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What traits do academics value in student writing? Insights from a psychometric approach
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Murray, Neil and Sharpling, Gerard (2019) What traits do academics value in student writing? Insights from a psychometric approach. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44 (3). pp. 489-500. doi:10.1080/02602938.2018.1521372 ISSN 0260-2938.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1521372
Abstract
The number of students studying for university qualifications through the medium of English and for whom English is not their first language has increased significantly in recent years. This, along with efforts to widen access to those under-represented in higher education, has brought into focus the question of what academics see as constituting a ‘good’ piece of student writing. In this small-scale pilot study, Thurstone’s method of paired comparisons was used to establish a scale for ranking six essays in terms of how favourably each was viewed by academic lecturers when compared with every other essay in the set. Kelly’s repertory grid technique was subsequently applied to interviews conducted with the same lecturers to establish which traits they associated with the upper and lower end of the scale. Findings suggest that this methodology represents a promising approach to establishing what academic tutors regard as the key elements of good writing and thus provides an indication of what English teachers might fruitfully focus on in their teaching of the skill.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Applied Linguistics | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education | ||||||||
Publisher: | Routledge | ||||||||
ISSN: | 0260-2938 | ||||||||
Official Date: | 2019 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 44 | ||||||||
Number: | 3 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 489-500 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1080/02602938.2018.1521372 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 9 December 2019 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 25 March 2020 |
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