Annotated Bibliography

James et al, “Grading Has Always Made My Writing Better” 

 

In this essay, the author is trying to educate the English faculty of the effects that the grading of writing can have on students. To demonstrate this, he introduces the idea of percentages and all the things that they could mean as well as the impact that a letter grade can make on one's individual writing. It is important to recognize that grades are necessary, however maybe a cumulative representation of overall effort is better than individualized scoring on someone's hard work. Ultimately, the author is most passionate about ensuring that students are growing in their writing abilities and developing some intrinsic motivation to gain knowledge rather than feel the need to be productive simply to avoid failure. 

 

 Howard et al., “Writing from Sources, Writing from Sentences” (2010)

 

In this essay, the author is trying to educate writing researchers on why students tend to struggle when writing from sources. He used a study with a sample of 18 students and their papers and found that none of the students actually summarized their work effectively. All of the summaries drafted by students had some form of plagiarism or patchwriting. Ultimately, he determined that English faculty need to provide better instruction when writing summaries as well as rethink their understanding of plagiarism and patchwriting. 

 

Meltzer et al., “Understanding Discourse Communities”

 

In this essay, the author is trying to educate students on what discourse communities are and how they can utilize them in their writings both in college and in the future. To express this he explained the use and importance of genre and how it works in different discourse communities. Melter builds credibility by working through both the positives and negatives of using discourse communities in your academic writing. Ultimately, he wraps up the article with questions about discourse communities and how the use of them personally can make someone an effective communicator.

 

Linton et al., “Introducing Students to Disciplinary Genres: The Role of the General Composition Course”

 

In this essay, the author is attempting to introduce the idea of disciplinary genres to students. She obtains perspectives from other individuals with strong opinions of writing and uses their differing viewpoints to help strengthen her thought that genres simply can be taught effectively by English faculty. Linton has determined that English faculty actually are in a much better position than anyone else to introduce such topics to students. She wraps up with saying that students are more than capable of understanding genre and discourse so long as it is introduced in an effective manner. 

 

Thonney et al., “Teaching the Conventions of Academic Discourse”

 

In this essay, the author is trying to inform the reader on the importance of academic discourse. She uses a bit of a reverse persuasive approach by highlighting the “current emphasis” of academic discourse in classrooms today. Through this she is showing that there is little to no teaching of academic discourse in classrooms today therefore, there is very minimal emphasis shown on the topic as a whole. She also looks into studies on students' writings and claims that it is difficult for students to write about discourse what they haven’t been taught about discourse. Thus, she stretches the importance of teaching about said academic discourse and genre.