ mistakes, Yagoda creates a mood of reassurance for the readers and tells his audience that everyone can make grammatical errors. This allows him to easily touch on a range of areas with an attentive audience. The topics are diverse with interesting topic titles, which help spark the reader’s interest. For example, Yagoda titles the section “,” rather than spelling “comma” in Punctuation (40). Using the punctuation symbol instead of the name is unusual and therefore
Ever wonder how good grammar can lead to success? Think about it like this, say you just sent an essay to the college of your dreams, and you’ve worked on that essay for weeks fixing it, making sure the grammar is perfect. Finally the letter you been waiting for is here, and you’re so nervous and scared to see what it says. Once you open it you see that you’ve gotten accepted, and they’re amazed with the grammar used in your essay, and that they’ll love having someone with that good of a grammar at their college. Good grammar doesn’t only lead to good success, but great opportunities in life which is better for our future.
Throughout the semester, I have gained skills necessary for understanding and utilizing logic while writing. I am now aware that for any writing to be scholarly, it must possess an introductory section, a body and a conclusion section. Further, I am now able to understand as well as utilize most of the basic techniques useful in pre-writing, revision and editing. Through writing the “downloading from torrents” paper, I acquired skills in word processing, sentence elements, and punctuation. Further, I developed some special skills in writing a website analysis which is a critical aspect in contemporary learning as argued by Flateby (p 182). As the semester folds, I believe that I have gained the prerequisite skills in writing and critical thinking. However, I need to improve much on some of the common problems in writing that seems to disturb me especially grammar.
In the third part, three pedagogical implications will be presented. In addition, a grammar activity and its theoretical rationale will be respectively reported in the fourth and fifth part before the final conclusion is displayed.