"Good" Writing to Whom? L2 Writers' Understanding Through Help Type

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: Student Learning and Development in Higher Education Poster Session

Abstract

Research on second language (L2) writing has examined proficiency according various aspects including lexical sophistication (Ferris, 1994; Silva, 1993), syntactic complexity (Park & Warschauer, 2016; McNamara et al., 2009), and cohesion (Crossley & McNamara, 2010; Ferris, 1994; Jin 2001; Silva, 1993). This study complements such research by exploring students’ understanding of “good” writing and the extent to which such understandings may align with or contradict scholarly definitions. Based on the types of help sought by L2 students (n=714) from writing center intake forms, results indicate in spite of the complex and nuanced understandings of “good” writing by L2 writing scholars, students overly fixate on “correct grammar”. This paper concludes with collaborative approaches to improve student writing beyond “grammar.”

Author

• Sei Lee, University of California - Irvine