Skilled Writers Research Articles

AN INVESTIGATION OF WRITERS’ BLOCK THROUGH RHETORICAL SITUATION

Students do experience writing blocks. Writers’ blocks are caused by many reasons. When writers write, they face rhetorical problems. Past studies have shown that these problems are easily solved by skilled writers. However, less skilled writers may take a longer time to get out of the rhetorical problems. Rhetorical problems can be categorized into two. Firstly, many writers face problems due to their failure to attend to their own goals (writers’ own goal). Next, writers also face problems with rhetorical situation. Rhetorical situations can be categorized as problems with the assignment and problems with the audience. This qualitative study explored the causes of writers’ block among three different levels of writers. Findings revealed that the three levels of writers had different causes of writing blocks. Some were caused by paying attention to perfection, some feared not being understood by the readers. Article visualizations:

Sincere or heart-felt?: Sincerity, convention, and bilingualism in French and Spanish letters

Abstract The concept of sincerity has links to honesty, openness, and authenticity, including of feelings. As expressions of sincerity become formalized in epistolary practice, however, a tension arises between sincerity and the articulation of it. An examination of a corpus of private family letters in French and Spanish from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries shows that use of the word ‘sincerity’ is much more common as an epistolary formula in French, where it had a broader semantic range, while authors writing in Spanish use other methods to index truth and emotional openness. The most frequent users of this formula are shown to be less skilled writers and bilinguals writing in their second language, suggesting a greater reliance on preconstructed formulae, especially in situations of increased linguistic and social distance. Finally, some bilingual authors transfer the pattern into Spanish, indicating that fixed phrases and formulae are available in a bilingual’s linguistic repertoire for pragmatic redeployment.

Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War by Elizabeth R. Varon

Reviewed by: Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War by Elizabeth R. Varon Richard Reid Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War. Elizabeth R. Varon. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1908-6060-8. 513 pp., cloth, $34.95. In this provocative and engaging history of the Civil War, Elizabeth Varon reassesses one of the conflict’s central questions. How did the North define its war aims in a fashion that unified and sustained a prowar coalition of Republicans and Democrats capable of crushing secession? On entering office, Abraham Lincoln faced a contentious political landscape: Radical Republicans wanting to end slavery and promote black citizenship to War Democrats striving to maintain both the Union and the racial status quo. Between these political extremes were a majority of Northerners who, like the president, were determined to preserve the Union and end slavery primarily because of its negative impact on free labour. In addition, [End Page 204] Lincoln needed to appeal to Southern unionists. What linked these groups during the war was their belief that secession had been caused by a slaveholding elite that captivated slaves and common Southerners alike. Lincoln was able to forge an effective prowar alliance, Varon argues, by using the political theme of deliverance. Varon is a skillful writer with a deft touch and a commanding knowledge of the broad Civil War era. An award-winning author, she has published two previous books that bracket the actual Civil War: Disunion! The Coming of the American Civil War (2008) and Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War (2013). Her works reflect the influence of Raymond Williams’s ideas on “keywords” as socially prominent words capable of carrying interlocking and sometimes contradictory and contested contemporary meanings. In Armies of Deliverance, Varon gives short shrift to prewar events and deals with postwar developments only in her conclusion. Given her previous two books, this decision is understandable. However, it truncates any discussion of a perceived Northern belief in the necessity of Southern deliverance before 1861. Similarly, while “deliverance” was useful wartime rhetoric, it fed disagreement and disillusionment after Appomattox, especially over the issue of black civil rights and citizenship, which is passed over quickly. Varon begins her book with a July 1864 article in Harper’s Weekly: “Fighting for Our Foes,” which claimed Southern leaders, not the “ignorant and debased” Southern masses, were the real instigators of the war. This belief, she argues, allowed Northerners to depict “the Civil War as a war of deliverance, waged to deliver the South from the clutches of a conspiracy and to deliver to it the blessings of free society” (2). The strength of the term deliverance, replete with religious and moral overtones, was its ambiguousness, which muted Northern differences across time and place and created the illusion of common cause. The concept allows Varon to depict the full range and alterations of Northern attitudes and motivations. It could link “soft war” incentives and “hard war” punishments. Advocates used the term to reconcile the liberation of the white Southern masses from thralldom with the emancipation of the slaves. Depicting the agents of secession as a narrow class of Southerners helped keep the war from descending into a war of atrocities and lay the basis for a reunited nation. Any historian writing a concise single-volume history of the Civil War faces an onerous and daunting task. The fields to be incorporated are large and complex, while the historiography of the conflict is, like the universe, constantly expanding. Besides mastering current literature, the writer must make critical decisions about what to foreground and what to leave out. Whatever the choices made, not all readers will be satisfied. Given the book’s focus, there is little space here to include the naval war, the conflict’s international implications, or the way the two sides mobilized and replenished their fiscal and industrial resources. The latter is [End Page 205] perhaps most surprising, as Varon argues that it was the four years of attrition that ground down the Confederate army and made Appomattox inevitable. That small quibble aside, Varon covers the war’s various military campaigns in...

Contemplating language as ‘an edge that never arrives’ in Emily Dickinson’s poetry

The experience of being in the world, of trying to make sense of it, and of interacting meaningfully with others has always challenged us to find better ways of expressing ourselvesthrough language, and more original ways of articulating ideas. This is why the literary arts, especially poetry, have traditionally been so important to so many cultures. Now, as our world increases in verbosity, if not articulacy, the imperative for meaningful verbal expression and exchange grows ever more pressing. Yet even the most skilled writers cannot take it for granted that they will always find ‘the right words.’With the work of Emily Dickinson as its focus, this paper argues that it may be better not to try. For if we consider writing solely to be a question of ‘finding the right words,’not only do we limit language’s power and possibility, we also limit ourselves. Using Dickinson’s poetic example, this papercontemplates language as ‘anedge that never arrives’, and suggests that the more we strive for, and fail, to reach the limits of language, the closer we may come to accessing, not only the originality and expressiveness we crave, but also the means to engage with a deeply enriching literacy of uncertainty

English as a foreign language writers’ metacognitive strategy knowledge of writing and their writing performance in multimedia environments

Writing is a complex, recursive, and strategic process that requires metacognitive competencies. Skillful writers have a high level of metacognitive strategy knowledge (MSK) and use strategies effectively. MSK about writing describes a person’s verbalizable knowledge and awareness of memory, comprehension, and higher order processes that underlie skillful writing. Measurement instruments assessing students’ MSK about academic writing in higher education that can be used for group settings and large samples are lacking. The aim of this article is to describe the development of a new MSK test instrument. The MSK test consists of three different writing scenarios related to the three self-regulated writing phases: planning prior to composing full text, monitoring the writing during composition, and subsequent revision. The findings of a pre-study (N = 51) and two studies (N = 23; N = 113) showed that the new MSK test is economical in use, is reliable and has high content validity. Further, the findings demonstrated external validity of the new instrument in terms of relationships with students’ metacognitive strategy use and writing performance. Implications for future research and educational practice are discussed.

Online collaborative writing revision intervention outcomes for struggling and skilled writers: An initial finding

This study examined struggling and skilled writers’ narrative writing performances when revising stories in pairs online as compared to students working independently. In the experimental group, 5 mixed-ability pairs of upper-elementary struggling writers and skilled writers engaged in online collaborative revision. In the control group, 5 upper-elementary struggling writers and 5 skilled writers engaged in independent digital story writing. The nonparametric and benchmark criteria results revealed that the struggling writers in the experimental group produced a longer posttest story by adding syntactically more complex sentences and higher-level story elements compared with those in the control group. Qualitative analysis showed that online collaborative revision activities contributed more to struggling writers’ performances than it did to the skilled writers’ performance with regards to higher-level thinking skills.

Joseph A. DandurandSH:LAM (The Doctor)

enthusiasm. Fueled by cocaine, they torment the migrants, forcing them to forget “who they are, who anyone is,” Epitafio says. If Monge’s goal is to challenge our complacency , his book is a tremendous success. Among the Lost is a horrifying indictment of those who benefit from others’ misery—and those who look the other way. But not all of his storytelling choices are beneficial. Take, for example, Monge’s decision to assign relatively limited roles to the novel ’s only sympathetic characters. We never learn the migrants’ names—a handful get customized pronouns like “ShewhostillcallsonGod ” and “Hewhostillhasabody”—and the structure of the book deprives them of unique identities. Drawing from statements migrants have given to aid organizations , Monge intersperses his narrative with unattributed blocks of text in which they describe lives shaped by vulnerability and terror. “They evicted me from my home,” one says. “They slaughtered my family.” This is powerful material, but readers who want to know more about this person will find themselves frustrated. A year after the English-language publication of The Arid Sky, another Mongepenned tale of despair set in Mexico, it’s clear that he’s a skillful writer with a distinct worldview. The violence in his books is a harrowing reflection of real-world circumstances , and Among the Lost features more than a few unnerving scenes. If only he’d found a way to focus with a bit more clarity on those in his story who suffer the most. Kevin Canfield New York Joseph A. Dandurand SH:LAM (The Doctor) Toronto. Mawenzi House. 2019. 84 pages. Seldom is someone a keeper of deep cultural knowledge and a gifted poet. Joseph A. Dandurand is both. SH:LAM (The Doctor) is “Indigenous Knowledge You Need Now,” narrative poetry imbued with wisdom. Dandurand, a Kwantlen First Nations poet and playwright from British Columbia, is the 2019 Indigenous Storyteller in Residence at the Vancouver Public Library, having authored several plays as well as three prior volumes of poetry. SH:LAM’s poems weave a story in the mind’s eye through a series of dramatic monologues similar to British Victorian poet Robert Browning’s but presented from the point of view of one central character throughout. Dandurand’s skill as a playwright and as a poet synergize to create a gripping overarching story describing the postapocalyptic reality of American Indian and First Nations people on this continent yesterday, today, and tomorrow in a way that fits within the larger artistic movement of Indigenous Futurisms. Anishinaabe filmmaker Lisa Jackson says that from Indigenous viewpoints, “the apocalypse has already happened.” Catastrophic destruction of lifeways and environment accompanied by genocidal attacks and waves of deadly disease started in 1492 at the paracolonial moment. But the term “paracolonial” also asserts continued Indigenous survival as Indigenous peoples, an ongoing process. Elizabeth LaPensée says, “Indigenous Futurisms reflect past, present , and future—the hyperpresent now.” It incorporates elements of but “is not merely ‘Indigenous science fiction,’” and it utilizes Indigenous rather than “Western ideas of space and linear time.” This is very much the worldview of the text. The central character is an Indian doctor , Sh:Lam—for Kwantlen people, a “medicine man” in the terms of mainstream America. Incorporating the kind of paradox that is part of Indigenous worldviews, he is both (1) the healer who ended the smallpox epidemic for his people historically and (2) a contemporary homeless heroin addict on the streets of Vancouver’s Eastside who lost his children to social services and his love to the needle, both eternal and human. He’s a postapocalyptic Adam eating the apple. While the character is tribally specific and grounded in his culture—as are the allusions and cultural descriptions throughout the text—he also acts as a sort of Indian everyman fighting the onslaught of colonization . In addition to smallpox and heroin, Sh:Lam takes on pedophilic priests from residential schools and those who harm the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (mmiw) for whom so many of us are standing up today. The richest aspect of this collection, however, is the way in which Dandurand asserts Native perspectives and cosmologies within this Western form to a mainstream audience with ease...

Grade-Accountable Peer Editing: Students’ Perceptions of Peer-Editing Assignments

Peer editing is a skill journalism students, and most college students, need to be effective and skillful writers. In today’s fast-paced lifestyle, students do not spend enough time refining and reevaluating their writing. This research examined students’ perceptions of grade-accountable assignments, focused on peer editing, and implemented into a journalism writing course. Students found the peer editing to be necessary, but unpleasant; however, the most relevant finding was students did not connect the idea of peer editing to the application of real-world job skills. This article explores thoughts on future implementation of peer-editing assignments to improve students’ evaluation of their writing.

The Sweetness of Life: Southern Planters at Home by Eugene D. Genovese

Reviewed by: The Sweetness of Life: Southern Planters at Homeby Eugene D. Genovese William J. Harris Sr The Sweetness of Life: Southern Planters at Home. By Eugene D. Genovese. Edited by Douglas Ambrose. Cambridge Studies on the American South. (New York and other cities: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Pp. xxxii, 275. Paper, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-316-50289-1; cloth, $99.99, ISBN 978-1-107-13805-6.) The Sweetness of Life: Southern Planters at Homecontinues Eugene D. Genovese's efforts to more fully understand the complexities of southern planters, a task he finds essential to understanding the slave South and the system of slavery. As Genovese states in the introduction, he has "come neither to praise nor bury the slaveholders, but to limn some of the features of their lives, which may help us understand them better" (p. 2). Genovese's use of material accumulated through decades of research allows him to create a layered view of the slaveholding class. A skilled writer, Genovese weaves entertaining and insightful tales throughout the book, capturing the activities and preferences of individuals as well as the broader sentiments of the planter class. Through discussion of leisure activities such as dining practices, horse riding, fishing and hunting, piano playing, and gambling, Genovese presents a wide-ranging portrait of seldom discussed aspects of the American South. Genovese passed away prior to completion of the book. As a result, Douglas Ambrose provides an in-depth prologue outlining the context of The Sweetness of Lifealong with the broader experiences of Genovese's career. Ambrose contends that each chapter stands on its own, thus creating a book that lacks the "tight, overarching argument" one has come to expect in Genovese's work [End Page 990](p. x). However, certain recurring themes can be found. Genovese effectively demonstrates the ways that southern leisure activities reified class distinctions and order in the region. For instance, through a discussion of horses and carriages, it becomes clear that southern elites held particular preferences regarding style and quality. Carriage ownership reinforced the planters' status within the community, while the ability to provide transportation during weddings and other social events to those unable to purchase their own reinforced the sentiment that these men were worthy of their elevated status in the community. Similarly, when Genovese discusses a variety of subjects ranging from gun ownership to hunting and horse riding, or illicit activities such as gambling and drinking or rampant sexual activities, ideas of manliness and masculinity flow throughout the book, in terms of both how planters viewed or defined themselves and how they were regarded by others. Ideally, The Sweetness of Lifewould not only illuminate our understanding of the planter class but also demonstrate how planters' choices and activities were interwoven with the enslaved population of the South. According to Ambrose, "What emerges most clearly from The Sweetness of Lifeis not the profundity of an argument about the master-slave relation, but, instead, the presumption of slave presence in nearly all aspects of the slaveholders' lives" (p. xix). However, emphasizing the presence of enslaved men and women fails to adequately address not only how they functioned as actors in the formation of southern leisure but also how their actions shaped the thoughts and activities of the planter class. Kernels of this sort can be seen when Genovese briefly mentions the dangers associated with enslaved people's access to horses, drugs, and guns. The systemic realities of slavery challenged the application of leisurely activities. Importantly, sharp divisions existed in the understanding and expression of leisure among planters and enslaved people. Expanding on points only briefly broached in this book (such as the conflicted holiday season for enslaved people who found themselves both engaged in celebration and fearful of potential separations based on sale or being hired out in the new year) would allow for better understanding of the true nature of slavery in the South. The Sweetness of Lifeis an important book that should provide several avenues for further discussion and debate for years to come. William J. Harris Sr Presbyterian College Copyright © 2018 The Southern Historical Association

The development of a new instrument to assess metacognitive strategy knowledge about academic writing and its relation to self-regulated writing and writing performance

Writing is a complex, recursive, and strategic process that requires metacognitive competencies. Skillful writers have a high level of metacognitive strategy knowledge (MSK) and use strategies effectively. MSK about writing describes a person’s verbalizable knowledge and awareness of memory, comprehension, and higher order processes that underlie skillful writing. Measurement instruments assessing students’ MSK about academic writing in higher education that can be used for group settings and large samples are lacking. The aim of this article is to describe the development of a new MSK test instrument. The MSK test consists of three different writing scenarios related to the three self-regulated writing phases: planning prior to composing full text, monitoring the writing during composition, and subsequent revision. The findings of a pre-study (N = 51) and two studies (N = 23; N = 113) showed that the new MSK test is economical in use, is reliable and has high content validity. Further, the findings demonstrated external validity of the new instrument in terms of relationships with students’ metacognitive strategy use and writing performance. Implications for future research and educational practice are discussed.

L2 Writing Strategies Used by EFL Graduate Students

This study investigates the writing strategies and the predominantly strategies used by four Indonesian graduate students when writing in L2 (English). They were divided into 2 groups, skilled and less skilled writers, to examine what strategies they applied when writing. The main instrument of this study is Think Aloud Protocols (TAPs). The analysis of data collected discovered some findings: (1) both skilled and less skilled writers used varied strategies. However, the frequency of using each strategy was different. Skilled writers used each strategy in high frequency. On the other hand, less skilled writers only used each strategy in low frequency, while skilled writers understand the recursive nature of writing. (2) Skilled writers used reading and rereading strategies in high frequency for several purposes: revising and editing the text, developing ideas, and getting new ideas, while less skilled writers rarely used those strategies. They wrote whatever ideas came into their mind, and reread the text once in a while. These findings suggest that effective writing strategies should be introduced explicitly when student writers have already mastered the foundation of writing. Unfortunately, they are seldom guided on the use of writing strategies in the process of their writing. In fact, effective writing strategies and the frequency of using each strategy could help them become good writers and influence the quality of their writing. Based on these findings some suggestions are discussed.

Radical Observation

Radical Observation Joni Seager (bio) Before Rachel Carson exposed the dangers posed by chemical pesticides, she was a chronicler of the ocean. Raised far from any sea, Carson became one of its most famous environmental interlocutors. Born in rural Pennsylvania in 1907, Carson's mother inculcated in her a love of nature, and a mentor at the Pennsylvania College for Women—now Chatham College—steered her toward marine biology. The rest, as they say, is history. In the early years of the twentieth century, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole was one of the few scientific institutions that welcomed women and treated them as equal participants in science. There Carson pursued marine biology as a postgraduate before receiving her MA in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in 1932. (Gertrude Stein, another Pennsylvanian-born woman bound for fame and notoriety, also studied at Woods Hole and then Johns Hopkins, some thirty years before Carson.) Carson was a skilled writer; she entered college as an English major before her mentor, Mary Scott Skinker, lured her into the study of biology. Offering an unusual combination of skill in both science and writing, Carson was hired by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to write radio scripts during the Depression, and she supplemented her income by writing feature articles on natural history for the Baltimore Sun. In 1936 she began a sixteen-year career as a scientist and editor for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), eventually rising to the position of editor in chief. For the FWS she wrote pamphlets on conservation and natural resources, synthesized field reports on fisheries, and edited scientific articles. She also continued her freelancing life: her first national-audience [End Page 269] commercial success was "Undersea," an article she wrote for the Atlantic Monthly in September 1937. Received to acclaim, this essay became the basis of Under the Sea-Wind (1941), a book that garnered good reviews but never sold particularly well. In 1951 she published her lyrical study of the ocean, The Sea Around Us.1 This book leapt to the New York Times best-seller list where it remained for almost ninety weeks; it won the National Book Award, was condensed in Reader's Digest, and made Carson a household name. The Sea Around Us also gave Carson the financial independence she needed to resign from government service in 1952 and devote herself full time to her writing. In 1955 she followed the success of The Sea Around Us with a study of the coastal Atlantic, The Edge of the Sea—retrospectively, the third of a trilogy "biography of the ocean." Carson's ocean trilogy established her reputation as a popularizing nature observer. Before Jacques Cousteau entranced audiences with tales of the mysteries of the deep, Carson was mapping the rhythms of the ocean for a wide and enthralled readership. Unlike her later book, Silent Spring (1962), which was a hard-hitting exposé of human hubris in which Carson raised an overt challenge to business as usual in boosterish America, The Sea Around Us (and, later, Edge) was primarily a descriptive, naturalist chronicle. Lyrical, beautiful, scientifically based, and "safe" writings of the wonders-of-nature genre, these books didn't advance a polemic or make explicitly political arguments. Carson herself carefully cultivated a public reputation as a reliable narrator of nature observation. Nonetheless, radical currents ran deep throughout her ocean trilogy. Women in/of Science Carson's positionality as a woman in the sciences was never far out of view—hers or others. The genteel art of careful nature observation has a long history as a socially acceptable avocation—and, at times, vocation—for women. Indeed, it was one of the few portals for women into science. Observing and writing about the "charms" of nature were considered suitable undertakings for women in early western scientific traditions (Shteir 1997; Jackson-Houlston 2006). Echoes of this association are evident in the reviews of The Sea Around Us. A 1951 review referred to Carson, admiringly, as "the slender, gentle Miss Carson" (cited in Dreier 2012, 229), while another review by the science editor of Time magazine reassured readers that Carson's book about sea life was...

Hermeneutics of Hymnody: A Comprehensive and Integrated Approach to Understanding Hymns by Scotty Wayne Gray

Hermeneutics of Hymnody: A Comprehensive and Integrated Approach to Understanding Hymns. By Scotty Wayne Gray. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2015. [xx, 411 p. ISBN 9781573127677. $28.] Music examples, bibliography, indexes.Born out of lifetime of teaching, Scotty Gray's Hermeneutics of Hymnody is widereaching introduction to hymnology. Instead of focusing on single aspect of hymns, such as tune or historical background, Gray's monograph steadfastly maintains wide scope, even while treating an encyclopedic range of topics in turn. book is organized into seven chapters, each treating one general approach to study: The Bible, Theology, Liturgy, Poetry, History, Biography, and Socioculture, and Practice. These core chapters are framed by an introduction and conclusion that argue for a and integrated of (p. 12). Within each chapter this emphasis is reiterated and applied in analytical sketches of that focus on the topic at hand-for instance, Theology-but bring in the other six approaches as well. Each chapter concludes with an extended analysis taking the same tack.Gray's intended audience is primarily scholars, teachers, and serious students, and also hymn writers, hymnal editors, leaders, ministers, and the singers of hymns (p. 3). His style is reminiscent of college lecture, both methodical and discursive and at times repetitious. His tone also seems to stem from teaching setting: thoughtful, didactic, discriminating, pastoral, and scholarly. advantage of this style and tone is personable exchange of information and wisdom, while the disadvantage is an idiosyncratic and potentially tiring read in order to mine the riches of his insight.The usefulness of the book rests primarily on the presentation of the broad scope of material that might be touched on in hymnology course. While the preponderance of excursus and the extended nature of the work (411 pages) render it less than ideal as hymnology textbook, is no other volume that for the study of what this one does (p. ii). These are the words of David Music, Professor of Church Music at Baylor University, in the prefatory accolades. Music is also the reviser of the introductory hymnology text by William Jensen Reynolds on the history of hymnody, A Survey of Christian Hymnody, originally published in 1963 and now in its 5th edition (William J. Reynolds, David W. Music, and Milburn Price, A Survey of Christian Hymnody, 5th ed. [Carol Stream, IL: Hope Publishing, 2010]). Although there is historical depth in Hermeneutics of Hymnody, it was not Gray's purpose to include historical survey of hymnody-a summary of the history of hymnody is sketched in five pages (pp. 289-93)-and thus the Reynolds volume could serve as good companion text for classroom or personal study.In the preface and introductory chapter, Gray gives some of his reasons for writing the book. One reason is his increasing disappointment in the neglect of the facets of hymnody in churches (p. xvi). His book thus takes on something of the characteristic of an apologetic, occasionally throwing disparaging glance at contemporary Christian worship songs and with poor biblical bases, shallow theology, trite poetry, and unimaginative music (p. xviii), but more often emphasizing the merit of fine hymns (e.g., p. 69), finer hymnals (p. 71), fine expression (p. 174), sensitive, skillful writers (p. 178), sensitive composers, (p. 178), and sensitive singing (p. 245). Relatedly, his book champions the education of those responsible for congregational singing in comprehensive and integrated hermeneutics of hymnody (p. 335) so that they can thereby champion the education of their congregations of maturing disciples (p. 17) in and through hymns.Due to the related facts that (1) the field of hymnology has been dominated by historical and biographical approaches (p. …

Adaptation of theatrical elements of nezami ganjawi: a case study on the ballad of khosrow and shirin

Nezami was one of the most skilled writers of Persian poems and ballads, not only he had his own signature style but the impact of his style is evident on the works of poets not contemporary to him. Nezami had sufficient knowledge about the popular sciences of his time (literary sciences, astronomy, Islamic sciences and the Arabic language), and his vast knowledge is evident in his body of work. He could be considered as a master playwright, because his masterpiece “The Ballad of Khosrow and Shirin” is amongst the best plays ever written, thus every adaptation of this masterpiece might result in an original and good quality creation. This paper tends to analyze some theatrical adaptations of the mentioned ballad, in order to examine their types of approach to this invaluable play. Keywords: Ganjawi, theatrical elements, Khosrow and Shirin, adaptation

Understanding writing strategy use from a sociocultural perspective: The case of skilled and less skilled writers

Abstract Research on writers’ strategy use has proliferated over the past four decades. However, few studies have specifically compared skilled and less skilled student writers’ strategic use of mediating resources in spite of the recent popularity of including sociocultural perspectives in L2 writing research. Drawing on the activity theory and the concept of internalisation, this study examines four skilled and four less skilled student writers’ mediation strategy use. Data were collected from multiple sources, including interviews, process logs, stimulated recalls and students’ essays. Data analysis revealed that although the two groups of students tend to use similar types of resources, internalisation of them differs significantly. Differences are mainly found in three sub-processes of internalisation, namely, noticing, imitating and goal setting. The identified importance of these sub-processes to internalisation suggests that language learners should raise their language awareness, make persistent imitations and integrate learning-to-write with writing-to-learn for more effective strategy use.

Human Parasites: Bed Bugs

Infested: How the Bed Bug Infiltrated Our Bedrooms and Took Over the World . By Brooke Borel. 2015. University of Chicago Press (ISBN 978-0226041933). 224 pages. Hardcover, $26. This is a delightful read (for the non-entomophobe) about one woman's journey to discover all she can about the biology, history, sociology, and resurgence of the bed bug, Cimex lectularius . The interest of the author to embark on writing this small treatise – part travelogue, part science journalism, and part nonfiction mystery – arose from her long-undiagnosed bites that originated within her New York City apartment in 2004. After discovering what the bites were, the author obsessively learned all she could about these nighttime mini-vampires. Clearly, the bed bugs chose the wrong woman to bite – a skilled science writer. Ms. Borel may, through her journalism, help change public misunderstanding of bed bugs. She has been privileged to hob-nob with the …

Teaching writing to middle school students in Portugal and in Brazil: an exploratory study

Learning how to write is a challenging process, typically developed in schools. Teachers’ practices in teaching writing, however, have been under researched. The aim of this study was to survey a sample of teachers from Portugal (n = 96) and Brazil (n = 99) about their practices for and perceptions about writing instruction. Teachers reported on time devoted to student writing and the teaching of writing, on their practices to promote students’ self-regulated writing, adaptations for less skilled writers, and their perceptions about writing and the teaching of writing. Findings from this survey raised concerns about the quality of writing instruction in both countries. Teachers reported little time devoted for writing and the teaching of writing in their classes. The majority of the teachers rarely used practices to promote students’ self-regulated writing or applied explicit teaching methods for writing instruction. Both Portuguese and Brazilian teachers perceived writing as a shared responsibility. Brazilian teachers, however, agreed with this perception more strongly. Portuguese teachers’ perception of the importance of writing for students’ academic and professional success was higher than the perceptions held by Brazilian teachers. A positive correlation was found between teachers’ preparation to teach writing and their practices to promote students’ self-regulated writing. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Steven Weinberg, To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science. HarperCollins, 2015, xiv + 416 pages, $28.99

Steven Weinberg occupies a remarkable place in contemporary physics as well as being one of its most prominent public voices. He cofounded and named the Standard Model of particle physics, which synthesized the strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions into a powerful theory amply confirmed by experiment. He is also a skillful and prolific writer not only of magisterial (and innovative) texts on general relativity and field theory but also of a number of very successful popular books. A regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, he is one of the most visible and widely respected physicists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, both among his peers and the general public; in these respects, one might compare him to Freeman Dyson. An eminent professor at the University of Texas (and many other places before that), Weinberg has in recent years given a course on the history of physics and astronomy, from which grew his new book, To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science. Normally, this journal does not review essentially popular accounts, but Weinberg’s seems a special case because of its author’s eminence and influence and because his book raises important questions about the history of physics, how it is told by physicists and historians, how it is understood by the general public. Weinberg considers that, as a physicist, he can address history with the same vividness that he would bring to a physical problem, starting from first principles to give an account of some complex phenomenon. Indeed, this spirit served him well as he put together the theory that won him fame; he applied the same intellectual independence and freshness to his books on field theory and gravitation, which offered clear and sometimes new syntheses that have taught many physicists a great deal. He applied the same independent judgment to various conceptual issues that emerge from physics. For instance, in a number of writings for the general public he famously championed reductionism over the seductive charms of holism. Blunt and frank, he revels in polemic where he can bring to bear his formidable knowledge of physics, a certain love of contrarian positions, and his skill with words. Thus, his presentation of the history of physics is an event that merits close attention because it presumably will be taken by his peers and the general public as the considered judgment of this eminent physicist about the history of science. Indeed, his interest in history is long-standing; readers of his earlier books will notice how often and how keenly he devotes close attention to the history of the point in question, at times delving into the primary sources and wishing to go beyond often-recounted stories or summary accounts. In that sense, there is much to admire in To Explain the World. Weinberg sets out to explain in some detail the salient history and controversies that formed physics as we now know it, indeed the whole of science. By comparison with many works that stint or even

Political and Social Reflection of Post-Colonial Kazakhstan in Translations of American Literature (on the basis of the works by Jusupbek Aimautuly and Jack London)

This article analyzes historical and political views in the translations of the Kazakh writer Jusupbek Aimautuly from Jack London’s works. It was the first time when Jack London who is the representative of American literary was translated into the Kazakh language and this work analyzes its reaction on Kazakh literature. Jusupbek Aimautuly was determined as a wise and skillful writer and a good politician at the beginning of XX century according to his translations. There was investigated Jack London’s unknown to him spiritual influence to the Kazakh people by quantitative and qualitative research methods.The translations described sadness, torment and unhappiness of the Kazakh people that was under the invasion policy and genocide of the Soviet Union. It was determined that these translations avoided censorship and tragedy of Kazakh steppe and could find their publicity. It was found out that Aimautuly could represent his thoughts, his purposes and wishes to his nation; he talked about preservation of the nation, importance of unity and power of knowledge through the translation. At the same time, he saved all the rules of translation theory and he showed his skills in order to represent Jack London’s prowess to the mind of the Kazakh people.

Grappling with Ignorance: Frameworks from Decision Theory, Lessons from Literature

Benefit-cost analysis (BCA), a discipline best known for guiding policy choices, can also guide personal decisions. In either application, traditional BCA tallies benefits and costs using market values or willingness to pay. When future outcomes are uncertain, as they are across a wide array of situations, BCA must call as well on the methods of decision analysis. Thus, von Neumann–Morgenstern utilities, subjective probabilities, and sequential decision strategies are brought into play.Traditional decision analysis distinguishes between risk and uncertainty. With risk, the probabilities of possible outcomes are known; with uncertainty, those outcomes are known, but not their probabilities. We introduce the concept of ignorance: a third, less tractable category. With ignorance, even the possible outcomes of decisions cannot be identified. Ignorance takes particular importance when high payoffs are associated with these unidentified outcomes, as is often the case. We identify such outcomes asconsequential amazing developments(CADs). In the policy realm, the 2008 financial meltdown or the Arab Spring would represent a CAD. For an individual, a CAD might be that one’s secure tenured position had been inexplicably terminated, or that one’s trusted business partner had long been shuttling corporate secrets to a competitor. We distinguish betweenunrecognizedandrecognizedignorance. In the latter category, we identify specific cognitive biases that impair decision making.Consequential ignorance cannot be studied in a controlled laboratory setting, since its payoffs are high, its time delays often long, and merely introducing the subject would tend to give away the game. Thus we develop a descriptive understanding of ignorance drawing on great works of literature, from antiquity to the present day, positing that skilled writers understand how humans make decisions and respond to unanticipated outcomes. Shakespearean examples would be Hamlet’s ignorance of his father’s killer, and Macbeth’s lack of awareness of the tragic ramifications following his actions to seize the Scottish crown.Following this descriptive analysis, we turn to prescription. We draw on decision analysis to develop a formula for calculating consequential ignorance; it incorporates the expected magnitudes and assessed base rates for CADs. Finally, we propose a decision-analytic framework for measured decision making, given ignorance. Our recommended approach explicitly recognizes decision-making costs, and thus proposes when to use quick and intuitive as opposed to more deliberative approaches to decision, or the labels Kahneman has popularized as System 1 and System 2.Studying ignorance through literature has important implications for BCA. Given the potential for ignorance, there are two key goals for prudent decision making. First, steps should be taken to recognize when ignorance might be present. Second, efforts should be made not to respond in a suboptimal fashion when ignorance is anticipated or when a CAD springs upon us. Great literature can provide the equivalent of widespread life experience, and can help a decision maker reach both goals. At its heart, this essay represents a benefit-cost approach to dealing with ignorance. Numerous connections to BCA are made throughout.