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The imaginative argument : a practical manifesto for writers
\"More than merely a writing text, The Imaginative Argument offers writers instruction on how to use their imaginations to improve their prose. Cioffi shows writers how they can enliven argument--the organizing rubric of all persuasive writing--by drawing on emotion, soul, and creativity, the wellsprings of imagination. While Cioffi suggests that argument should become a natural habit of mind for writers, he goes still further, inspiring writers to adopt as their gold standard the imaginative argument: the surprising yet strikingly apt insight that organizes disparate noises into music, that makes out of chaos, chaos theory\"--Amazon.com.
Book
The Effects of Writing on Learning in Science, Social Studies, and Mathematics : A Meta-Analysis
This meta-analysis examined if students writing about content material in science, social studies, and mathematics facilitated learning (k = 56 experiments). Studies in this review were true or quasi-experiments (with pretests), written in English, and conducted with students in Grades 1 to 12 in which the writing-to-learn activity was part of instruction. Studies were not included if the control condition used writing to support learning (except when treatment students spent more time engaging in writing-to-learn activities), study attrition exceeded 20%, instructional time and content coverage differed between treatment and control conditions, pretest scores approached ceiling levels, letter grades were the learning outcome, and students attended a special school for students with disabilities. As predicted, writing about content reliably enhanced learning (effect size = 0.30). It was equally effective at improving learning in science, social studies, and mathematics as well as the learning of elementary, middle, and high school students. Writing-to-learn effects were not moderated by the features of writing activities, instruction, or assessment. Furthermore, variability in obtained effects were not related to features of study quality. Directions for future research and implications for practice are provided. [Author abstract]
Journal Article
Writing About Testing Worries Boosts Exam Performance in the Classroom
Two laboratory and two randomized field experiments tested a psychological intervention designed to improve students' scores on high-stakes exams and to increase our understanding of why pressure-filled exam situations undermine some students' performance. We expected that sitting for an important exam leads to worries about the situation and its consequences that undermine test performance. We tested whether having students write down their thoughts about an upcoming test could improve test performance. The intervention, a brief expressive writing assignment that occurred immediately before taking an important test, significantly improved students' exam scores, especially for students habitually anxious about test taking. Simply writing about one's worries before a high-stakes exam can boost test scores.
Journal Article
650 Concealed pregnancy: from 18th- and 19th- Century Novels and Scientific Texts to 21st- Century Medicine
AimsThe primary objective of this study is to explore the representation of concealed pregnancy in 18th and 19th century novels and medical texts, in order to better understand its persistence into the present time. Subsidiary objectives are to enhance the role of culture in promoting personal development, creativity and well-being for medical practitioners who deal with distressing cases; and to increase understanding of the ways that literature has responded to scientific ideas and progress, and vice versa.MethodsA Literature Research and Suggested Reading and Writing Exercises.ResultsThis joint presentation draws on the cross-fertilisation in method and subject matter between literary and medical texts. It brings together a novelist and literary critic with a community paediatric consultant to promote connections between literary depictions and medical studies of concealed pregnancy. The narrative of seduction, so powerful in the 18th-century novel, influenced the way concealed pregnancy and infanticide was represented not just in novels but also in the medical texts of the period. Because this area is vast, we will present a brief overview before focusing on two exemplary texts. William Hunter’s 1783 paper, ‘On the Uncertainty of the Signs of Murder, in the Case of Bastard Children’ was of lasting historical importance, and was a probable influence on George Eliot’s compassionate portrayal of concealed pregnancy and possible infanticide in her 1859 novel Adam Bede. We will show how the key ideas in these texts continue to be integral to 21st-century medical research and practice with respect to pregnancy denial, concealed pregnancy and infanticide; they highlight the continued to need for multiple disciplines to intersect in order to make progress in these areas. We will leave participants with a reading exercise and a writing exercise to take away and do on their own, should they wish to.ConclusionThese literary and scientific precursors remain relevant to contemporary practitioners. However, they can be overlooked when we consider how far medical practice has travelled and yet how close it remains to the questions that were being asked about concealed pregnancy, pregnancy denial, and infanticide in the 18th- and 19th- centuries. Despite progress, these tragic outcomes for pregnant women and their new-borns are still with us, and these centuries-old texts remain all too familiar.
Journal Article
The nature of feedback: how different types of peer feedback affect writing performance
Although providing feedback is commonly practiced in education, there is no general agreement regarding what type of feedback is most helpful and why it is helpful. This study examined the relationship between various types of feedback, potential internal mediators, and the likelihood of implementing feedback. Five main predictions were developed from the feedback literature in writing, specifically regarding feedback features (summarization, identifying problems, providing solutions, localization, explanations, scope, praise, and mitigating language) as they relate to potential causal mediators of problem or solution understanding and problem or solution agreement, leading to the final outcome of feedback implementation. To empirically test the proposed feedback model, 1,073 feedback segments from writing assessed by peers was analyzed. Feedback was collected using SWoRD, an online peer review system. Each segment was coded for each of the feedback features, implementation, agreement, and understanding. The correlations between the feedback features, levels of mediating variables, and implementation rates revealed several significant relationships. Understanding was the only significant mediator of implementation. Several feedback features were associated with understanding: including solutions, a summary of the performance, and the location of the problem were associated with increased understanding; and explanations of problems were associated with decreased understanding. Implications of these results are discussed.
Journal Article