Masters Degrees (Curriculum Studies)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Curriculum Studies) by Subject "Academic writing -- Study and teaching -- South Africa"

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    The role of writing centre in enhancing the quality of students' academic writing at a university of technology
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04) Sefalane-Nkohla, Puleng Gladys; Fourie-Malherbe, M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Curriculum Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : The role of a writing centre in enhancing the quality of students’ academic writing at a university of technology is a research study that determined students’ perceptions about a writing centre, as one form of academic literacy support amongst a suite of academic development and support programmes designed to assist students to acquire epistemological access. The study was based at the Writing Centre of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). Research participants were drawn from students registered in various faculties, and in varying levels of academic study i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and fourth-year (B-Tech) level study. They came from diverse linguistic, cultural, social and economic backgrounds. A significant qualification criterion for student participants was that they must have been exposed to, or experienced the services offered by the Writing Centre either through a oneon-one form of academic consultation, or through an academic literacy workshop. The empirical methods employed to gather data for this mixed methods study involved a survey in the form of a questionnaire that collected quantitative data, and a qualitative component which employed content analysis of 20 students’ academic essays chosen using the above criteria. Overall, the findings from the quantitative study revealed overwhelmingly positive perceptions of students about the services offered by the Writing Centre, including perceptions about their own academic writing capabilities. However, these findings were not consistent with the findings emanating from the qualitative content analysis of students’ academic essays. Content analysis revealed, among other things, lexico-grammatical errors pointing to a lack of conceptualisation by student participants of the academic task at hand; lack of presence in text; macro-structural issues (introductions, conclusions, paragraphing, etc.), and micro-structural issues (arrangement of sentences, language usage, grammatical errors and plagiarism, etc.). The findings also highlighted issues identified by student participants for improvement such as the need for the employment of additional consultants, and student participants’ desire for additional services such as editing and proofreading to be added to the services currently offered by the Writing Centre.