From the article: "Whilst the importance of online peer feedback and writing argumentative essays for students in higher education is unquestionable, there is a need for further research into whether and the extent to which female and male students differ with regard to their argumentative feedback, essay writing, and content learning in online settings. The current study used a pre-test, post-test design to explore the extent to which female and male students differ regarding their argumentative feedback quality, essay writing and content learning in an online environment. Participants were 201 BSc biotechnology students who wrote an argumentative essay, engaged in argumentative peer feedback with learning partners in the form of triads and finally revised their original argumentative essay. The findings revealed differences between females and males in terms of the quality of their argumentative feedback. Female students provided higher-quality argumentative feedback than male students. Although all students improved their argumentative essay quality and also knowledge content from pre-test to post-test, these improvements were not significantly different between females and males. Explanations for these findings and recommendations are provided"
MULTIFILE
Among other things, learning to write entails learning how to use complex sentences effectively in discourse. Some research has therefore focused on relating measures of syntactic complexity to text quality. Apart from the fact that the existing research on this topic appears inconclusive, most of it has been conducted in English L1 contexts. This is potentially problematic, since relevant syntactic indices may not be the same across languages. The current study is the first to explore which syntactic features predict text quality in Dutch secondary school students’ argumentative writing. In order to do so, the quality of 125 argumentative essays written by students was rated and the syntactic features of the texts were analyzed. A multilevel regression analysis was then used to investigate which features contribute to text quality. The resulting model (explaining 14.5% of the variance in text quality) shows that the relative number of finite clauses and the ratio between the number of relative clauses and the number of finite clauses positively predict text quality. Discrepancies between our findings and those of previous studies indicate that the relations between syntactic features and text quality may vary based on factors such as language and genre. Additional (cross-linguistic) research is needed to gain a more complete understanding of the relationships between syntactic constructions and text quality and the potential moderating role of language and genre.
This conversation between Geert Lovink and Nikita Lin reflects upon our inner experiences within the global networked digital cultures. It explores the tactics, aesthetic and political, in response to the breakdowns brought by digital platforms and the possibility of creating new beginnings through persistent engagement in writing and publishing. Since 2004 Lovink is heading the Institute of Network Cultures at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and is Art and Network Cultures Professor of Art and Network Cultures at University of Amsterdam’s Art History Department. The conversation takes as point of departure Lovink’s three recent books: Sad by Design: On Platform Nihilism, Stuck on the Platform: Reclaiming the Internet, and Extinction Internet: Our Inconvenient Truth Moment. Over the past 30 years, Lovink has been experimenting with the networks and the internet in his writing by developing a distinct style that dig into essays, interviews, aphorisms, sloganisms, and memes. This includes critical concepts that he has developed-such as ‘tactical media,’ ‘net criticism,' ‘sad by design,’ and ‘internet extinction’ – that people recognize, find useful and ready to apply to their own activities. For Geert Lovink, the fascinating question with writing is how to capture fast-changing real-time phenomena which means not only documenting but also leaving room for anticipation.
