PLEASE EXCUSE ANY DUPLICATIONS, AS THIS IS BEING MAILED TO MULTIPLE GROUPS!
I am Dr. Randall Hansen of Stetson University, and I need your participation
in an important survey of how writing is used in the college curriculum. I
am asking that you either use the questionnaire format found in this email
or visit the survey web site (http://www.stetson.edu/~hansen/survey.html),
and return your responses to me via email or snailmail as soon as possible.
I will gladly send you copies of the results, which will also be published in
a chapter of a new book to be published by Ten Speed Press.
Thank you so much for your help. Please feel free to contact me with
questions, concerns, etc. And if you want a paper copy of this survey to
complete, please email me at [log in to unmask]
--Dr. Randall Hansen
*******************************************************************************
Writing Survey
Directions: Please take a few minutes to read and complete the following
questionnaire. Your answers, along with those of your colleagues from around
the country, will be aggregated to develop a composite picture of
professors' views on the importance of writing in the curriculum.
Section I: Basic Writing Information
1. On average, how many writing assignments do you require of your
students per semester/quarter?
______________________________
2. How heavily are writing assignments weighted in determining final
grades?
_____ More heavily weighted than exams.
_____ Equally heavily weighted with exams.
_____ Less heavily weighted than exams.
_____ Writing assignments are the sole means of determining final grades.
_____ Other (please specify)___________________________
3. The exams you give are (approximately):
_____ all essay
_____ half essay; half objective
_____ a third essay; two-thirds objective
_____ two-thirds essay; one third objective
_____ some exams are mostly essay; others are mostly objective
_____ other (please specify)___________________________
Section II: About Your Writing Assignments
1. Please check all the following categories of writing assignments that
are typical of what you generally require:
_____ Term/Research papers _____ Reports
_____ Summary Essays _____ Journalistic writing
_____ Response Essays _____ Public Relations writing
_____ Synthesis Essays _____ Speeches
_____ Rhetoric/Argumentation _____ Journal entries
_____ Essays employing an original _____ Creative writing,
argument using sources fiction, short stories,
_____ Expository writing about poetry
literature
_____ Other (please specify)__________
________________ ____________
2. Please rate the following errors that students make when writing
academic papers, specifically evaluating each error on how likely
it is to influence you to reduce the student's grade. Please rate
each error on the following scale: #1 being an extremely serious error
students make, and #7 being a less serious error.
a. _____ poor organization
b. _____ failure to adequately support theses
c. _____ little evidence of adequate research
d. _____ little evidence of understanding the topic
e. _____ inadequate citation of sources
f. _____ sentence fragments
g. _____ run-on sentences
h. _____ comma splices
i. _____ complex/confusing sentence structure
j. _____ short, choppy sentences, paragraphs
k. _____ poor or nonexistent transitions
l. _____ misplaced and dangling clauses, phrases
m. _____ nonagreement of subject and verb
n. _____ verb tense changes
o. _____ overuse of passive voice
p. _____ lack of parallelism
q. _____ vague or unclear pronoun reference
r. _____ overuse of empty, meaningless modifiers
(e.g. very, really)
s. _____ incorrect word usage (e.g. affect vs. effect)
t. _____ overuse of cliches
u. _____ overuse of jargon
v. _____ use of non-inclusive and/or sexist language
w. _____ wordiness
x. _____ misspellings
y. _____ typos and sloppiness
z. _____ failure to follow a particular academic writing style
aa. _____ poor punctuation
bb. _____ improper capitalization
cc. _____ poor vocabulary
dd. _____ paper is too short
ee. _____ paper is too long
ff. _____ Other (please specify______________________________
_____ Other (please specify______________________________
_____ Other (please specify)_____________________________
_____ Other (please specify)_____________________________
3. From the list of errors in question 2, please provide the five most
frequent errors your students make in their writing assignments:
Most commmon__________(supply letter)
Second-most common__________________(supply letter)
Third-most common__________________(supetter)
Fourth-most common__________________(supply letter)
Fifth-most common__________________(supply letter)
4. If applicable, please indicate the formula you use to determine a
student's grade on an individual paper (e.g. content -- 50%,
style -- 50%):
______________________ -- ______%
______________________ -- ______%
______________________ -- ______%
______________________ -- ______%
5. _____ Please indicate on a scale of 1 to 7 (where 1 is extremely
important and 7 is not important), how important you believe
writing skills are for **academic** success.
6. _____ Please indicate on a scale of 1 to 7 (where 1 is extremely
important and 7 is not important), how important you believe
writing skills are for **career** success.
7. If you could offer students who are preparing to complete a writing
assignment one piece of advice, that advice would be:
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
8. Do you have any additional comments concerning student writing?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Section III: Demographic information
1. Number of years you've been teaching:___________years
2. Subjects/courses you currently teach:
___________________________________________________________
3. Your rank:___________________________________
4. Your college/university is:
_____ public/state
_____ private/independent
5. Your college/university enrolls approximately __________ students.
6. You have an average off _________ students in each class.
************Thank you for your time and thoughtfulness!************
Dr. Randall S. Hansen
Department of Marketing
School of Business
Stetson University
DeLand, FL 32720
(904) 734-1747
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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