Writing development

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Prior to beginning this discussion, please read “Writing, Early” (pp. 212-219) and “Writing, Advanced” (pp. 220-226) in your required text as well as “Using Blogs to Improve Students' Summary Writing Abilities” and “An Adjective Is a Word Hanging Down From a Noun: Learning to Write and Students With Learning Disabilities” in your required articles.

Based on your resources this week, explain the theoretical perspectives of early versus late writing development. Apply skeptical inquiry to a brief discussion about why language acquisition is an important component of learning how to write. Apply the concept of writing acquisition to your own academic success. Has your own development for language and for writing affected your success? How? Based on the evidence suggested in “An Adjective Is a Word Hanging Down From a Noun: Learning to Write and Students With Learning Disabilities,” only 25% of students can be classified as proficient writers (Harris & Graham, 2013). Apply ethical principles and professional standards of learning and cognition psychology to this complex and growing concern by playing the role of the expert. What suggestions do you have, based on empirical evidence and theory, for increasing the competency of writers in this country? As a scholar, how important is it to encourage competent writing in others? What strategies could you employ to improve your own writing? Your initial post should be 450 to 600 words in length and thoroughly discuss each of the elements in the prompt.

Guided Response: Review several of your colleague’s posts and respond to at least two of your peers by 11:59 p.m. on Day 7 of the week. You are encouraged to post your required replies earlier in the week to promote more meaningful interactive discourse. What was similar and different about your post and your peer’s with regard to writing development? Share an example with your peer of how writing development has positively or negatively affected you or someone you knew in the past. Is your peer’s suggestion for improving writing competency plausible?

Continue to monitor the discussion forum until 5:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (MST) on Day 7 of the week and respond to anyone who replies to your initial post. Peer responses may vary in length but should be detailed and thought provoking. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses.