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Dr John Morrison & Mr Greg Gordon

CASS Writing Course pilot: Identifying students who could benefit from an early intervention in the development of academic-writing skills. Dr John Morrison & Mr Greg Gordon. Academic Writing. Passage I to read and summarise (150 words). Week 1. Diagnostic Writing Test I.

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Dr John Morrison & Mr Greg Gordon

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  1. CASS Writing Course pilot:Identifying students who could benefit from an early intervention in the development of academic-writing skills Dr John Morrison & Mr Greg Gordon

  2. Academic Writing Passage I to read and summarise (150 words) Week 1 Diagnostic Writing Test I Week 2 – mark Test I ACHIEVED NOT ACHIEVED Work through Improving your Writing By end of Week 4 Week 5 Diagnostic Writing Test II Passage II to read and summarise (150 words) Week 6 – mark Test II ACHIEVED NOT ACHIEVED • 4 workshops: • 3 x writing (including formation of sentences, paragraphs & argument) • 1 x paraphrasing Attend Writing Workshops with SLS Weeks 7–11

  3. Feedback Rubric

  4. AW1001 – the law school experience • Initial misgivings • Would high attaining students consider the exercise “beneath them”? • Would the exercise cause concern/anxiety? • Potential positives • Early engagement • A means of delivering some key messages: • “here to work” • “not the same as school” • “something we take seriously” • Student support dimension

  5. Practicalities • Primarily WebCT based • Technical support provided by CLT • Small (3-person) marking team – to ensure consistency of approach. • First c. 30 to be marked by same person (me) • Noteworthy attempts printed and passed to other members of the team before they began the marking process • Markers to refer attempts they found especially hard to grade to me; also any non-serious attempts.

  6. First Diagnostic Test • Text selected: W A Wilson, extract from “The Study of Law” • c. 750 words; a classic; grounded in law but not needing detailed legal knowledge to be understood. • All 232 students on the LLB (Hons) programme enrolled on the test • C. 10 students experienced technical difficulties meaning that their attempt was submitted before they were finished with it • 16 students completed the test only after receiving a “chaser” email upon the expiry of the deadline • 16 students did not attempt the test despite system-generated reminders and a reminder from myself • 23 students attempted the first test but did not attain a pass • Very few failed purely on spelling & grammar • The remaining 193 students (83%) attained passes

  7. Second Diagnostic Test (1) • Text selected: K G C Reid, extract from “From Text-Book to Book of Authority: Bell’s Principles” • c. 550 words; commentary on the changing perception of a book the students would have been introduced to as a source of law in the Legal System course. • Of the 16 who did not attempt the first test: • 8 again failed to take it despite system warnings and an email from me warning them that they would have to attend all workshops if they did not take it; and • 8 took the second test; of this cohort, 7 passed and 1 failed. Most passed well; highest mark, 18.

  8. Second Diagnostic Test (2) • Of the 23 who attempted the first test but did not attain a pass: • 1 did not take the second test (due, she claimed, to confusion on her part) and had to attend the Workshops • The remaining 22 attempted the second test; of this group, 17 attained a pass mark and 5 did not. • Although some students’ mark increased dramatically, generally, the marks of this cohort were lower than those of the students who had been required to attempt the second test because they had not attempted the first.

  9. The Workshops • 13 LLB students were required to attend some or all of the workshops (5% of the original enrolment in the course) • 5 because of failing to attain, 8 because of non-engagement. • Of this cohort, 8 attended all or the majority of their sessions, 1 half her sessions, and 4 none. • Of those who did attend, one took the opportunity to pass on her thanks for the opportunity to receive this support.

  10. Evaluation (1) • Useful and thorough evaluation undertaken by Colin Calder • Pre-test anxiety levels: 46% of students anxious or very anxious about the test • Some “mythology” about what would happen if you failed (“thrown out” etc) • However, confidence levels in ability increased (by 20%) after the test had been taken

  11. Evaluation (2) • Free text comments • Generally supportive of the process: • understanding of the importance of academic writing • appreciative of the opportunity to know where you stand and/or improve. • Some negativity • Esp. in relation to utility of feedback • “I personally think it has nothing to do with University at all. We were all asked to get a minimum grade C for Higher English so nothing else should matter. ” • But this was very much a minority view.

  12. Evaluation (3) • What actions did you take after the first test? • “None. Since I did not feel the feedback was accurately discriptive of my writing.” • “i did not find the feedback to be very helpful as the materials basically went onto explain basic prinicples of english; which i felt my knowledge was of a competant standard.” • “Sought advice on the possibility of being dyslexic. Which it turned out I was.”

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