Essay Writing Research Articles

Why Human Writing Matters: The Pretty in Pink Essay Challenge

Originally created as the artifact (and badge requirement) for the March Teaching Circle, this essay offers insight into one essay writer’s worst fear: Will AI create a better essay than I could? Rather than merely wonder and create doom scenarios, author Rhonda Baughman embarks on a journey exploring several basic prompts for several GenAI tools in preparation to create her essay for issue 23 of Girls, On Film. After a lengthy introduction, filled with several of humorous and divergent footnotes, a distinct trait of Baughman’s essay and review writing style for the last decade for numerous publications such as Girls, On Film as well as Medium Chill, Exploitation Nation; and Grindhouse Purgatory. An overview contains several surprises for both author and reader and the essay also includes an analysis of the essays generated, the GenAI created responses themselves, and Baughman’s originally published essay. Overall, the essay clearly demonstrated why GenAI is here to help and not replace and why human writing still matters.

Conceptualizing Africa

A gathering of African intellectuals in 2016—Ateliers de la Pensée I [Workshops of Thought]—aimed to be a “renewal of French-speaking Afro-diasporic critical thinking; it also served as an impetus for generating new perspectives concerning … Africa’s future” (2). Somewhat ironically, the participants—some of whose essays appear in To Write the Africa World—seem to have widely accepted one key idea as a significant part of their thinking: double consciousness. First clearly articulated more than a century before by W.E.B. Dubois, that awareness reverberates through many of their twenty-one collected articles. Yet only one among them, Hourya Bentouhami, actually mentions “DuBois’s reflections” on the subject, describing them “as a strange and painful cognitive disjunction … in the dialogue of the soul with itself”(125). Another contributor, Benaouda Lebdai, instead credits Sudanese born British writer Jamal Maljoub with integrating “his status of being double” as part of his authorial identity (53). Other writers of essays included in the book merely assume an understanding of the concept as fundamental to their thought and, perhaps more importantly, in conveying a concept of Africa to the wider world.

Exploration of Lexical Collocations Employed in EFL Students’ Essay Writing

This study investigates the use of different types of lexical collocations and common errors made related to these collocations in essay writing. The participants included EFL students who wrote an essay as a class writing test in 60 minutes. A 5-level Likert close-ended survey questionnaire was designed to collect quantitative data regarding students’ perceptions of the categories of lexical collocations they have used and the difficulties they have encountered in using these. To get qualitative data for the study, students’ essays were then analyzed to identify errors related to different categories of lexical collocations. The results revealed that adjective-noun collocations were the most frequently used by the participants while lexical collocations related to adverbs were used least frequently. Errors related to the morpheme -s such as the omission of morpheme -s in plural nouns and overuse of morpheme -s in singular or uncountable nouns were most commonly made by students, followed by the wrong choice of component words and non-existent lexical collocations. Pedagogical implications are then discussed to assist students in enhancing collocational use in essay writing.

Improving Essay Writing Skills with the Quantum Writer Learning Method in Facing the Destructive Era 4.0

Learning essay writing skills is considered less interesting and boring for students so that students are less interested in learning essay writing skills. However, using interesting learning methods can be the solution. One of them is by using the quantum writer learning method. This research aims to improve students' learning of writing skills by using the quantum writer learning method for students. This research was conducted using literature review, by reading various articles, journals, and other publications related to the research topic. Article search is carried out using an accredited online database, namely Google Scholar. In the search for articles, the researcher limited the literature from 2014-2022. The keywords used are "inysa' writing skills", "quantum writer", "disruptive era 4.0". Based on the search results through Google Scholar using these keywords and after filtering by criteria, out of 20 articles found, only 12 articles are relevant. The results of this study are 1) The quantum writer learning method can be used as an alternative learning method, especially in learning essay writing skills because the two are interconnected. 2) To implement the quantum writer model to improve students' writing skills, there are stages that must be done by teachers. 3) Quantum writer learning method has a great influence on students' writing skills. 4) The level of students' writing ability using the quantum writer method is included in the category of good or quite effective.

Google Translate: The Impact of its Usefulness on English-Majored Students’ Acceptance in Essay Writing in the Vietnamese Context

Google Translate: The Impact of its Usefulness on English-Majored Students’ Acceptance in Essay Writing in the Vietnamese Context

The Role of Recast and Metalinguistic Feedback on Essay Writing: Pakistani Students Perspective

This study investigates the comparative study which concentrates on the impact of the two types of feedback: recast vs. metalinguistic, as an intervention in second language writing in English in Pakistan to reduce error essay writing. Written corrective feedback is a process which is introduced by educationists and psychologists which attracts the attention of the learner and stimulates him to improve his cognition by the direction given by teachers. Mixed method is used to evaluate the effect of these two types of feedback at intermediate level in Pakistan. Quasi experimental method was used to evaluate the development of the student in the destined writing by using test in the form of pre-test and post-test. The problems which are persisted in the text are exposed in the interviews that had paid little attention to the feedback comments. The collected data is analyzed through Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The finding reveals an overall effect indicating the written corrective feedback has a potential to enhance the second language writing grammatical accuracy. The results of this study highlights that metalinguistic feedback is more efficacious than its near counterpart recast.

A Study on Exploring the Potential of ChatGPT in Writing Skills Assessment : Focusing on Essay Writing

A Study on Exploring the Potential of ChatGPT in Writing Skills Assessment : Focusing on Essay Writing

The Impact of Integrating Process Writing with Analytical Reading of Informational Texts on Improving Academic Essay Writing among Palestinian English Majors and their Attitudes Towards it

The Impact of Integrating Process Writing with Analytical Reading of Informational Texts on Improving Academic Essay Writing among Palestinian English Majors and their Attitudes Towards it

Analyzing the Essay Writing Patterns of Iranian Intermediate-Level Korean Language Learners: A Study Based on the TOPIK Exam

Analyzing the Essay Writing Patterns of Iranian Intermediate-Level Korean Language Learners: A Study Based on the TOPIK Exam

The Application of Word Formation in Students’ Essay Writing: Morphology

The Application of Word Formation in Students’ Essay Writing: Morphology

Cultivation of Critical Thinking Skills: Exploring the Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence- Enabled Instruction in English Essay Writing

Cultivation of Critical Thinking Skills: Exploring the Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence- Enabled Instruction in English Essay Writing

The Application of Project-Based Learning in Essay Writing within English Essay Writing Course

This study uses semi-structured and observational interviews as data collection methods to examine the impact of PBL on student learning. Findings suggest that implementing PBL in the English Essay Writing Course has a positive effect on student learning. Research shows that switching from traditional teaching methods to PBL can be very effective for courses with important writing topics, such as English essay writing. This study contributes to the understanding of effective teaching methods in English essay writing courses, demonstrating of the step to write an English Essay and the transformative potential of PBL in improving English students' motivation in writing skills. The suggestion is future researchers can do more research on how students explore their writing skills through essay writing at different kinds of essay.

Students’ Motivation to Write Argumentative Essay Writing

Students’ Motivation to Write Argumentative Essay Writing

Students’ Ability to Develop Critical Thinking Skills in English Essay Writing

Critical thinking has an important role in writing to analyze information, construct robust arguments, and communicate ideas understandably and compellingly. This study aims to know students’ ability to develop critical thinking in essay writing. The method used in this study is descriptive qualitative reserch with 50 students as participants. The test was used as a technique of data collection. The result of the study indicated that students' ability to develop critical thinking in writing remains underdeveloped, only 2% of students were able to demonstrate a clear unity of ideas in their essays, reflecting a notable lack of critical thinking skills in articulating main concepts. Furthermore, 8% of students were able to present clear reasoning, underscoring the overall weakness in their critical thinking abilities. Additionally, only 6% of students showed proficiency in the organization component of their essays, indicating a substantial gap in their skills to structure and connect ideas effectively. These findings demonstrate that students' application of critical thinking abilities, particularly in essay writing, is still lacking. It is recommended the students should develop critical thinking to have good achievement in writing.

Using Grammarly Software to Check the Problems in Essay Writing: EFL Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions

This research aims to investigate pre-service teachers' perceptions of using Grammarly software to help them check their essays' problems. The study considers the widespread use of AI in English language learning, particularly in writing. The research method used in this paper was a quantitative survey. The instrument used was a questionnaire. 36 English Pre-service teachers from two state universities and one private university in Jember were involved in this study. The findings show a positive response based on five aspects of perception: belief, knowledge, feeling, interest, and motivation. Based on the data, 18-24 participants agree, and 2-12 participants strongly agree with the statement. This data means that more than half of the respondents positively perceive using Grammarly software in essay writing. The belief aspect is the highest frequency (65.3% of respondents agree). This data means that students mostly believe that using Grammarly can help them improve their writing skills and solve their writing problems. On the other hand, the motivation aspect received the lowest response, with less than half (48.6%) agreeing. Therefore, this study recommends that English language education programs emphasize the importance of AI in learning, particularly Grammarly.

Optimizing Essay Writing Skills through Short Film Media: A Classroom Action Research in Grade XII of SMK Parungponteng

This research uses the Classroom Action Research (PTK) method with a spiral model to improve the ability to write essay texts through the use of short film media in class XII of Parungponteng Vocational School. Teachers have shown improvement in lesson planning and implementation using short film media. Evaluation of learning outcomes shows a significant increase, with classical completion reaching 100%. Students' abilities in text structure, linguistic rules and writing (mechanics) also increase. Improvement and reflection on the learning process plays an important role in improving the quality of learning and student learning outcomes.

Lexico-grammatical Features of Online Essay Writings Among Chinese EFL Learners

This linguistic study investigates the lexico-grammatical features of Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners’ argumentative essays. The study utilizes corpus linguistic methods and natural language processing tools to analyze 1460 writing samples from an online learner corpus. Variations in linguistic complexity and sophistication of clause, phrase, and syntactic sophistication across different proficiency levels were examined using AntConc, Multidimensional Analysis Tagger, and TAASSC. The results indicate significant variances in lexico-grammatical complexity and sophistication features between low and high proficiency levels. The study revealed that proficiency levels of EFL learners had varying effects on clausal complexity, phrasal complexity, and syntactic sophistication. The study also identifies limitations in the natural language processing tool used for extracting target indices in argumentative essays. Overall, these findings have implications for EFL teaching, learning, and assessment, and for improving NLP tools.

Cohesion and Coherence Problems Among Non-Native English Students’ Writing Essays

In order to properly organize ideas and express significant information, non-native students sometimes struggle with cohesion and coherence in their essays. This study examines the body of literature to pinpoint frequent problems non-native writers have while trying to make their writing coherent and cohesive. This study aims to assess the literature on cohesion and coherence issues in essays written by non-native students, with a particular focus on a number of components, including referential and relational coherence, theme and rheme, and grammatical and lexical cohesion. The literature study looks at papers that address problems with coherence and cohesiveness in student writing. It groups the results according to several coherence and cohesion criteria, such as referential and relational coherence, theme and rheme, and grammatical and lexical cohesion. An analysis of the essays shows common problems that non-native students face. Accompanying difficulties with collocation and diction are lexical cohesion faults, like as repetition and restricted vocabulary utilization. Issues with conjunction usage and text arrangement are examples of grammatical cohesion issues. Coherence is an issue that students struggle with; they have trouble coming up with thesis statements, topic sentences, introductions, and conclusion that are all coherent. Recognizing these difficulties emphasizes the necessity of focused interventions to improve non-native students' writing abilities. The development of instruments such as Tool for Automatic Cohesion Analysis (TAACO) presents encouraging paths for methodically evaluating and resolving cohesion concerns. These insights can be used by educators to create coherence and cohesiveness-enhancing tactics for non-native essay writers, which will ultimately result in clearer, more coherent writing.

Effects of TBI on Students’ Essay Writing Performance and Engagement

This study attempted to investigate the effects of TBI on students’ essay writing performance and their writing engagement, and again to examine the mediating effects of writing engagement between the causal relationship of TBI and essay writing performance. The study was conducted on Grade-11 students of Ediget Feleg Secondary School in Gondar City, Ethiopia. The design employed in the study was quasi-experimental, taking randomly two intact groups as control and experimental, with 56 and 58 students in each, respectively. The experimental group students were taught using the TBI approach as intervention, whereas the control group students were taught, employing the conventional (PPP) approach. Writing test was used to collect the writing performance data, whereas questionnaire was employed to collect data about students’ writing engagement. Independent samples t-test, Chi square, and Structural Equation Model were used to analyze the data. And it was found that direct significant difference came true between the control and experimental group students’ essay writing performance posttest scores, favoring experimental group participants, i.e., (B = 1.581 CR = 5.190 (>±1.96), p < .05). And, it happened that there was significant effect of TBI on engagement, favoring experimental group participants, showing results (β = .543, CR = 4.757 (>±1.96), p < .05). Still, results (β = .345, CR = 2.103(>±1.96), p < .05) reveal that TBI had positive effect on experimental group participants’ writing performance posttest score through writing engagement. The TBI, therefore, has a positive effect, directly and indirectly /through writing engagement, on students’ writing performance. The implication is that writing engagement plays a partial mediation role in the causal relationship between TBI and Essay writing performance.

Nexus of essay writing and computer-assisted language learning (CALL) in English language classroom

Purpose This study aims to explore computer-assisted language learning (CALL) activities to improve the English essay writing of Pakistani university students. It highlights the role of CALL in the language proficiency model cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP), which can enable second language learners to engage in more critical thinking skills effectively. Furthermore, it aims to explore English language teachers’ experience about the use of CALL-based activities in English language classrooms or labs. Design/methodology/approach This study followed a pre-post study design to examine whether the structure of an essay and computer-based activities helped to improve English language proficiency among non-native speakers. This design is adopted to investigate the effects of CALL activities on students’ English essays. This study used data from 198 students and after this, four English teachers were interviewed to know their opinions and observations about these CALL-based activities and students’ essay writings. Pre- and post-test data was analysed in percentages and further examined through a t-test. The findings of teachers’ interviews were further analysed through Nvivo software to develop an understanding of research questions through significant themes. Findings The pre-test results confirmed that students’ language proficiency is underdeveloped and informal. Students needed help constructing introductory paragraphs with the reader’s hook, background information, three-point thesis statement and transitional hook. Whereas, post-test results showed that students’ English language proficiency in essay writing was found improved with the use of technological tools and CALL-based activities. Furthermore, it was observed that structure and teacher feedback in essay writing are vital for English proficiency. Originality/value This study benefits English language teachers, administrators, language policymakers and syllabus designers at colleges and universities. The debate over how to improve English language proficiency and academic achievement presents diverse challenges across several countries. Non-native speakers, at an undergraduate level, can significantly improve academically and become proficient in English essay writing with the help of structural guidelines and the use of educational technology. This article demonstrates a two-way process to improve an objective definition of English language development, which is conceivable if the technology is adopted.