The Effect of Writing Prompts on Developing Argumentative Essays of Iranian University Students of English

This study aims to explore the effect of prompts as themes on developing argumentative essays that represent an important genre of academic writing. Thirty Iranian Master's students of English Language Teaching and Literature took part in three consecutive test sessions arranged in this resear...

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Main Authors: Alireza Jalilifar, Marjan Keyvan, Alexanne Don
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Malaya 2017-09-01
Series:Journal of Modern Languages
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ajap.um.edu.my/index.php/JML/article/view/6847
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author Alireza Jalilifar
Marjan Keyvan
Alexanne Don
author_facet Alireza Jalilifar
Marjan Keyvan
Alexanne Don
author_sort Alireza Jalilifar
collection DOAJ
description This study aims to explore the effect of prompts as themes on developing argumentative essays that represent an important genre of academic writing. Thirty Iranian Master's students of English Language Teaching and Literature took part in three consecutive test sessions arranged in this research. In each session, the students were divided into two groups: one provided with a writing prompt as a theme and the other without any prompts. The compositions were then rated and examined to find the possible effect of writing prompts on the students' scores and the quality of their argumentative essays. At the same time, the relationship between the students' scores and the organisation of the essays was checked based on a model of argument structure. The results revealed that writing prompts did not have any remarkable effect on the students' scores and the quality of their argumentation. However, regarding the elements of the model, a strong positive relationship was detected between the scores and the frequency of occurrence of elements. Further research is needed to identify features which are likely to influence writing performance and improve argumentation.
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institution Kabale University
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series Journal of Modern Languages
spelling doaj-art-9295bb9d66c9472c9615c18b5ef3bf0d2024-11-23T18:58:43ZengUniversiti MalayaJournal of Modern Languages1675-526X2462-19862017-09-0127The Effect of Writing Prompts on Developing Argumentative Essays of Iranian University Students of EnglishAlireza Jalilifar0Marjan Keyvan1Alexanne DonShahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, IranShahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran This study aims to explore the effect of prompts as themes on developing argumentative essays that represent an important genre of academic writing. Thirty Iranian Master's students of English Language Teaching and Literature took part in three consecutive test sessions arranged in this research. In each session, the students were divided into two groups: one provided with a writing prompt as a theme and the other without any prompts. The compositions were then rated and examined to find the possible effect of writing prompts on the students' scores and the quality of their argumentative essays. At the same time, the relationship between the students' scores and the organisation of the essays was checked based on a model of argument structure. The results revealed that writing prompts did not have any remarkable effect on the students' scores and the quality of their argumentation. However, regarding the elements of the model, a strong positive relationship was detected between the scores and the frequency of occurrence of elements. Further research is needed to identify features which are likely to influence writing performance and improve argumentation. https://ajap.um.edu.my/index.php/JML/article/view/6847Academic writing, writing prompts, argumentative essays, Toulmin's model
spellingShingle Alireza Jalilifar
Marjan Keyvan
Alexanne Don
The Effect of Writing Prompts on Developing Argumentative Essays of Iranian University Students of English
Journal of Modern Languages
Academic writing, writing prompts, argumentative essays, Toulmin's model
title The Effect of Writing Prompts on Developing Argumentative Essays of Iranian University Students of English
title_full The Effect of Writing Prompts on Developing Argumentative Essays of Iranian University Students of English
title_fullStr The Effect of Writing Prompts on Developing Argumentative Essays of Iranian University Students of English
title_full_unstemmed The Effect of Writing Prompts on Developing Argumentative Essays of Iranian University Students of English
title_short The Effect of Writing Prompts on Developing Argumentative Essays of Iranian University Students of English
title_sort effect of writing prompts on developing argumentative essays of iranian university students of english
topic Academic writing, writing prompts, argumentative essays, Toulmin's model
url https://ajap.um.edu.my/index.php/JML/article/view/6847
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