Dr A.A.M. Ammerlaan, HLO HAN university Laan van Scheut 2, 6525 EJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Direct to World Wide Writing, 2002 Winner European Award
from the European Commission as 'Most Innovative Foreign Language Project'.
Increasingly universities are resorting to Oxford/Cambridge methods of learning through writing. This implies that writing
skills are becoming more important in the assessment of competences than before when oral defence and
presentation skills could be used.
Some background information is listed on Paul Peter's of the
Hogeschool Arnhem and Nijmegen. As part of a joint operation, the Universities in Gelder;land have begun the programing of
WorldWideWriting.com, an award winning tool to assist students
at all tertiary levels in communicating and studying in Spanish, Italian, French, German, Dutch and English. To avoid duplication,
and to maximally use existing OnLineWriting OWL labs, we have conducted several surveys on the Web.
The results for English are listed below.
This homepage lists results of a preliminary search for two tools:
- Guidance in the art of writing, prefarably teacher-independent, time-independent and with preference involving peers.
- Marking tools for marking and providing feedback to students regarding their work. Ideally, such tools should be accessible to both peers and teachers.
Please feel free to further home in on writing assistance provided on the internet. You can contact me using the following address at the bottom of the page.
RESULTS TO DATE: SEPT 2012
The results of a number of searches on the Internet are listed below. I have the feeling I have touched the tip of the iceberg, as searches involving 'business communication'
and so on have not been completed. I feel, however, that such searches can be done by others, either HomePage editors at Yahoo etc. or Student Assistants and students taking writing courses.
GEM: EFL links by John Graus on Software/Webpage evaluation checklists, Grammars, Magazines, Newspapers, Pen Pals, links for teachers, CALL links, BBC Education programmes, articles on internet in education, Internet TESL Journals, TechersNet free telelearning platforms, etc.
GEM: OWL (Online Writing Laboratory) contains masses of useful information. For instance:
owl.english.perdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslstudent.html lists info on grammar, idioms, vocabulary and genres, academic conventions, tips on articles, prepositions, numbers, spelling, verbs, gerunds etc., on-line courses and quizzes.
http://owl.english.perdue.edu/handouts/pw/index.html lists Business Writing Resources on job skills selfanalysis, resume sections, cover letters, reference sheet, acceptance letter, writing personal statements, sales letters, business letters, memos, reports.
Handbook on teaching writing, and tons of resources on Community Across the Curriculum, Illionois University Carbondale. Useful: revising prose, editing your essay, writing a research paper, punctuation, transitions, sentence embedding excercises, and links to other handbooks and resources, links to MLA formats and styles, APA style, Chicago Style, citation guides, grammar books online, dictionaries, thesaurus, ESL tools. Did I leave anything out?
Yes, a good list of resources for teachers, from teaching communication, writing, research to medical writing, business writing, engineering, essay, science...
www.ecf.toronto.edu%7Ewriting/handbook lists themajor components needed for writing abstracts, planning one's writing, types of reports, case studies, rhethoric etc. and handouts. Loads of solid tips.
YAHOO Social_Science/Communications/Writing/ on Writing Argumentative essays, Tips for writers, resources for business writing, college level writing tools, writing tips in e-WritersNet, Inkspot resources, Techwriterplus with
suggestions for technical writers, Tips on copyright, contests, Writing Page on 5 page essays, and course for Writing for the Web. Grammar
YAHOO Grammar_and_Usage_and_Style providing On-line English Grammar, Grammar and Style guide, common errors site, courses on Writing, Elements of Style, English Grammar Clinic, online letter writing help, OWL Handouts, Word Police etc.
www.kolumbus.fi/rvilmi International Writing course for students around the world to exchange ideas with peers. Resources and tips on writing articles.
http://www.ruthvilmi.net/hut/Project/ International Writing Exchange with introductory letter, teacher and peer feedback; article and feedback from its author to questions; teacher feedback, selfstudy and exercises; virtual conference; evaluation. Overview of Writing Conferences
Bibliographies in style SourceAid is a new free writing and research tool and resource. SourceAid's main function is to help punctuate, format, and produce bibliographies in all four standard
styles (MLA, APA, Chicago, & CSE)
www.linguistic-funland.com/sitemap.html Lists ESL loop sites, working papers, databases, English schools, professional bodies, projects by EFL students, activities, Excercises, services.
Quick Research Materials from Morris library for catalogues, full text materials, indexes and abstracts, dictionaries, encyclopedias, statistics and facts, rules on citation.
www.nll.co.uk/ NetLearn allows online conversation and classes with native speakers.
www.eurocall.org/resources.html
for on-line acccess to a software database, internet resources for teachers and learners, CALL software reviews, CALL bibliography and postgraduate courses.
english.ttu.edu/acw/ 'Alliance for Computers and Writing' provides newsletters, bulletins, magazines, recommended sites and KAIROS (journal of teachers of writing in webbased enironment) and articles/reviews on literature. Collection of best ideas is found on the Clearing House database.
National (US) Writing Centers Association for extensive lists on US based writing centers (87x), help on setting up a writing center, reading lists on writring and teaching writing, The Writing Center Journal, articles and theory on writing, practice in teaching andmarking writing, peer tutorials, and so on.
COURSES FOR TEACHERS USING THE INTERNET
tft.merit.edu/ Teach for Tomorrow interactive web based course on the use of Net in the classroom
A programme for marking students' work that was submitted as texts, useful in HTML context, with non-English versions, costing 30 odd Euro.
Magic Marking at Hong Kong PolyU provides a versatile, free, internet-based tool for annotating students' work. Students need to submit their work onto the system, and the teacher can then mark them with both standard and custom-made comments. Helpnotes and handouts are to befound on ELC Writing pages including information on Eng for Academic Purposes examinations. FREE
ccbit.cs.umass.edu/owl/pages/home.html OWL grading of homework assignments. Assignments are sent through a webbrowser, and OWL autmatically grades the response and displays the correct answer
WWW World Wide Writing offers TextPert com
ments based on Alexis, which can be cut and pasted in via Word.
Cito Toetswijzer offers
a Word Template for ready-made
comments in Word. You need to place the comments under c:\programFiles/Citogroep/ and a second
template in the Word startup directory.
An online manual is listed
Excel at Academic English: CD ROM providing assistance on writing (among others),
with free demo on www.anglia.ac.uk/efl in Zipped format.
Helpdisk! on essay writing skills is a CD ROM for advanced levels (on arguments, punctuation, layout, grammar, planning, references, style, structure etc.). Demos of Business Communications, Study Skills (essay examination, referencing, lecture notes, paragraphs, research etc.), English Language and HelpDisk! are available on www.mantex.co.uk. Reviews, books (e.g. improve your writing skills, isbn 0 9519 844 5 4) and a newsletter are options.
www.kolumbus.fi/rvilmi/ free download of tool for creating interactive language learning java applets.
hierarchy of errors from sentence level errors, errors on agreement, diction and reference to spelling and grammar errors.
How do I fix these errors? Literacy Education OnLine LEO at St Cloud State provides help in the "I want to avoid and fix..." style.
