1
Jenna Walther
Dr. Elliot
PTC 604
September 23, 2013
Part 1: Using the Major Academic Search Engines
The literature search is one of the most essential and important aspects of designing and conducting research. Thankfully, there are many documentation resources in online databases to uncover research from the past and present. The accessibility of documents is convenient, because it takes away from physical foot work, but one must be privy to how to search for information, where to find the articles and resources that are most helpful, and answers to inquiry of interest. My research will focus chiefly on investigating the differences in writing between an urban district (Trenton) and a suburban district (Princeton) for 9th grade students to deal with attitudes toward writing and writing ability.
I will be using these two links to help me focus my topic using Education for Life and Work the “Big 5 personality predictors of postsecondary academic performance”.
EBSCO Host
I used EBSCO Host to search multiple databases simultaneously: Academic Search Premier, Communication & Mass Media Complete, ERIC, Literary Reference Center, and PsycARTICLES (as seen in above screenshot).
The search that brought me closest to the topic I want to research is when I typed in “ninth grade” and “writing processes” and “attitudes”. There were many studies done about teachers’ attitudes, which I did sift through since I wanted to see how one would measure attitudes and behaviors, how they conducted their research, what kind of data they had, the questions and hypothesis they were looking to answer and find.
Two interesting and useful articles I discovered on the ERIC database are:
1) Cuevas, Rosilis. "Teaching Writing as a Process in a 9th Grade English Class." (1995).
ERIC. Web. 23 Sept. 2013.
“A practicum developed and implemented a program to help change students' negative attitude toward writing, with the conviction that if students enjoy writing they will write more and produce writing that clearly communicates their ideas. The practicum's objectives were for 50% of the targeted students to: (1) write for at least 15-20 minutes at a time when given a writing prompt; (2) gain a more positive attitude toward writing; (3) demonstrate an increase in the use of supporting ideas using details, examples, and vivid language; and (4) revise their own writing. The target group was 30 ninth-grade students in Florida of mixed abilities whose writing skills matched the district result of the tenth-grade writing assessment. Subjects were required to write a series of drafts, selecting one to rewrite, revise, and finalize. Results were that all objectives were met, with the target group improving dramatically in all areas. (Contains 2 tables of data; 17 references, 9 resources, and 13 appendixes, including a teacher survey, a student survey, and various examples of student writings.)” (Author/CR).
2) Schultz, Katherine. "Looking Across Space And Time: Reconceptualizing Literacy
Learning In And Out Of School." Research In The Teaching Of English 36.3 (2002): 356-90. ERIC. Web. 22 Sept. 2013.
“Draws on a longitudinal study of urban adolescents' literacy practices. Argues for a focus on students' writing practices both in and out of school to develop a comprehensive understanding of their capacities in the classroom. Suggests the importance of looking outside the physical space of schools and beyond the time that students are in classrooms to see students' capabilities. (SG)”
JStor
I found JStor to be most helpful in regards to finding research topics similar to mine—or at least to match documents with words I inserted into the search. JStor listed quite a few articles from The Journal of Educational Research and Research in the Teaching of English.I was surprised at how many related documents I found in the search results. It was JStor that led me to notice WHERE the sources were coming from. Nagivating the site was easy as well, unlike LEXIS/NEXIS (which I found more difficult).
Note* There was no documentation of related topics in a few of the databases I searched; such as LEXIS/NEXIS and IEEE Xplore, plus a few others.
Part 2: Browsing the Major Electronic Journals in PTC
I have listed the journals and article titles I found connected with my topic of interest.
“The open access Journal for Educational Research Online (JERO) is an international and interdisciplinary forum for research on education. JERO publishes original, peer-reviewed academic articles that deal with issues of international relevance in educational theory, methodology, and practice.
The scope of JERO is deliberately broad, both in terms of topics covered and disciplinary perspective. The journal welcomes papers from a wide range of disciplines that provide relevant research for current issues in education and learning: educational science, psychology, sociology, economics, political science and more. JERO publishes empirical and theoretical papers (e.g. a critical review of research)” (Wilfried Bos and Cornelia Gräsel, Executive Editors).
Two helpful articles I found:
Collaborative Writing Interactions in One Ninth-Grade Classroom by Helen Dale
This study explored collaborative writing in order to provide insight about successful writing interactions. This study addresses factors that affect the success of collaborate writing groups in 9th grade classrooms, using both qualitative and quantitative data (Dale).
“The Effects of Peer Evaluation on Attitude toward Writing and Writing Fluency of Ninth Grade Students” by Joyce Katstra, Nona Tollefson, and Edwyna Gilbert
This article gives insight about how to increase positive attitude toward writing using peer evaluation.
Another journal I found helpful is “Research in the Teaching of English (RTE) is the flagship research journal of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in the United States. It is a broad-based, multidisciplinary journal composed of original research articles and short scholarly essays on a wide range of topics significant to those concerned with the teaching and learning of languages and literacies around the world, both in and beyond schools and universities” (Ellen Cushman and Mary Juzwik, Editors).
*The reason I quoted both aims/missions of the two journals was to prove credibility and that it is a reliable and useful resource for my topic.
“The Writing Quality of Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Graders, and College Freshmen: Does Rhetorical Specification in Writing Prompts Make a Difference?” by Eileen I. Oliver
“This study analyzes the influence of rhetorical specification in writing prompts on the writing quality of seventh-, ninth-, and eleventh-grade students, and college freshmen. Manipulating 3 composing variables--topic, purpose, and audience--8 assignments were created and administered to college preparatory and college students at 4 age levels. Trained raters scored 624 essays holistically on a six-point scale. The main and interactive effects of topic, purpose, and audience on writing quality were analyzed using a three-way analysis of variance for all grades together and for each grade separately. Results indicate that students utilized different kinds of rhetorical information at different stages. That is, while seventh graders tended to respond to simpler topic specifications, ninth graders reacted strongly to more elaborated topics. Eleventh graders more frequently utilized rhetorical specification, while college writers less frequently relied on it. Results suggest that specific rhetorical information may be important to students at certain ages for pedagogical reasons as well as for assessment.”
Part 3: The Work of Others: Locating the Thesis of Former PTC Graduates
*I could not access the Theses of Former PTC Graduates (but I will try again).
The study that I am most interested, related to my own, is your recommendation,Ways with Words by Shirley Brice Heath. Heath’s ethnographic study is between three towns within the Piedmont area and I would like to design research between two areas in New Jersey. However, Health’s studies incorporated factors that I am interested in such as: linguistics, race, class, and geographical location. I would like to add the factor of writing, while Heath is more concentrated with language; but language and writing go hand in hand.
Also, when I start to narrow my topic, I believe Rhetoric Review could possibly be helpful in a number of areas of research. I also believe that I have such a wide range of information is because my topic is not completely narrowed down yet, so many of these articles seem valuable to my topic. Each article I placed in my Literature Review can be used to gather more information about writing and the attitudes of 9th graders both urban and suburban.
Part 4: Annotated Bibliography
Cuevas, Rosilis. "Teaching Writing as a Process in a 9th Grade English Class." (1995).
ERIC. Web. 23 Sept. 2013.
Rosilis Cuevas has an M.Ed. Practicum, from Nova Southeastern University. This study was developed to change negative attitudes about writing into positive attitudes. Cuevas was convinced that if students would have a more positive attitude and wrote more, they would be able to communicate their ideas effectively. Cuervas’ study shows both qualitative and quantitative data and research. He includes 2 tables of data; several references, resources, and appendixes; he includes a teacher survey, a student survey, and examples of student writings. The results of his study that his targeted group improved greatly in all areas such as writing skills, revision, positive attitude, and an increase in detail.
His study is different than my topic, but Cuevas information is valuable to my research because of how he conducts the study and for what reasons or goals. He used a target group of 30 (9th grade students) and used qualitative data in order to prove his hypothesis.