Olena Bychkovska,
Iuliia Gorodyska,
Valentyn Degtyar
A14
Survey of Feedback on the Academic Writing Course
The survey was conducted on March 21st, 2013, during the Academic Writing class at the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (NaUKMA) among the students of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Social Technologies. Overall, the sample contained 11 students, 7 female of which were and 4 were male. The purpose of the survey was to discover students’ feedbacks on the Academic Writing course. The survey was conducted by means of an online questionnaire containing 6 questions given to students to complete, 5 of which were taken from the course book of R. Jordan. The introduction question of the questionnaire asked about students’ faculty. Further, the first question asked whether the students’ English has improved during the course and if yes, than how; if no than what are the reasons. The second question was about difficulties students still experience with academic writing and the third one asked to asses the helpfulness of the course book of R. Jordan. Also, the fourth question asked about the most useful academic writing practice and, finally, the last question asked for eventual comments.
Chart 1. Improvement of Students’ English Academic Writing Skills during the Academic Writing Course
All of the 11 students attending the Academic writing course and studying at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Social Technologies stated in their responses on the question 1 that their English academic writing skills have improved during this course. As can be seen from the Chart 1, more than two-thirds of the students believe that their structuring skills improved. Moreover, almost every second respondent affirmed that their level of style and lexis, punctuation, as well as citing and references ability have increased during the course. Also, 2 students mentioned advancing the skills of paraphrasing. Finally, grammar, summarizing, and concentration skills, along with correct word order were indicated by 1 student each as improvements made during this course.
Although, as it has been mentioned above, the students have made some progress in studying English during this course and promoted their skills greatly, they had also stated that they have some areas of difficulties. Only two respondents gave general answers of a broad sense - they look forward for more practice. Yet, the majority of those surveyed commented that they still feel certain problems with their academic writing.
Chart 2. Difficulties Students’ Still Have with Academic Writing
As can be seen from Chart 2, the top issue appeared to be punctuation, which was mentioned by 1/3rd of the students. Particularly often the usage of commas was mentioned. 3 students stated that they feel unconfident about word order, grammar and among other the correct use and transcription of pronounces. The next point is the referencing the sources in MLA and APA styles, although only 2 students admitted that this may be difficult. The next concern expressed is the
recognized necessity to enrich vocabulary and style skills following by one comment on difficulties with academic writing which is particularly interesting: “often I want to add a 'human touch', personal note to it or structure it in the way I want, but it's not allowed”. This signifies striving of students for the interested cognitive engagement and creativeness.
Chart 3. The Helpfulness of R.Jordan. Academic Writing Book
In the question number 3, students assessed the helpfulness of the course book in various degrees. 8 respondents stated that the book helped them ‘reasonably’, 2 of the students wrote that it was somewhat helpful and 1 that it was not very helpful. Besides, none of students stated that the book was very helpful; still, also nobody declared that it was not helpful at all.
Responding to the question 4, all of the surveyed students declared that they are looking forward to having more practice. A half of the students said they would like to go on writing paragraphs and essays, while others stressed that they want to write on topics in the field that they are interested in. 2 students would like to have more punctuation practice. One student suggested paying more attention to ACR structure. Another student wanted to get more grammar instructions. Again one student gave a creative comment, however that is not the same person who wants to add “human touch” to the writing, which means that students are more often positive about creative tasks. This student suggested that tasks like imagining an advertisement or writing a funny story would encourage more writing practice.
Lastly, the students were asked to leave a final comment. This question was not about anything in particular; therefore, they could have written anything they would like. Two students’ final comments concerned their need for improvement. One of them stated a need to practice in order to improve the academic writing skills and in such way eliminate the difficulties mentioned above. Moreover, one student mentioned that the course provided ‘real knowledge’, but it is difficult to define what in particular she/he meant by this. Another responder wrote that the conference about dystopias was an interesting experience. In addition, one student mentioned that he/she would like to receive the instructor’s comments in order to be able to improve himself/herself and another suggested working in pairs on a research project during the course, since as he/she thinks, it might have been more useful. As well, five students did not leave any final comments, which might have been due to lack of such possible comments or time. Probably this question was perceived as an optional.
If any conclusions may be drawn from the data, they are, presumably, as follows. The students of Academic writing course studying at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Social Technologies improved their writing, in particular structuring, skills greatly, but they still need to overcome certain difficulties in grammar and punctuation and look forward for more practice.
Iuliia Gorodyska,
Valentyn Degtyar
A14
Survey of Feedback on the Academic Writing Course
The survey was conducted on March 21st, 2013, during the Academic Writing class at the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (NaUKMA) among the students of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Social Technologies. Overall, the sample contained 11 students, 7 female of which were and 4 were male. The purpose of the survey was to discover students’ feedbacks on the Academic Writing course. The survey was conducted by means of an online questionnaire containing 6 questions given to students to complete, 5 of which were taken from the course book of R. Jordan. The introduction question of the questionnaire asked about students’ faculty. Further, the first question asked whether the students’ English has improved during the course and if yes, than how; if no than what are the reasons. The second question was about difficulties students still experience with academic writing and the third one asked to asses the helpfulness of the course book of R. Jordan. Also, the fourth question asked about the most useful academic writing practice and, finally, the last question asked for eventual comments.
Chart 1. Improvement of Students’ English Academic Writing Skills during the Academic Writing Course
All of the 11 students attending the Academic writing course and studying at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Social Technologies stated in their responses on the question 1 that their English academic writing skills have improved during this course. As can be seen from the Chart 1, more than two-thirds of the students believe that their structuring skills improved. Moreover, almost every second respondent affirmed that their level of style and lexis, punctuation, as well as citing and references ability have increased during the course. Also, 2 students mentioned advancing the skills of paraphrasing. Finally, grammar, summarizing, and concentration skills, along with correct word order were indicated by 1 student each as improvements made during this course.
Although, as it has been mentioned above, the students have made some progress in studying English during this course and promoted their skills greatly, they had also stated that they have some areas of difficulties. Only two respondents gave general answers of a broad sense - they look forward for more practice. Yet, the majority of those surveyed commented that they still feel certain problems with their academic writing.
Chart 2. Difficulties Students’ Still Have with Academic Writing
As can be seen from Chart 2, the top issue appeared to be punctuation, which was mentioned by 1/3rd of the students. Particularly often the usage of commas was mentioned. 3 students stated that they feel unconfident about word order, grammar and among other the correct use and transcription of pronounces. The next point is the referencing the sources in MLA and APA styles, although only 2 students admitted that this may be difficult. The next concern expressed is the
recognized necessity to enrich vocabulary and style skills following by one comment on difficulties with academic writing which is particularly interesting: “often I want to add a 'human touch', personal note to it or structure it in the way I want, but it's not allowed”. This signifies striving of students for the interested cognitive engagement and creativeness.
Chart 3. The Helpfulness of R.Jordan. Academic Writing Book
In the question number 3, students assessed the helpfulness of the course book in various degrees. 8 respondents stated that the book helped them ‘reasonably’, 2 of the students wrote that it was somewhat helpful and 1 that it was not very helpful. Besides, none of students stated that the book was very helpful; still, also nobody declared that it was not helpful at all.
Responding to the question 4, all of the surveyed students declared that they are looking forward to having more practice. A half of the students said they would like to go on writing paragraphs and essays, while others stressed that they want to write on topics in the field that they are interested in. 2 students would like to have more punctuation practice. One student suggested paying more attention to ACR structure. Another student wanted to get more grammar instructions. Again one student gave a creative comment, however that is not the same person who wants to add “human touch” to the writing, which means that students are more often positive about creative tasks. This student suggested that tasks like imagining an advertisement or writing a funny story would encourage more writing practice.
Lastly, the students were asked to leave a final comment. This question was not about anything in particular; therefore, they could have written anything they would like. Two students’ final comments concerned their need for improvement. One of them stated a need to practice in order to improve the academic writing skills and in such way eliminate the difficulties mentioned above. Moreover, one student mentioned that the course provided ‘real knowledge’, but it is difficult to define what in particular she/he meant by this. Another responder wrote that the conference about dystopias was an interesting experience. In addition, one student mentioned that he/she would like to receive the instructor’s comments in order to be able to improve himself/herself and another suggested working in pairs on a research project during the course, since as he/she thinks, it might have been more useful. As well, five students did not leave any final comments, which might have been due to lack of such possible comments or time. Probably this question was perceived as an optional.
If any conclusions may be drawn from the data, they are, presumably, as follows. The students of Academic writing course studying at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Social Technologies improved their writing, in particular structuring, skills greatly, but they still need to overcome certain difficulties in grammar and punctuation and look forward for more practice.
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