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Fostering Language Diversity through Classroom-Based Writing Assessment Practices

Athon, Amanda Gail

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2014, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD.
Scholars such as Diane Kelly-Riley and Patricia Bizzell have argued that the student writing feature most likely to place a student into a basic writing course is the presence of dialect other than standard academic English. My dissertation examines this notion and pushes further: if this is true, what are instructors doing to address and assess varieties of English in the first-year writing classroom? What is error to a first-year writing student? What is error to an instructor of first-year writing? To answer these questions, I conducted a semester-long participant observation of two sections of first-year writing, also considered basic writing preparatory courses, in the Fall 2012 academic semester to examine how instructors assess varieties of English. I conducted student surveys twice during the semester to gather student feedback; I also interviewed the instructors near the end of the course to gain additional input. Feminist research methodologies influenced my project; I frequently asked my participants to provide feedback and offered opportunities to review my data through the creation of a dissertation website. After a grounded theory analysis of the data, I found that students internalized the assessment language used by instructors and that this language, paired with the writing models used by instructors, shaped students' values on writing. To better emphasize the contextual nature of writing, instructors might utilize diverse writing models and rubrics that vary based on the writing assignment.
Lee Nickoson, PhD (Advisor)
Kristine Blair, PhD (Committee Member)
Sue Carter Wood, PhD (Committee Member)
Catherine Cassara, PhD (Committee Member)
218 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Athon, A. G. (2014). Fostering Language Diversity through Classroom-Based Writing Assessment Practices [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1384269484

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Athon, Amanda. Fostering Language Diversity through Classroom-Based Writing Assessment Practices. 2014. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1384269484.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Athon, Amanda. "Fostering Language Diversity through Classroom-Based Writing Assessment Practices." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1384269484

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)