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The significance and the contribution of 6+1 traits of writing to the success of the students in writing courses in English language teaching

Yazmanın 6+1 özelliğinin İngilizce öğretiminde yazılı anlatım derslerindeki öğrenci başarısına katkısı ve önemi

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  1. Tez No: 145026
  2. Yazar: ÖZLEM YAZAR
  3. Danışmanlar: YRD. DOÇ. DR. PAŞA TEVFİK CEPHE
  4. Tez Türü: Yüksek Lisans
  5. Konular: Eğitim ve Öğretim, Education and Training
  6. Anahtar Kelimeler: Belirtilmemiş.
  7. Yıl: 2004
  8. Dil: İngilizce
  9. Üniversite: Gazi Üniversitesi
  10. Enstitü: Eğitim Bilimleri Enstitüsü
  11. Ana Bilim Dalı: İngiliz Dili Eğitimi Ana Bilim Dalı
  12. Bilim Dalı: Belirtilmemiş.
  13. Sayfa Sayısı: 104

Özet

İngilizce öğretiminde, yazma becerisinin kazandırılması her zaman zorluklarla karşılaşılan bir alan olmuştur. Bu zorluğun üstesinden gelebilmek için değişik yaklaşım ve tekniklerin de yardımıyla bu alanda önemli oranda çaba harcanmıştır. Tüm bu yaklaşımların ve tekniklerin yazma becerisinin kazandırılması alanında bir çok gelişime neden olduğu bir gerçektir. Ancak, ortak terminoloji eksikliği ve bu terminolojiyi öğretmeye yönelik tekniklerin yokluğu bu alanda hala problemlerle karşılaşılmasma neden olmaktadır. Özellikle yetişkin öğrencilerin, yapmaları gerekenlerle ilgili açık ve net bir şekilde bilgilendirildiklerinde kendilerini daha güvende hissettikleri bir gerçektir. Ayrıca bu tür açıklamalar sadece öğrencilerin yazma becerisini anlamalarını sağlamakla kalmaz, aynı zamanda öğrencilerin yazdığı metinlerdeki problemli alanları açıklarken de öğretmenin işini kolaylaştırır. 1980'de, bu tür açıklayıcı bir yazma öğretimi modeline duyulan ihtiyaç Amerika'da Yazmanın 6+1 Özelliği adlı modelin ortaya çıkmasını sağlamıştır. Yazmanın 6+1 Özelliği doğrudan bir yazma becerisi eğitimi modeli olarak bir yazılı metinde bulunması gereken temel özellikleri belirler ve öğretim modelinin bu yedi temel noktaya dayandırılmasını öngörür. Bu özellikler: fıkir(içerik), organizasyon, tarz, kelime seçimi, cümle akıcılığı, gramer ve sunum dur. Bu özelliklerin yazılı bir metnin iyi olabilmesi için gerekli olan evrensel özellikler olduğu düşünülmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, öğrenci başarısı ile yazmanın 6+1 Özelliğinin öğretimi arasında bir ilişki olup olmadığını ortaya çıkarmaktır. Bu amaca ulaşmak için Başkent Üniversitesi Hazırlık Okulunda öğrenim görmekte olan 3 1 öğrenci üzerinde küçük ölçekli bir araştırma yapılmıştır. Bu öğrenciler Deney Grubu ve Kontrol Grubu olmak üzere ikiye ayrılmış ve Deney Grubundakilerin yazma öğretimi dersleri Yazmanın 6+1 Özelliği Modeline uygun olarak işlenmiştir. Her iki gruptan alınan veriler istatistiki yöntemlerle analiz edilmiştir. Bu sürecin sonunda, analiz edilen verilere dayanılarak yorumlar yapılmıştır. Bu sonuçlar Deney Grubundaki öğrencilerin 10 testin 5 tanesinde anlamlı olarak daha yüksek sonuçlar aldığını göstermektedir. Geri kalan 5 testte de Deney grubu öğrencilerinin Kontrol Grubuna yakın yada az bir farkla daha yüksek sonuçlar elde ettiği gözlenmiştir. Bunların yanısıra, Deney Grubundan elde edilen veriler kendi içinde analiz edilmiş ve öğrencilerin her özellikle ilgili başarı oranları belirlenmiş ve grafiklerle gösterilmiştir. Sonraki bölümlerde bu özelliklerin öğretimine yönelik aktiviteler ve önerilerle birlikte sonuçlar açıklanmıştır. Özet olarak, Yazmanın 6+1 Özelliği Modelinin yazma derslerindeki öğrenci başarısına büyük ölçüde katkı sağladığı düşünülmektedir. Bu model, öğrencilere ve öğretmenlere yazma becerisinin temel noktalarını belirten ortak bir terminoloji sağlamakla kalmaz aynı zamanda yazılı bir metinde bulunması gereken temel özellikleri de hedefe yönelik aktivitelerle öğretmeyi mümkün kılar. Bu nedenle bu özellikleri yazma dersi müfredatlarına entegre etmenin öğrenci başarısına katkıda bulunacağı düşünülmektedir.

Özet (Çeviri)

Teaching writing skill has always been a matter of difficulty in English teaching environments. In order to come over this difficulty considerable effort has been devoted to the field by the help of different approaches and techniques. It is a fact that all the approaches and techniques have led to considerable improvements in the teaching of writing skill; however, there still occur problems stemming from lack of common terminology between the teachers and the students about the requirements of academic writing and to the point techniques to teach these. It is a fact that especially adult learners feel more secure when they are presented with clear-cut explanations about what they are required to do. Furthermore, these clear-cut explanations not only help the learners grasp the core of the writing skill but they also ease the teacher's job while explaining the problematic areas of a student's written product. In 1980, the need for such an explanatory writing model gave way to the development of 6+1 Traits of Writing Model in the USA. Referring directly to the teaching of writing skill, 6+1 Traits of Writing Model signifies the essentials of a written product and bases the teaching model on the teaching of these seven essential points, namely, ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, mechanics, and presentation. It is assumed that these are the universal qualities that make a piece of writing good. This study aims at finding out whether there is a relationship between the success of the learners and the teaching of the 6+1 Traits of Writing in writing courses. In order to achieve this aim, a small-scale research has been conducted on 31 students studying at Başkent University, Preparatory Program. These students have been assigned into two different groups, as the Experiment and the Control Group, randomly and the ones in the Experiment Group have been instructed according to the 6+1 Traits of Writing Model. The results from both the groups have been gathered and analyzed by the use of some statistical measures. At the end of this process, the statistical results have been commented on. These results show that the students in the Experiment Group scored higher grades in 5 writing tasks out of 10. It has also been observed that in the remaining 5 tasks, the grades of the learners in the Experiment Group were equal to or slightly higher than those in the Control Group. Besides, the results gathered from the Experiment Group have been analyzed within themselves and the success rate of the learners in each trait have been found out and shown in graphs. In the following chapters of the study, the activities that can be used in the teaching of the traits and suggestions together with conclusion have been included. To sum up, it is thought that 6+1 Traits of Writing Model can contribute to the success of the learners in writing courses to a great extent by providing the learners and the teachers with a common terminology to refer to the basics of the writing skill and some to the point techniques to teach the essential qualities of a piece of writing. Therefore, it may be a good idea to integrate these traits into the curriculum of writing courses in order to increase the success of the learners.11 ÖZET İngilizce öğretiminde, yazma becerisinin kazandırılması her zaman zorluklarla karşılaşılan bir alan olmuştur. Bu zorluğun üstesinden gelebilmek için değişik yaklaşım ve tekniklerin de yardımıyla bu alanda önemli oranda çaba harcanmıştır. Tüm bu yaklaşımların ve tekniklerin yazma becerisinin kazandırılması alanında bir çok gelişime neden olduğu bir gerçektir. Ancak, ortak terminoloji eksikliği ve bu terminolojiyi öğretmeye yönelik tekniklerin yokluğu bu alanda hala problemlerle karşılaşılmasma neden olmaktadır. Özellikle yetişkin öğrencilerin, yapmaları gerekenlerle ilgili açık ve net bir şekilde bilgilendirildiklerinde kendilerini daha güvende hissettikleri bir gerçektir. Ayrıca bu tür açıklamalar sadece öğrencilerin yazma becerisini anlamalarını sağlamakla kalmaz, aynı zamanda öğrencilerin yazdığı metinlerdeki problemli alanları açıklarken de öğretmenin işini kolaylaştırır. 1980'de, bu tür açıklayıcı bir yazma öğretimi modeline duyulan ihtiyaç Amerika'da Yazmanın 6+1 Özelliği adlı modelin ortaya çıkmasını sağlamıştır. Yazmanın 6+1 Özelliği doğrudan bir yazma becerisi eğitimi modeli olarak bir yazılı metinde bulunması gereken temel özellikleri belirler ve öğretim modelinin bu yedi temel noktaya dayandırılmasını öngörür. Bu özellikler: fıkir(içerik), organizasyon, tarz, kelime seçimi, cümle akıcılığı, gramer ve sunum dur. Bu özelliklerin yazılı bir metnin iyi olabilmesi için gerekli olan evrensel özellikler olduğu düşünülmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, öğrenci başarısı ile yazmanın 6+1 Özelliğinin öğretimi arasında bir ilişki olup olmadığını ortaya çıkarmaktır. Bu amaca ulaşmak için Başkent Üniversitesi Hazırlık Okulunda öğrenim görmekte olan 3 1 öğrenci üzerinde küçük ölçekli bir araştırma yapılmıştır. Bu öğrenciler Deney Grubu ve Kontrol Grubu olmak üzere ikiye ayrılmış ve Deney Grubundakilerin yazma öğretimi dersleri Yazmanın 6+1 Özelliği Modeline uygun olarak işlenmiştir. Her iki gruptan alınan veriler istatistiki yöntemlerle analiz edilmiştir. Bu sürecin sonunda, analiz edilen verilere dayanılarak yorumlar yapılmıştır. Bu sonuçlar Deney Grubundaki öğrencilerin 10 testin 5 tanesinde anlamlı olarak daha yüksek sonuçlar aldığını göstermektedir. Geri kalan 5 testte de Deney grubu öğrencilerinin Kontrol Grubuna yakın yada az bir farkla daha yüksek sonuçlar elde ettiği gözlenmiştir. Bunların yanısıra, Deney Grubundan elde edilen veriler kendi içinde analiz edilmiş ve öğrencilerin her özellikle ilgili başarı oranları belirlenmiş ve grafiklerle gösterilmiştir. Sonraki bölümlerde bu özelliklerin öğretimine yönelik aktiviteler ve önerilerle birlikte sonuçlar açıklanmıştır. Özet olarak, Yazmanın 6+1 Özelliği Modelinin yazma derslerindeki öğrenci başarısına büyük ölçüde katkı sağladığı düşünülmektedir. Bu model, öğrencilere ve öğretmenlere yazma becerisinin temel noktalarını belirten ortak bir terminoloji sağlamakla kalmaz aynı zamanda yazılı bir metinde bulunması gereken temel özellikleri de hedefe yönelik aktivitelerle öğretmeyi mümkün kılar. Bu nedenle bu özellikleri yazma dersi müfredatlarına entegre etmenin öğrenci başarısına katkıda bulunacağı düşünülmektedir.Ill ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank my beloved family for their invaluable support during the hard times I had while working on this study. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Asst. Prof. Dr. Paşa Tevfik CEPHE without whose patience, helpfulness and support this study could have never been the way it is now. Also, I am grateful to Dr. Bülent AKSOY for his invaluable contribution to this study. Lastly, my sincere thanks go to the teaching and management staff of Gazi University, Hacettepe University, Başkent University and Middle East Technical University for their help and contribution.IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACTi ÖZETii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSiii TABLE OF CONTENTSiv LIST OF TABLESvi LIST OF GRAPHSvii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION1 1.1. Problem1 1.2. Aim and Scope of the study2 1.3. Method2 1.4. Assumptions3 CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE4 2.0. Introduction4 2.1. The importance of writing4 2.2. Approaches to Teaching Writing10 2.2.1 The Controlled -to-Free Approach10 2.2.2. Free Writing Approach1 1 2.2.3. The Paragraph-Pattern Approach12 2.2.4. The Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach13 2.2.5. The Communicative Approach14 2.2.6. The Process Approach14 2.2.7. The MI Theory17 2.3. 6+1 Traits of Writing18 2.3.1. Ideas19 2.3.2. Organization20 2.3.3. Voice20 2.3.4. Word Choice21 2.3.5. Sentence Fluency21 2.3.6. Mechanics22 2.3.7. Presentation22CHAPTER 3 DATA COLLECTION AND THE ANALYSIS OF THE DATA GATHERED23 3.0. Introduction23 3.1. Data Collection23 3.2. Data analysis24 3.3. The interpretation of the Data Gathered from the Experiment and the Control Group25 CHAPTER 4 SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES FOR THE TEACHING OF THE 6+1 TRAITS OF WRITING40 4.0. Introduction40 4.1. The Role of the Teacher40 4.2. The Needs of the Students42 4.3. Ideas43 4.4. Organization....52 4.5. Voice57 4.6. Word Choice63 4.7. Sentence Fluency66 4.8. Conventions67 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION71 BIBLIOGRAPHY75 APPENDICES79VI LIST OF TABLES Table 1 : The contrastive analysis of the results gathered from the writing task“The Worst Holiday”25 Table 2: The contrastive analysis of the results gathered from the writing task“Film Book Review”26 Table 3 : The contrastive analysis of the results gathered from the writing task“Informal Letter 1”26 Table 4: The contrastive analysis of the results gathered from the writing task“Ideal Family”26 Table 5: The contrastive analysis of the results gathered from the writing task“Favorite Place”27 Table 6: The contrastive analysis of the results gathered from the writing task“Obtrusive Building”27 Table 7: The contrastive analysis of the results gathered from the writing task“Informal Letter 2”27 Table 8: The contrastive analysis of the results gathered from the writing task“Friendship”28 Table 9: The contrastive analysis of the results gathered from the writing task“Living in the Country”28 Table 10: The contrastive analysis of the results gathered from the writing task“Letter of Complaint”29 Table 1 1 : The contrastive analysis of the results gathered from the Control and the Experiment Group showing the general situation30vıı LIST OF GRAPHS Graph 1 : The success rate of the experiment group students in the“Ideas”trait32 Graph 2: The success rate of the experiment group students in the“Organization”trait33 Graph 3 : The success rate of the experiment group students in the“Word Choice”trait34 Graph 4: The success rate of the experiment group students in the“Conventions”trait35 Graph 5: The success rate of the experiment group students in the“Voice”trait36 Graph 6: The success rate of the experiment group students in the“Sentence Fluency”trait37 Graph 7: The success rate of the experiment group students in the“Presentation”trait38 Graph 8: The distribution of the success rate of the experiment group students among the seven traits39CHAPTER 1 1.0. Introduction This section deals with the problem, aim and scope of the study, and the method. In the last part, some assumptions are presented. 1.1 Problem Writing in a foreign language has always been a matter of difficulty for students. Although the current models that have been used so far have resulted in significant improvements, it is a fact that students still have problems on specific points, such as, organization, sentence fluency and voice. In the writing sessions, it has been observed that students feel inadequate about the required conventions of writing and; therefore, produce inappropriate writings. That is why it is thought that a new perspective and to the point techniques are needed. In the early 1980s Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) put forward the 6+1 Trait Writing Model as a combination of all the required qualities in a well-prepared piece of writing. As a matter of fact, none of these traits was completely new or revolutionary in the area of writing yet this was the first time that these to the point traits were uttered as a part of the teaching and the assessment of writing skill. Being applied in several countries to students from different levels, 6+1 Traits of Writing Model proved to be helpful in overcoming the conceptual problems of the learners about writing lessons. Not only the students but also the teachers feel the need to have clear-cut explanations through which they can present the writing lessons. During the regular peer-observations that take place four times in a year, it has been observed that a kind of common language is needed among the teachers and learners to refer to the basics of academic writing. Therefore, it is highly probable that lack of common terms and vague explanations could be the reason behind failure in writing lessons.1.2. Aim and Scope The aim of this study is to determine the effects of 6+1 Traits of Writing Model in writing lessons by conducting a small-scale research. By the help of this research, the impacts of the writing model will be presented and analyzed in detail. This study also aims at revealing the relation between the success rate of the students who are instructed according to the Trait Writing model and the students who are instructed in the traditional way. To manifest this relation, the results gathered from the two different groups of students (experiment group and control group) will be analyzed by the use of statistical measures. This study has been conducted at Başkent University and focused on 31 students who study English at the Preparatory School of Başkent University. The subjects have been selected randomly. 1.3. Method To begin with, library and Internet research has been conducted to analyze the 6+1 Traits of Writing model and its role in language education. The fundamental reason of the study has been stated in the first chapter. The second chapter has been devoted to review of literature to provide background information about current writing approaches and techniques. The role of Trait- Writing model in writing lessons has been introduced in the third chapter. Also, the role of the teacher and the rationale for Trait- Writing have been presented in this chapter. As the next step, the writing lessons of the experiment group have been conducted according to the Trait Writing model whereas the same lessons of the control group have been conducted in the traditional way. The results gathered from the evaluation of the written products of both the groups have been shown in charts and graphs. Lastly, suggested activities for the teaching of Trait -Writing and suggestions together with conclusion have been included in Chapter 5 and 6.1.4. Assumptions In this study, it is assumed that 1. the students at Başkent University Preparatory School represent students in terms of English Proficiency level. 2. the class size, the equipment used and the level of the students in experiment and control groups are equal. 3. lack of common terms and vague explanations about the conventions of academic writing are the reasons causing failure in writing lessons. 4. by the help of the research, the students in the experiment group will achieve a higher rate of success in writing lessons due to being taught the Trait- Writing model. 5. providing common terms and applying to the point activities related to Trait- Writing model will contribute to the success rate of the students in writing lessons.CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.0 Introduction This chapter deals with the theoretical framework of the study and the different approaches to teaching writing. The importance of writing is dealt with in section 2.1. The following section, 2.2, is devoted to popular approaches of teaching writing and lastly the 6+1 Traits of Writing model is explained in detail in section 2.3. 2.1 The Importance of Writing Being an essential element of discourse, writing is an inseparable part of academic life. Putting the daily necessities, which can be accomplished in the native tongue, aside, the requirements of academic life force learners to achieve at least an acceptable level of writing proficiency in the target language through which they can communicate their ideas by means of written products. At this very point, the teaching of writing in an English classroom gains utmost importance. Being a foreign language for the learners, English language is equal to feeling uneasy in most classroom settings. It is a fact that almost all learners tend to find the most concrete areas of a foreign language easy to learn. For example, grammar, which can be formulated and“seen”, seems to be easier than learning to write. The mood of a student writer is best illustrated by Rosen (1981 : 5) who states“The writer is a lonely figure cut off from the stimulus and corrective of listeners. He must be a predictor of reactions and act on his predictions. He writes with one hand tied behind his back, being robbed of gesture. He is robbed too of the tone of his voice and the aid of clues the environment provides. He is condemned to monologue; there is no one to help out, to fill the silences, put words in his mouth, or make encouraging noises”.Besides the mood of the learner, there are also other factors which are thought to have direct impacts on the quality of a writing produced by the student. It has now and then been thought that the first language of the learners interferes with their target language knowledge resulting in interlanguage errors(Stern, 1983: 174). In fact, the idea constitutes the rationale for the Direct Method and the Audio- Lingual Method, which experienced their golden era from late 1 940s to early 1 960s (Celce-Murcia and Mcintosh, 1979). Although these methods lost their popularity by the development of more Humanistic Approaches in language teaching, the effect of the first language remained as a challenging area in language teaching. Even though there have been ideas claiming that L2 learning is totally independent from LI knowledge, the recent researches show that this is not the case. In the area of writing, the effect of LI seems to be a significant element. According to Stapleton(2002), the quality of L2 writing shows parallelism with the quality of LI writing. In a study of 46 Japanese university students learning English, the results point out that“subjects who wrote well in Japanese tended to write well in English, whereas those who wrote poorly in their native language also fared poorly in English”( 2002: 250). Therefore, it can be stated that the effect of LI knowledge and ability should never be underestimated while teaching a foreign language. In the light of this data, it will not be inappropriate to state that LI knowledge has more effect on L2 writing than thought. Another interesting result of the study is that three key elements indicating the required features of a good written product are stated. These are:“L2 proficiency, LI writing ability, and metaknowledge about writing”which are thought to be directly related to success in writing lessons (Stapleton, 2002: 253). Since the L2 proficiency is a matter dealt with a whole teaching process including four skills as well as other language areas like grammar, and LI writing ability is out of question in this study, it may be a good idea to start with the kind of metaknowledge transferred to the learner in an ordinary writing curriculum. In this part of the study, the different types of paragraph and essay writing will be examined.2.1.1 Types of Written Discourse There are three fundamental questions that writers face before being able to produce a well-formed writing: Why to write?, Who to write to? and lastly how to write? One of the main concerns about getting started to write is to find the very reason for writing. In other words, it is crucial to find the answer for the question“why”. In fact, Chapman and Waller(1994) assert that the answer is quite simple. They state that most people write for the same reason:“to satisfy a human need to communicate”(p.l2). Despite stating a crucial fact, such an answer may be inadequate in giving a satisfactory explanation for that question. The point to be borne in mind is that everyone will have to write something in this or that way in a period in their lives whether it be a memo or a formal letter of application for a job. Therefore, understanding as well as being able to use the conventions of a sound piece of writing is a must for those who want to keep up with the latest improvements of the new millennium. Being that much important, writing lessons start at primary school and the techniques of good writing are tried to be covered during the academic life. Obviously, the properties of a good written product do not change from one language to another. That is, whatever the language used is, a sound writing shows the features of a universally acceptable criteria. Therefore, it can be said that the learnt rules of writing are transferable from the native language to the foreign language being learnt or vice versa. Since the subject of this study covers the writing lessons conducted as a part of foreign language education, the performance abilities of the students in their native language will not be considered as a referent. Nevertheless, there is no harm in hoping that the knowledge gained by the learners during their previous education will also help them become better writers in their native language as well. Accepting the fact that every student will have to write in their academic lives may make it easier for the students to delete their blocks built by insisting on the difficulty and uselessness of writing. Axelrod and Cooper(1991:3) indicate thatbeing able to write well contributes to success in college and on the job. In sum, it's an obvious fact that as a fundamental means of communication, writing will be necessary for everyone throughout his or her life. Thus, it may be a good idea to stop blocking oneself by thinking how hard it is to write and listing reasons why not to write. Instead, seeing the realities and acting accordingly will be of great help. In addition to spotting why one is writing, it is of great importance to determine to whom one is writing. In the broadest sense, written products can be dealt with under two general headings: 1. Personal writings(for the eyes of only oneself), 2. Public writings(written products to be read by others). Needless to say, almost all people use personal writing as a means of relaxation and record of events, such as, diaries, memos to oneself, notes, etc. the reason for such writings is quite simple. People write because they want to. The point is that despite being of great value, such writings are out of concern for this study. That is, the subject matter of this study is the written products that are produced in order to make people do something or think of something as a result of what has been written. In order to accomplish such a realistic task in classroom settings, it is a must to give the writer a sound reason. Becoming popular with the rise of communicative approach, determining an audience for every possible piece of writing has attracted a considerable amount of attention because it not only gives a reason for writing but also shapes the written product. Putting the points why to write and who to write to aside, this study emphasizes how to write while referring to why to write and who to write to at every point. While teaching general English, different institutions favor different writing curriculum. Some approaches to writing suggest starting with the minimal point, such as, sentence combining, writing a topic sentence and so on while others tend to start with writing a whole paragraph and then dealing with the other points within this paragraph. No matter which way the teacher or the institutions choose to apply, the basic paragraph and essay types should be presented to the learners for further use in their academic lives.In the twenty first century, a university graduate is expected to have the mastery of different writing types to be able to present his/her knowledge on a topic appropriately. It is known that writing purposes, therefore writing types, vary a great deal in academic writing. Students should be equipped with the theoretical information about these and should have the chance to use this information in the classroom to get feedback from their peers and the teacher. Only then can they become skilled writers and tackle with the problems in their academic lives. These different types of writing that a university graduate will need are listed by Axelrod and Cooper(1991: 14) as: describing, classifying, comparing and contrasting, explaining the causes and effects and taking a position(arguing). The requirements of the era necessitate the mastery of these writing types that are dealt with briefly in this section of the study. Descriptive paragraphs are generally the easiest ones to produce for they do not require much knowledge on linkers. The aim of such paragraphs is to describe an object, event, person, idea or dream in such a way that the reader can“see”what the writer wants to describe. According to Axelrod and Cooper (1991) the key elements in such paragraphs are:“the order of description (from physical appearance to abstract ideas), the point of view ( a person who witnessed the event or was a participant) and style( an objective description or an emotional one)”(p. 86). The paragraphs or essays which are aimed at classifying a topic generally include reasoning through a problem which necessitates getting information that will make the reader understand the situation easily. Chapman and Waller (1994) state that the data is better understood when it is logically arranged. Thus, it can be said that classification is the process of putting information into logical categories. In the current curriculum applied to the subjects of this study, a typical example of classifying paragraphs is presented in the form of stating the advantages and disadvantages of a given subject like“living in a city”or“traveling by plane”. The aim of such paragraphs is explained by Axelrod and Cooper(1991) as“evaluating the writers' organizational skills in presenting the topic and their tendency in classifying the given notion”. Most generally, the writer is required to list some points in an orderly manner and support his ideas by giving examples or explainingthe reasons for the classification. Writing a classifying paragraph requires the metaknowledge about listing some features and then classifying them logically under appropriate subheadings, such as, positive and negative aspects. Comparison and contrast paragraphs generally deal with two or more notions. In this case, the writer is required to work on two different cases and find similarities and/or differences between them. The topics for such paragraphs or essays can either be chosen from similar concepts like traveling by plane and traveling by car or from totally different ones, such as, growing up a child and a plant. The rationale is that the writer is required to work out the different and the similar points on the given topic(Rosenthal and Mckay, 1980). Once more, the ideas should be supported with examples, explanations and descriptions. The point is that while working on the given product, the writer should also select the appropriate linkers from his/her metaknowledge about comparing and contrasting. Cause and effect paragraphs are generally studied through two different forms: focus on cause, focus on effect. This means that“the supporting sentences become a list of either effects(what a certain situation has led to) or causes (reasons or explanations why something happened)”(Chapman and Waller, 1994: 126). The aim is achieved by listing the causes and/or effects of a given topic. Selecting the appropriate linkers, presenting the ideas in a logical order and concluding the written product in a supportive manner are the key points. Unlike explanatory paragraphs or essays, persuading essays require a higher proficiency level as well as greater analytical thought. Moreover, writing an argumentative essay requires mastery in writing all kinds of explanatory essays. The reason is that to be able to write for and against views and organize them well, a writer should be good at producing the other types of paragraphs and integrating them in such a way that they will help to build a well organized argumentative essay (Chapman and Waller, 1994: 130). As usual, the appropriate linkers and an acceptable style are the requirements of a well-built essay In sum, it is apparent that students need to use different types of writing to communicate what they mean in their academic lives. In this sense, writing can even10 be considered as a means of achieving individual and social goals. As Chapman and Waller(1994) state“when we make the students write we want them to see the potential of writing for organizing experience, clarifying thinking, discovering new ideas, communicating information, arguing a debatable issue and investigating a problem”(p.53). Therefore, it is important to equip the learners with the required metaknowledge on different types of writing. 2.2. Approaches to Teaching Writing The improvements in the area of language teaching have always given way to the improvements in teaching writing so that both can develop hand in hand. Needless to say, every approach to language teaching brings its philosophy about learner, teacher and the materials to be used. For example the Behaviorist Approach gave way to the Stimuli-Response type of teaching which displayed itself in he Audio-Lingual method in 1950s and early 1960s whereas one of the latest approaches, the Humanistic Approach, attached importance to the human needs and emotions by leading to the Communicative Language Teaching in 1970-80s(Celce- Murcia and Mcintosh, 1979). Improving in the same direction, the ongoing trends in language teaching have become much more related to human psychology and the individuality of the person, like The MI Theory in the late 1980s and NLP in late 1990s and 2000. The significant point is that no matter which approach or method is used, the very aim of all is to transfer the information in a better way. Therefore, having a look at the traditional and popular approaches in teaching writing will be of great use in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of all. There exist several approaches to writing proposed by scholars in different sources. However, in this study, the classification of Raimes(1984) has been accepted as the basis for the traditional approaches together with the latest trends in language teaching, such as, the MI Theory. 2.2.1. The Controlled-to- Free approach With the development of the Audio-Lingual Method in around 1950s, language-teaching environments experienced a period in which the mastery of11 grammatical and syntactic features dominated the other skills. Raimes(1984: 6) states that in this approach, accuracy is more important than fluency so“the students are presented with such activities that they can write a lengthy passage with few mistakes”. The key point is that these activities are so controlled that the job of the learner is limited to, for example, changing the tenses or rewriting a passage by changing the pronouns. Badger (2002) classifies such approaches as“Product/Text based Approaches”. He states that in writing lessons, conducted with such an approach, planning gets a minor role and creativity is not allowed until the learner achieves a high level in the target language(Badger, 2002). Therefore, it can be stated that such an approach attaches the utmost importance to the latest product in a writing lesson. There is a strict sequence in the presentation of the lesson. First of all the learners are presented with a sample text on which they make analysis and become familiar with the kind of text they will produce. This activity is followed by a controlled writing activity in which the students make mechanical changes on a given text. In the early levels, this is thought to be enough. (Raimes, 1984) As the learner progresses, the controlled writing activity is followed by“guided writing”. The students are given some patterns including the type of the sentences they will produce as well as the linking words they are required to use. Students take the sample text as a guide and try to produce a similar one. The last step covers“Free Writing”, in which students are allowed to express their own ideas and try to produce some free compositions(Raimes, 1984: 7). Needless to say, this step is achieved by high-level students. 2.2.2 Free Writing Approach As stated in the previous section of this study, there are different attitudes to writing among scholars. While some put the quality of writing to the first place by attaching importance to the appropriate use of syntax, grammar and organization, some others claim that the quantity of writing should be the starting point for the development of the writing skill. The Free Writing Approach to teaching writing12 stems from the ideas of the latter. Raimes (1984) states that around intermediate level, the concern for fluency rather than accuracy is favored in this approach. Therefore, the content and the reasonably good transfer of ideas are thought to be more important than the accuracy of the written text. In Free Writing Approach, the learners are required to write as much as they can on a given topic. Raimes(1984) states that the teacher according to the common interests of the learners generally determines the topics. Then, the learners start writing on the topic for a limited time. As stated before, the focus is on the product; how much one can write in a specific time on a specific topic. Generally, these written texts are not corrected. The only reason for reading them is to comment on the ideas or the content. It is thought that this approach makes the learners feel confident and become fluent in writing. Becoming a fluent writer is a positive outcome of this approach yet only fluency is not enough to be a good writer. It is a known fact that in academic writing, the quantity of a written text constitutes only one part of a whole. The quality of the content, together with grammar, syntax, organization and appropriate style, seems to be as important as the length of it. Unless it is organized well, a lengthy passage presents nothing more than conflict. In sum, it is obvious that despite having some positive effects on the writing speed of the learners, the Free Writing Approach falls short in accomplishing the needs of an academic writer. 2.2.3 The Paragraph-Pattern Approach Unlike the two approaches mentioned previously, the Paragraph-Pattern Approach puts the emphasis on organization rather than mechanics or fluency. In fact, this approach can be classified as one of the“Genre Approaches”which are explained by Badger(2002) as“types of writing concerned with the knowledge of language in context and the development of writing as a response input in form of texts”. In his article, Badger(2002) states that this kind of approaches favor“the presentation of a sample text followed by the analysis of the text by manipulating language elements and finalized by the production of the target text”. Raimes (1984)13 puts forward the reason for this process as making the learners familiar with the target language organization^. 8). It is asserted that every culture has its own way of organizing the thoughts and thus the written form of them. Therefore, it's important to familiarize the learners with the“English”qualities of a written text. The rationale of this approach is that the LI knowledge of the learners do not help them in the L2 writing process. Since every language has its own way of organizing and transferring the ideas, it is of great importance to display good examples of the target language discourse in order to enable the learners to internalize the new patterns of the new language. Actually, it is true that there is a notion as“metaknowledge”about all languages. Yet the recent studies show that the significant elements in a good piece of writing are the same for all languages. This is best illustrated by a research done on Japanese students shows that there is a positive correlation between LI writing ability and L2 writing ability(Stapleton, 2002: 250). Moreover, the studies conducted by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory have revealed that there is a set of features that are universally accepted as the key elements of a good piece of writing(www.nwrel.org). In conclusion, despite leading to the improvement of an important element of writing, that is organization, this approach seems to be far away from being satisfactory. 2.2.4 The Grammar- Syntax- Organization Approach After going through the period of one-element at a time, the scholars found it necessary to suggest a new approach combining two or more elements, which led to the development of the Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach. According to this approach, learners are able to cope with more than one element simultaneously. Therefore, as Raimes(1984) states“they devise writing tasks that lead students to pay attention to organization while they also work on the necessary grammar and syntax”(p. 8). The accomplishment of the task is achieved by reviewing the key points, such as linking words, organizational patterns, etc. or the preteaching of these.14 It is obvious that integrating the required elements of a good piece of writing is a fruitful idea. However, this approach still lacks some crucial elements other than grammar, syntax and organization. That a written text is still not good enough even if it is grammatically accurate, syntactically well-formed and well organized is a fact. Some significant elements, such as, sentence fluency, voice, word choice and presentation are also crucial for a piece of academic writing to be acceptable. In short, despite contributing a lot to teaching writing, the Grammar- Syntax- Organization Approach still seems to be inadequate in developing the required skills. 2.2.5 The Communicative Approach Like in the teaching of the other skills, the Communicative Approach favors“real-life like”teaching of the writing skill. In other words, the teaching of writing is achieved by giving an acceptable reason to the learners and specifying an audience, like in real life. While considered from this perspective, the Communicative approach can be classified as a“Process-Genre Approach”in which“the learners are given a situation that gives rise to a particular genre of writing”. The learners produce some writing according to their own needs supported by the teacher, their peers and sample texts (Badger, 2000). Since the classroom teaching is aimed to be presented like a part of the real life, the readers not only read and evaluate the ideas but also react to them by doing something or writing a reply. It is a fact that the Communicative Approach has led to a revolutionary shift from formal classroom teaching to student-centered, real life-like teaching. However, it still has some weak points, such as, not supporting the learners with adequate metaknowledge about specific kinds of writing and underestimating the value of mechanics and style. Besides, this approach falls short in determining the limits and equipping the learners with complete, clear-cut explanations about the key elements of a good piece of writing. 2.2.6 The Process Approach Recently, there has been a shift from the approaches dealing with the“product”handed in at the end of a writing lesson to the actual“process”of writing.15 In fact, language teaching professionals have accepted this approach with great enthusiasm since the focus of the previous approaches was on the last, written form of the product on which some corrections (mainly grammatical)were made. In his article Lindsay(2001: 34) states that the approach favors the use of“drafting, revising and getting feedback at different stages in the process of writing an essay”. After going through this process, the learner is required to present a good written product. Furthermore, the process is thought to be an effective way of transferring knowledge through getting the comments of the others in the process. The most important difference between the Process Approach and its ancestors is that the students are not required to tackle with a topic in a restricted time by themselves. Instead, they are encouraged to take it easy with the time and use it as a tool to learn as much as they can. It is an obvious fact that the approaches before the Process Approach had been criticized about being strict on mechanical aspects and limiting the time. The tendency was to present a topic to the learners (whether it be a communicative one or a controlled piece of writing) and require them to sit and write whatever they think is related to the topic. It was the latest product that attracted the attention. With the development of the Process Approach, the rehearsing or the pre-writing activities gained importance. Since it is the process that makes a difference, the time devoted to the writing tasks is allocated to different processes during the writing lessons. The students start with pre-writing activities during which they brainstorm about the given topic, have some discussion and share ideas, read related materials, etc. in order to gather the information they will put on the paper on this specific topic. After the pre-writing process, the learners choose the ideas they want to mention in their writing and prepare a draft. This draft is not evaluated nor is it corrected. The aim is to comment on the content(ideas) in the draft. After getting the comments, students revise their drafts and get the ideas of the peers and/or the teacher. The last step constitutes the editing and presentation part, which means that the product is ready after a process of exploration and information transfer. As stated before, this product is thought to be a good one after experiencing all these stages ( Raimes, 1984: 10; Badger 2000: 155). In sum, it can be said that the16 Process Approach is an adapted kind of“learning by doing”type of approaches highlighting the significance of the feedback and the process itself. Besides having so many good points, the Process Approach has its own drawbacks as well. The first criticism is about the time it requires. Being referred to as a“time-consuming”approach by Lindsay(2001), the Process Approach requires much more time than an ordinary curriculum can devote. Generally, there is a fixed pacing about what to be taught and when to be taught in most of the schools. While trying to keep up with the loaded pacing, teachers generally tend to apply traditional teaching methods by conducting a short session of prewriting which is followed by the immediate writing process on a, hopefully, communicative topic. The product is again evaluated through error correction. Therefore, the core of the Process approach is overwhelmed by the heavy burden on the shoulders of the teachers. The second criticism is about the“feedback”element of the process writing. As the students revise their drafts in the light of the feedback they get, it is a must for the provider of the feedback to be efficient. In small classes, where the teacher is able to comment on the papers of all the learners together with the peers, there seems to be no problem. However, in large classes where the preferred method is to make only the peers provide the feedback, the comments made may be insufficient. For sure, peer-editing and the feedback provided is of great value. Yet, the teacher can never be sure whether the learner is on the right track or not until s/he sees the latest product, which is against the rationale of the approach. It should always be borne in mind that there is always a possibility that the feedback may also lead the learner to a totally wrong direction. On the other hand, if not educated especially on it, it is always difficult for the students to provide feedback. When a student reads a paragraph or an essay written by one of his peers, s/he tends to either ignore the weaknesses or overemphasize them by trying to correct the errors. Therefore, in such an approach, it is of great importance to acknowledge the learners on how to provide appropriate feedback, which is a matter of time, unfortunately. The last criticism comes from those who think that it is not appropriate to use the same processes in all kinds of texts(Badger, 2000: 156). It is asserted that this process does not attach importance to the kind of texts writers produce. The same17 procedure is used for each and every kind of writing, which is not only inappropriate but also unnecessary as well. In other words, this approach does not signify the important elements in writing. It ignores the teaching of these elements and leaves this part to the students themselves. Moreover, since it does not present clear-cut explanations, it is considered to be a vague way of learning. In sum, being one of the most recent approaches, the Process Approach received compliments as well as criticisms. 2.2.7 The Multiple Intelligences Theory Although the Multiple Intelligences theory is not concerned with bringing a development to the teaching of writing skill, it has inevitably contributed to the area as well. Howard Gardner (1980) suggested the idea of multiple intelligences as“a detailed study of individual differences in learning”. Yet, the theory has been welcomed and supported by the scholars from different fields. Accepting the fact that each and every learner is unique and adapting the teaching materials to as many intelligence types as possible have led to changes in curriculum after taking place in actual teaching settings(Armstrong, 1993: 39). The application of the theory in writing classrooms is achieved through varying the topic in such a way that it will include at least three or four intelligence types. For example, if the writing topic is about“The damages caused by the earthquake”, the logical/ mathematical learners can write on the financial loss by using graphs, charts etc, while the visual learners describe the setting so that the reader can“see”what has been written. On the other hand, interpersonal learners can conduct a research as a group and produce a text by gathering the information that has been collected by the members of the group. In fact, such examples can be extended. In short, the Multiple Intelligences theory starts at the point of the Communicative Approach and goes further by putting emphasis on the individual differences. However, for every plus, there is a minus. Being a general theory of individual differences, the Multiple Intelligences Theory falls short in explaining the18 essentials of a writing lesson. Nonetheless, teachers can make great use of the theory in different stages of their lessons, such as, the pre-writing stage. In sum, it can be said that the Multiple Intelligences Theory is a useful one if it is integrated into a kind of curriculum that supports the learners by providing clear-cut explanations about the essentials of academic writing. In conclusion, all the approaches that have been discussed in this section so far fall short in one aspect or the other and are somehow inadequate in responding to needs of the learners. It is a fact that all these approaches have been used for some time in language teaching environments but since they are not sufficient enough, there has always been a tendency to find a better way of teaching the writing skill. Most scholars generally favor an eclectic method in which they combine the good points of all the approaches. However, lack of standardization and the problems faced because of the features of the approaches that do not overlap have led the researchers to the development of such a writing model that it will both include the best points of all the approaches and be an independent model with its own explanations and teaching techniques. This is how the 6+1 Traits of Writing Model has been developed by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. 2.3. 6+1 Traits of Writing Seeing that the current approaches to teaching writing do not result in fruitful teaching and learning, in America, in 1980s the professionals of the field came together and tried to find the features that assign a piece of writing the quality of being good. In order to achieve their aim, they compiled a variety of written products and classified them according to their quality(www.nwrel.org). The idea was that“if they could find out the common qualities in a good piece of writing, then they could work out a teaching model based on the transfer and the development of these qualities”(www.nwrel.org). It is also stated that“the need for a shared vocabulary to be used with students, parents, and the community also contributed a lot to the development of the Trait Writing”. Additionally, the evaluation of the written products will be made in an analytical manner which will decrease the human factor, in other words subjectivity, to some extent.19 No matter which method is used, one shared concern of the scholars was“the amount of thought,, time and energy devoted to this process to make it valid, honest and reflective of what students do”while they are engaged in the writing process.“”The researches have led to the idea that has long been known by all the scholars by heart: the teaching of the writing skill should be based on a kind of instruction mirroring what good writing looks like. And, before transferred to the students, the teachers needed to define the required criteria that constitute the core of good writing for themselves“(www.nwrel.org). In short, the teachers found out that writing was influenced by the same seven traits which are: 1) ideas, 2) organization, 3) voice,4)word choice, 5)sentence fluency 6)conventions, and 7) presentation. 2. 3. 1. Ideas Ideas constitute the most important part of a written text. Çulham (1997) states ”Ideas are the heart of the main theme of one's writing along with the accompanying details that enrich and develop that theme. Ideas are strong when the message is clear. The writer chooses details that are interesting, important, and informative; often the kinds of details the reader would not normally anticipate or predict“. Successful writers do not tell readers things they already know. They give new insight into area or relay information in a fresh way(www.nwrel.org). For example, descriptions or character development in a story are shown through examples, rather than just told in fact.20 2.3.2 Organization Organization refers to the logical flow of a piece of writing, which shows the internal structure of a piece of writing. It is what carries the reader from beginning to middle to end. ”In writing, organization is simply the ability to sequence the parts of a story so that they make sense. The piece begins meaningfully and creates in the reader a sense of anticipation that is ultimately, systematically fulfilled“ (www.nwrel.org). Organizational structure can be based on comparison-contrast, deductive logic, point-by-point analysis, chronological history of an event. ”Events proceed logically; information is given to the reader in the right doses at the right times so that the reader never loses interest or the 'big picture' that the writer is driving at“(www.nwrel.org). In a quality writing, according to Shull and Sullivan(2001), connections are strong, which is another way of saying that bridges from one idea to the next hold up. It is stated that ”the piece closes with a sense of resolution, tying up loose ends, bringing things to closure, answering important questions while still leaving the reader something to think abouf'(www.nwrel.org). 2. 3.3. Voice The voice is the writer coming through the words, the sense that a real person is speaking to the audience and cares about the message. It is stated that“Voice is the heart and soul of the writing, the magic, the wif'(www.nwrel.org). Good writers can vary their voice depending on the purpose of the message. For instance, a personal letter carries a different tone than a letter to one's insurance company. ”A good writer also varies his or her voice with the form of writing being used at the time; expository, persuasive or descriptive; and then within that category to set the correct mood“ (Çulham, 1997). Correct voice is largely a factor of correct21 word choice, but other factors are involved, as well, such as length of the sentences and the flow of those sentences. The best way to teach voice to the students is to get them to personalize the writing topic because it is put forward that when the writer is engaged personally with the topic, he or she ”imparts a personal tone and flavor to the piece that is unmistakably his or hers alone“ (www.nwrel.org). 2. 3. 4. Word choice Word choice is explained as ”the use of rich, colorful, precise language that communicates not just in a functional way, but also in a way that moves and enlightens the reader“(www.nwrel.org). It is a known fact that in aparagraphwhich aims at describing, choice of vocabulary clarifies the vision of the reader. ”In expository writing, strong word choice clarifies and expands ideas and in persuasive writing, careful word choice moves the reader to a new vision of things“(Shull and Sullivan, 2001). Correct use of word choice is characterized not so much by an exceptional vocabulary that impresses the reader, but more by the skill to use everyday words well. The writing is striking, yet natural. 2. 3. 5. Sentence fluency Sentence fluency refers to the rhythm and flow of the language, the sound of word patterns, and the way in which the writing plays to the ear(Shull and Sullivan, 2001). It is pointed out in the formal website of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory that ”good writing is free of awkward word patterns that slow the reader's progress. Sentences vary in length and style, and are so well crafted that reading aloud is a pleasure“ (www.nwrel.org). The appropriate use of transitional words and connectors make it easy to understand the logical links among the sentences.22 2. 3. 6. Conventions ”Conventions are simply those rules of grammar and punctuation that make one's writing readable“. There is evidence of editing and proofing in a finished piece of writing such that the spelling, paragraphing and punctuation are mostly correct, even on harder words and longer sentences(www.nwrel.org). 2. 3. 7. Presentation Presentation is the final phase of writing. It includes the layout of the paper as well as the eligibility of the handwriting. In other words, it refers to the final picture of the written product and its appropriateness.23 CHAPTER 3 DATA COLLECTION AND THE ANALYSIS OF THE DATA GATHERED 3.0 Introduction This chapter of the study is devoted to the analysis of the data gathered from the evaluation of the written assignments of the students in both the Experiment and the Control Group and the interpretation of the data results. Section 3.1 includes how the data is collected from both the Experiment Group and the Control Group. Section 3.2 deals with the analysis of the data by the use of different statistical measures. Section 3.3 includes the interpretation of the data. 3.1 Data Collection The subjects of this study were 31 English Language School, Preparatory Program C stream students studying at Başkent University. This research was conducted in the spring semester of 2002-2003. The data collected for this research comes from the results of the written assignments of the actual classroom applications of 6+1 Traits of Writing for the Experiment Group and the Traditional Approach for the Control Group. Both the groups had the writing lessons with the same teacher and for the same amount of time. With the Control Group, the writing lessons were conducted according to the syllabus and the Traditional Approach. On the other hand, the Experiment Group worked on exactly the same topics but with different activities related to the fostering of 6+1 Traits of writing. After each writing session, the students in both the groups were required to write paragraphs on a specific topic. In both the groups, students had the chance to peer-edit their friends' works. The Control Group went over the written works through a holistic approach (during which they generally concentrated on grammar). However, the Experiment Group used a checklist provided by the teacher(Appendix 1). At the end of each session, their works were collected by the teacher and24 evaluated and the results of the evaluation of these written products have been used as the data for the analysis. The results gathered from the evaluation are used to find out the different achievement levels of the students in the Experiment and the Control Group. Additionally, the results of the Experiment Group are used to display the success rate of the students in each of the Traits separately. 3.2. Data Analysis 3.2.1. Control Group and Experiment Group First of all, the data collected from both the Experiment Group and the Control Group have been listed and analyzed by using statistical methods. Secondly, the differences between the Experiment and the Control Group have been presented by the use of tables for each written assignment. Then, the general situation has been shown and interpreted. In addition to this, the data gathered from the Experiment Group has been analyzed to reveal the success rate of the students in each Trait. The results have been demonstrated in graphs. Lastly, the general situation among the traits has been shown and interpreted. 3.2.1.1. Background Information In this study, 31 students who are studying at Başkent University, English Language School, Preparatory Program are taken as test subjects. There are 16 students in the Experiment Group and 15 students in the Control Group. The students in both the groups were labeled as equal in their level of English proficiency by the standard examination of the institution at the beginning of the second term. The proficiency level of the students were Pre-Intermediate/Intermediate at the beginning of the semester and at the end of the semester they graduated from the school with an Upper-Intermediate- Advanced level of proficiency in English.25 All the students in both the groups belonged to the same age category ranging between 18 and 23. There were 2 college graduates in the Control Group and 1 in the Experiment Group. Only 1 student from the Control Group and 2 students from the Experiment Group were ”repeat students“ studying the same programme for the second time. All the students in both the groups had studied English at high school yet they were placed in C stream at the beginning of the first term by referring to the results of the Proficiency Exam provided by the institution. At the beginning of the second term, the students had been mixed and the ones with similar level of English proficiency had been placed in the same classes. Therefore, it can be stated that the students in the two classes chosen for the study were in the same level of proficiency in English. The two classes were assigned as Experiment and Control randomly. Both the groups had English lessons for the same amount of time and with the same teacher. They studied English through four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. 3.3. The Interpretation of the Data Gathered from the Experiment and the Control Group As the statistics show, the research was conducted on 3 1 students. The following tables illustrate the comparison of the results gathered from the Experiment and the Control Group. The value of p shows that there does not exist a meaningful difference between the results of the Experiment and The Control Group when it is higher than. 1. The results present a meaningful difference when the value of p equals to.0 or is smaller. Table 126 According to the results of the analysis in Table 1 a meaningful relationship does not obtain among the grades of the students in both the Experiment and the Control Group in the written work with the topic ”The Worst Holiday“ [t(29)=.537; p> 0.05]. As can be seen in Table 1, the average of the grades of the Experiment Group is =4.69 while the grades of the Control Group displays an average of X=4.47. So, the value of p is.597 which is not found meaningful statistically. Such a result in the first written task may be interpreted as showing the equality of the two groups in terms of proficiency level and background information in writing. Table 2 T-test results in Table 2 display that a meaningful difference does not obtain between the Experiment and the Control Groups [t@9)=.601; p> 0.05]. The Experiment Group presents an average of X=5.09 and the Control Group X=4.80. The results are not meaningful in statistical terms. Table 3 The results of the ”Informal Letter 1“ do not present a meaningful difference between the Experiment and the Control Group [t(29)= 1.144; p> 0.05]. According to the analysis of the data, the average of the Experiment Group has been found X=5.75 and the Control Group X=5.17. A meaningful difference does not obtain between the Experiment and the Control Group. Table 427 There exists a meaningful difference between the Experiment and the Control Group [t(29)= 4.387; p< 0.05] in the analysis of the data gathered from the written assignment ”Family/Ideal Parents“. The average of the Experiment Group is X=6.38 while the average of the Control Group is X=5.13. Therefore, it may be stated that the success rate of the students in the Experiment Group on this test is higher as the students in this group get used to the conventions of Trait- Writing. Table 5 The results of the analysis present that there does not prevail a meaningful difference between the Experiment Group and the Control Group in the task ”Favourite Place“ [t(29)= 1.357; p> 0.05] as shown in Table 5. The Experiment Group has an average of X=6.09 while the Control group's average isX=5.60. Table 6 There exists a meaningful difference between the Experiment and the Control Group[t(29)= 6.064; p< 0.05] in the analysis of the data gathered from the written assignment ”An Obtrusive Building“. The average of the Experiment Group is X =6.25 while the average of the Control Group is X =3.40. Therefore, it can be stated that the success rate of the students in the Experiment Group on this test is higher as a result of the application of Trait- Writing. Table 728 There exists a meaningful difference between the Experiment and the Control Group[t(29)= 2.319; p< 0.05]in the analysis of the data gathered from the written assignment ”Informal Letter 2“. The average of the Experiment Group is X =6.25 while the average of the Control Group is X =4.90. The higher success rate of the students in the Experiment Group when compared to those in the Control Group can be interpreted as a positive impact of 6+1 Traits of Writing model on student writers in the Experiment Group. Table 8 There exists a meaningful difference between the Experiment and the Control Group in the analysis of the data gathered from the written assignment ”Friendship“ [t(29)= 3.754; p< 0.05] in Table 8. The average of the Experiment Group is X =6.06 while the average of the Control Group is X =4.27. The difference between the success rates of the students in the Experiment Group and the Control Group in this test may be considered as a consequence of the progress the students in the Experiment Group have made. Table 9 There exists a meaningful difference between the Experiment and the Control Group in the analysis of the data gathered from the written assignment ”Living In the Country“ [t(29)= 3.363; p< 0.05]. The average of the Experiment Group isX=6.41while the average of the Control Group isX=4.73. The success rate of the students in the Experiment Group in this test can be traced to the application of Trait- Writing.Table 10 29 The results of the analysis present that there does not prevail a meaningful difference between the Experiment Group and the Control Group in the task ”Letter of Complaint“ [t(29)= 1.415; p> 0.05]. The Experiment Group has an average ofX=6.38 while the Control group's average isX=5.73. Statistically, the value of p,.168, does not signify a meaningful difference.30 General Situation Table 1 1, which illustrates the general situation between the results of the Experiment Group and Control Group, displays that a meaningful difference obtains in 5 of the assignments out of 10. It was hypothesized that the students in the Experiment Group would be more successful in the writing lessons because of the31 application of the 6+1 Traits of Writing. Table 11 shows that the Experiment Group is more successful than the Control Group in 5 of the assignments. In the other 5 assignments, although the average success rates of the students in the Experiment Group are again higher than those in the Control Group, the slight difference is not accepted as meaningful statistically. It can clearly be seen in Table 1 1 that the differences between the results of the two groups intensify through the end of the research process. In other words, the fourth assignment (Ideal Family), the sixth (Obtrusive Building), seventh (Informal Letter 2), eighth (Friendship) and ninth one (Living in the Country) present the significant differences between the two groups. Therefore, it can be stated that as the students internalize the Trait-writing in time, the success rate increases. 3.4 Interpretation of the Data Gathered from the Experiment Group In addition to the contrastive analysis of the results gathered from the Experiment and the Control Group, the written assignments of the Experiment Group have also been used to display the success of the students in each trait.32 Graph 1 Graph 1, which illustrates the success rate of the students in ”ideas“, presents that the success of the students in this trait reaches the highest point in the assignment with the topic ”Obtrusive Building“ while the lowest rate can be seen in the assignment ”Ideal Family“. As stated before, ideas constitute the core of a written product. Being able to generate sound and appropriate ideas in writing requires time and effort. The awareness of the learners on a given topic and their interests are other major points that determine the ability of the learners while expressing their ideas.33 Graph 2 As it can be seen in Graph 2, demonstrating the achievement rate of the students in ”Organization“, the students are most successful in the written assignment ”Favorite Place“ and least in the ”Ideal Family“. Organizing ideas requires a high level of critical thinking and necessitates a good command of organizational skills. It can be seen in Graph 2 that the success of the students show a slight decrease as the topics become more complex and require better organizational skills.34 u> o s Word Choice X^ i*”v£“ ^ J# vA° «ı> ! /St V Topics Graph 6 The achievement rate of the students in the ”Sentence Fluency“ trait seems to have reached the highest point in three assignments: ”Informal Letter 1“, ”Ideal Family“ and Letter of Complaint”. The success rate seems to be the lowest in the assignment“The Worst Holiday”as seen in Graph 6. Students seem to be more successful in sentence fluency while writing about personal topics. However, their success tends to decrease in imaginary topics, which can be related to the difficulty of time sequencing and ordering the events on imaginary topics.38 Graph 7 Graph 7 obviously illustrates that the students were most successful on“Presentation”trait in the assignments“Ideal Family”and“Letter of Complaint”. On the other hand, the success rate is the lowest in the assignment“The Worst Holiday”. Being the last trait and dealing mainly with the face value of a written product, presentation seems to get high success rate when the students have enough time to rewrite their paragraphs while working on relatively easy or rule-governed types of writing.39 Overall Achievement Presentation 15% Sentenoe Fluency 14% \toice 13% ConvenBcns 13% 17% organization 15% Wfard Choice 13% Overall Achievement It can be seen in the above chart that, in the overall evaluation, all the traits are equally developed İn the writing skills of the students in the Experiment Group, Students seem to have grasped the rationale for Trait- Writing and attached equal importance to each of the traits, which contributed to their success in writing. The activities for the teaching of the 6+1 Traits of Writing, which will be suggested in the following chapter, seem to have achieved the predetermined aims.40 CHAPTER 4 SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES FOR THE TEACHING OF THE 6+1 TRAITS OF WRITING AND 6+1 TRAITS OF WRITING IN WRITING COURSES 4.0 Introduction This chapter of the study deals with the place of 6+1 Traits of Writing in Writing courses and presents activities suitable from elementary to upper intermediate students for the teaching of the 6+1 Traits of Writing.. The role of the teacher in the application of the Trait -Writing is explained in section 4.1. and the following section, 4.2. is devoted to the needs of the students in a writing class where 6+1 Traits of Writing is applied. In the following part, the activities are provided separately for each trait. However, some of the activities can be used for the development of more than one trait; therefore, the related traits are mentioned as well. 4.1. The Role of the Teacher Teachers assume different roles in different phases of a lesson. It is a fact that the role of a teacher depends on the proficiency level of the students as well as the tasks used. In the teaching of the 6+1 Traits of Writing model, the role the teacher assumes is a crucial one. Firstly, the teacher should present the rationale of Trait- Writing to the students. It is of utmost importance to get the students to understand the basics of the Trait- Writing from the first lesson no matter what the proficiency level of the students is. The suggested activities to begin with are put forward by Northwest Educational Laboratory (NWREL).“Try brainstorming the qualities of good writing. Another way to get at the same thing is to brainstorm a list of favorite authors and ask what makes them favorites. Next, you might share what teachers of writing value. Student writers are often surprised and pleased to see that they value much the same things teachers value and that, contrary to many students' beliefs, teachers really do look for lots more than neatness, commas and correct spelling.”(www.nwrel.org).

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