The Lawyer as Legal Scholar

I review Eugene Volokh's recent book, Academic Legal Writing. The book is nominally directed to law students and those who teach them (and for those audiences, it is outstanding), but it also contains a number of valuable lessons for published scholars. The book is more than a writing manual, however. I argue that Professor Volokh suggests implicitly that scholarship is underappreciated as a dimension of the legal profession. A well-trained lawyer, in other words, should have experience as a scholar. The argument sheds new light on ongoing discussions about the character of law schools

Using a Crosswalk to Organize the Literature Review

A literature crosswalk is a valuable tool for researchers, whether novice or seasoned scholars, that can be used in organizing and synthesizing existing literature. This article provides practical advice for creating a literature crosswalk and how to use the tool to develop a literature review. Benefits of using a literature crosswalk include organizing a great deal of information in an easily searchable format, developing deeper understanding of the literature, and finding trends across multiple research studies in regard to methodology, theories used, types of participants, settings, and so forth

Quality Improvement for Well Child Care

Presented to the Faculty of University of Alaska Anchorage in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCEThe American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Bright Futures (BF) guidelines for well child care were designed to provide quality pediatric care. Adherence to AAP-BF guidelines improves: screenings, identification of developmental delay, immunization rates, and early identification of children with special healthcare needs. The current guideline set is comprehensive and includes thirty one well child exams, thirty three universal screening exams and one hundred seventeen selective screening exams. Many providers have difficulty meeting all guideline requirements and are at risk of committing Medicaid fraud if a well exam is coded and requirements are not met. The goal of this quality improvement project was to design open source and adaptable templates for each pediatric age group to improve provider adherence to the BF guidelines. A Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) quality improvement model was used to implement the project. Templates were created for ages twelve months to eighteen years and disseminated to a pilot clinic in Anchorage, Alaska. The providers were given pre-implementation and postimplementation surveys to determine the efficacy and usefulness of the templates. Templates were determined to be useful and efficient means in providing Bright Futures focused well child care. The templates are in the process of being disseminated on a large scale to assist other providers in meeting BF guideline requirements.Title Page / Table of Contents / List of Tables / List of Appendices / Abstract / Introduction / Background / Clinical Significance / Current Clinical Practice / Research Question / Literature Review / Framework: Evidence Based Practice Model/ Ethical Considerations and Institutional Review Board / Methods / Implementation Barriers / Findings / Discussion / Disseminatio

Using Data in Multi-Agency Collaborations: Guiding Performance to Ensure Accountability and Improve Programs

A growing number of foundation- and government-funded initiatives are bringing together diverse partners within communities -- to create screening and referral systems, to coordinate and deliver services and to advocate for policy changes -- all in the interest of serving clients more effectively. Many of these efforts emphasize the use of evidence-based programs, and there is increasing recognition that to be successful, collaborating agencies must work together to collect relevant data and use it to inform and improve their programming

Text revision in Scientific Writing Assistance: An Overview

Writing a scientific article is a challenging task as it is a highly codified genre. Good writing skills are essential to properly convey ideas and results of research work. Since the majority of scientific articles are currently written in English, this exercise is all the more difficult for non-native English speakers as they additionally have to face language issues. This article aims to provide an overview of text revision in writing assistance in the scientific domain. We will examine the specificities of scientific writing, including the format and conventions commonly used in research articles. Additionally, this overview will explore the various types of writing assistance tools available for text revision. Despite the evolution of the technology behind these tools through the years, from rule-based approaches to deep neural-based ones, challenges still exist (tools' accessibility, limited consideration of the context, inexplicit use of discursive information, etc.)Comment: Published at 13th International Workshop on Bibliometric-enhanced Information Retrieval 12 page

The Writing Center Annual Report: 2011-2012

During the 2011-2012 academic year, The Writing Center, an Office for Student Success department, implemented programming specifically to address the University of Montana’s identified Strategic Issues and objectives. In doing so, The Writing Center (TWC) marshaled its resources to support students, faculty, and staff in their efforts to become more independent, versatile, and effective writers across the curriculum. This programming responded not only to the University’s Strategic Plan but also to growing student and faculty demand for Writing Center services. Writing Center staff engaged students in intellectual conversations, challenging students to develop as writers and thinkers who contribute to local and global conversations. Staff also collaborated with faculty to positively impact student performance. An assessment cycle designed to track trends, strengths, and weaknesses in this programming allowed TWC to make informed decisions about how best to promote effective writing as a tool to communicate and learn at The University of Montana. Appendix A includes samples of faculty and student testimonials regarding their Writing Center experiences during the 2011-2012 academic year

A critical analysis and comparison of writing pedagogy for English language learners in second grade

The purpose of this project is to find an effective form of writing pedagogy for second grade ELL\u27s. The two writing programs under study are the Writing Blueprint for Houghton Mifflin and teaching the writing process with the use of Thinking Maps

CONTENT BASED INSTRUCTION AND STUDY SKILLS FOR ENGLISH TEACHING AT TARBIYAH FACULTY OF IAIN RADEN INTAN LAMPUNG

Abstract: The position of teaching English based on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) at IAIN Raden Intan encompasses two views covering teaching English skills at English department and teaching English for General Academic Purpose (EGAP) at Tarbiyah Faculty. This article aims at discussing English classroom teaching at Tarbiyah Faculty by employing content-based instruction (CBI) as a teaching model that is incorporated with study skill (SS) as a teaching strategy. The principle of CBI is underpinned by students’ specific needs related to students’ major of field by promoting theme-based language instruction. The skill concerns from study skill cover using dictionary, guessing word meaning, interpreting graph and symbols, note taking, and summarizing. CBI and SS provide students with reading skill as receptive skill for decoding process closely related to students’ prior knowledge in teaching materials and writing skill as a productive skill for encoding process to display students’ comprehension. Moreover, incorporating study skill with content-based instruction provides students with interest due to students’ familiarity with students’ field based on their prior knowledge to enhance their learning interest in English learning class. Keywords: CBI, Study skills, EGP, ES

Self-reported summarizing and paraphrasing difficulties in L2 writing contexts: Some pedagogical interventions

The utility of paraphrasing and summarizing is key to effective academic writing. Both require that students have a good grasp of the source material not only in terms of understanding, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating the information found in the sources, but also in terms of selecting information, organizing, drafting, and revising their papers. Although several studies have identified L2 students’ difficulties when utilizing paraphrasing and summarizing, this paper examines the cognitive and metacognitive aspects of these complex activities from the students’ eyes. With essays from 120 freshman undergraduate students from a private university in Manila, this study qualitatively determined their reported difficulties when paraphrasing and summarizing, and the areas of improvements in these skills. Participant students identified four major areas of concern: 1) lack of proficiency in English, 2) poor reading comprehension skills, 3) lack of vocabulary and 4) lack of or poor documentation skills.  Findings of this study provide grounds for presentation of pedagogical interventions/classroom instructions to address these students’ reported difficulties

Using the Appraisal framework to analyze source use in essays: a case study of engagement and dialogism in two undergraduate students’ writing

International audienceA key element of academic writing involves incorporation of external voices, which is a complex rhetorical and linguistic task. Student writers must face this challenge of using sources to strengthen their own arguments. Appraisal, specifically Engagement, provides a useful framework for analyzing source use in texts, as it considers evaluation and dialogic voicing. This article describes a semi-ethnographic case study that contrasts two undergraduate writers and their writing drafts. Results show similarities and differences based on the linguistic abilities of the students and their experience in writing, but overall improvement in terms of dialogic voicing in the final drafts. Applications to research and instruction for ESL and mainstream writing are discussed