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BEGINNING THE LITERACY TRANSITION: POSTSECONDARY STUDENTS' CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF ACADEMIC WRITING IN DEVELOPMENTAL LITERACY CONTEXTS

ARMSTRONG, SONYA L

Abstract Details

2007, EdD, University of Cincinnati, Education : Literacy.
Most beginning college students experience some difficulty while trying to make the transition to the expectations of college-level writing. While much research has investigated the outcomes of this transition, not much research considers students' conceptual starting points. Also, very little writing research on this topic has been found that focuses exclusively on a growing population of first-year students—those enrolled in developmental college literacy courses. This dissertation outlines a study that was designed to generate knowledge about first-year college students' conceptualizations of academic writing and whether and how those conceptualizations changed over the course of their initial college literacy experience in a developmental reading and writing class. Data sources included sequenced semi-structured interviews, observations of classroom peer-group work, and participants' required course writing assignments. Data gathered from these sources included participants' elicited and spontaneously generated metaphors for and about academic writing. Data analysis included a non-metaphorical phase, which examined participants’ language through open coding without the lens of metaphor. Another phase of analysis focused exclusively on participants' metaphorical linguistic expressions and their implied conceptual metaphors. During the final phase of analysis, the results of the prior phases of data analysis were compared and synthesized in order to interpret conceptualizations based on participants' language. Analysis of these data confirmed conceptual diversity within the target population, as well as varying degrees of conceptual change during their introductory literacy coursework. The participants in this study demonstrated that they had personal models or theories of academic writing, of literacy, and of literacy-learning near the beginning of their reading and writing course. These participants' understandings of academic writing, and the degree to which these understandings evolved throughout the study, seemed to affect their perceived and actual development as writers in their reading and writing class.
Dr. Eric Paulson (Advisor)
287 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • ARMSTRONG, S. L. (2007). BEGINNING THE LITERACY TRANSITION: POSTSECONDARY STUDENTS' CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF ACADEMIC WRITING IN DEVELOPMENTAL LITERACY CONTEXTS [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1195948915

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • ARMSTRONG, SONYA. BEGINNING THE LITERACY TRANSITION: POSTSECONDARY STUDENTS' CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF ACADEMIC WRITING IN DEVELOPMENTAL LITERACY CONTEXTS. 2007. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1195948915.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • ARMSTRONG, SONYA. "BEGINNING THE LITERACY TRANSITION: POSTSECONDARY STUDENTS' CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF ACADEMIC WRITING IN DEVELOPMENTAL LITERACY CONTEXTS." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1195948915

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)