The aim of this volume is to bring together contributions from international research on writing and motivation. It not only addresses the basic question of how motivation to write can be fostered, but also provides analyses of conceptual and theoretical issues at the intersection of the topics of motivation and writing. What emerges from the various chapters is that the motivational aspects of writing represent a rich, productive and partially still unexplored research field. This volume is a step in the direction of a more systematic analysis of the problems as well as an effort to present and compare various models, perspectives and methods of motivation and writing. It addresses the implications of writing instruction based on the 2 main approaches to writing research: cognitive and socio-cultural. It provides systematic analysis of the various models, perspectives, and methods of motivation and writing. It brings together the international research available in this burgeoning field.
The Seventh Edition of this foundational text represents the most comprehensive source available for connecting multiple and diverse theories to literacy research, broadly defined, and features both cutting-edge and classic contributions from top scholars. Two decades into the 21st century, the Seventh Edition finds itself at a crossroads and differs from its predecessors in three major ways: the more encompassing term literacy replaces reading in the title to reflect sweeping changes in how readers and writers communicate in a digital era; the focus is on conceptual essays rather than a mix of essays and research reports in earlier volumes; and most notably, contemporary literacy models and processes enhance and extend earlier theories of reading and writing. Providing a tapestry of models and theories that have informed literacy research and instruction over the years, this volume’s strong historical grounding serves as a springboard from which new perspectives are presented. The chapters in this volume have been selected to inspire the interrogation of literacy theory and to foster its further evolution. This edition is a landmark volume in which dynamic, dialogic, and generative relations of power speak directly to the present generation of literacy theorists and researchers without losing the historical contexts that preceded them. Some additional archival essays from previous editions are available on the book’s eResource. New to the Seventh Edition: Features chapters on emerging and contemporary theories that connect directly to issues of power and contrasts new models against more established counterparts. New chapters reflect sweeping changes in how readers and writers communicate in a digital era. Slimmer volume is complemented by some chapters from previous editions available online.
This book provides both young and senior scientists with a comparative view of current theoretical models of text production. Models are clearly situated in their historical context, scrutinized in their further evolution with a fine-grained observation of differences between models. Very complete and informative to read, this book will be useful to people working in teaching of writing or studying this specific human activity.
George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times
Integrating control theory, evolutionary psychology, and a hierarchical approach to personality, this book presents a new approach to motivation, personality, and consumer behavior. Called the 3M, which stands for `Meta-theoretic Model of Motivation', this theory seeks to account for how personality traits interact with the situation to influence consumer attitudes and actions. The book proposes that multiple personality traits combine to form a motivational network that acts to influence behavior. Mowen argues that in order to understand the causes of enduring behavioral tendencies, one must identify the more abstract traits underlying surface behaviors. In constructing the 3M model, the author reports data from fifteen empirical studies employing over 3500 respondents. In this hierarchical model, four types of personality traits are identified: elemental, compound, situational, and surface traits. Eight elemental traits are proposed as forming the underlying dimensions of personality. Consistent with control theory, the research reveals that the elemental traits combine to form compound traits, such as self-efficacy, task orientation, playfulness, and competitiveness. These elemental and compound traits combine with situational influences to cause enduring behavioral tendencies within general situational contexts. Examples of situational traits investigated include impulsive buying, value consciousness, sports interest, and health motivation. In the 3M model the elemental, compound, and situational traits combine to yield surface traits, which are enduring dispositions to act in specific behavioral contexts. Five surface traits are empirically investigated in the book: compulsive buying, sports participation, healthy diet lifestyles, proneness to bargaining, and a tendency to frugality. Across these five studies, the empirical results reveal that the 3M model accounts for over 44% of the variance in the surface trait measures. By presenting a new meta-theory of motivation and personality that is testable, Mowen's 3M model accounts for high levels of variance in consumer behavior. By integrating the work of selected past and current theorists into a comprehensible whole, the 3M model provides coherence in a field currently dominated by conflicting ideas, theories, and approaches. The book provides evidence that by understanding the individual dispositions that underlie consumer behavior, public policy officials and marketing specialists can develop better communication programs to influence and persuade their target audiences. The book shows how to employ the 3M model to segment the marketplace, provide psychographic inventories, position brands, create promotional themes, and develop brand personalities.
This book provides a unique reference and comprehensive overview of the issues pertinent to conceptualizing, measuring, researching and nurturing writing motivation. Abdel Latif covers these theoretical, practical and research issues by drawing on the literature related to the eight main constructs of writing motivation: writing apprehension, attitude, anxiety, self-efficacy, self-concept, learning goals, perceived value of writing and motivational regulation. Specifically, the book covers the historical research developments of the field, the measures of the main writing motivation constructs, the correlates and sources of writing motivation, and profiles of motivated and demotivated writers. The book also describes the types of the instructional research of writing motivation, provides pedagogical guidelines and procedures for motivating students to write, and presents suggestions for advancing writing motivation research, measurement and pedagogy. Detailed, up-to-date, and with a glossary which includes definitions of the main terms used in the six chapters, this book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of language education, applied linguistics, psycholinguistics and educational psychology.
With the “discursive turn” has come a distrust – a complete rejection by some – of theories that seek deeper reasons for surface phenomena. Rong Chen argues that this distrust, with its accompanying overemphasis on specificity and fluidity of linguistic meaning and social values, is unwarranted and unhelpful. Drawing on insights from social theories and various strands of pragmatics, he proposes a motivation model of pragmatics (MMP), contending that language use can be adequately, coherently, and elegantly studied via the motivation behind it in its varied and dynamic contexts. The model, with its well-laid out components, is then applied to (im)politeness research, cross-cultural pragmatics, diachronic pragmatics, discourse and genre analysis, conversation analysis, identity construction, and the study of metaphor, sarcasm, parody, and lying. MMP is thus a framework aimed at accounting for fluidity with stable notions, specificity with general principles, and differences with similar underlying factors. As such, the book should appeal to students of pragmatics, (im)politeness, conversation analysis, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, communication, sociology, and psychology.
The study of students’ motivational beliefs about writing and how such beliefs influence writing has increased since the publication of John Hays’ 1996 model of writing. This model emphasized that writers’ motivational beliefs influence how and what they write. Likewise, increased attention has been devoted in recent years to how teachers’ motivational beliefs about writing, especially their efficacy to teach writing, impact how writing is taught and how students’ progress as writers. As a result, there is a need to bring together, in a Research Topic, studies that examine the role and influence of writing beliefs. Historically, the psychological study of writing has focused on what students’ write or the processes they apply when writing. Equally important, but investigated less often, are studies examining how writing is taught and how teachers’ efforts contribute to students’ writing. What has been less prominent in the psychological study of writing are the underlying motivational beliefs that drive (or inhibit) students’ writing or serve as catalysts for teachers’ actions in the classroom when teaching writing. This Research Topic will bring together studies that examine both students’ and teachers’ motivational beliefs about teaching writing. This will include studies examining the operation of such beliefs, how they develop, cognitive and affective correlates, how writing motivational beliefs can be fostered, and how they are related to students’ writing achievement. By focusing on both students’ and teachers’ beliefs, the Research Topic will provide a more nuanced and broader picture of the role of motivation beliefs in writing and writing instruction. This Research Topic includes papers that address students’ motivational beliefs about writing, teachers’ motivational beliefs about writing or teaching writing. Students’ motivational beliefs about writing include: • beliefs about the value and utility of writing, • writing competence, • attitudes toward writing, • goal orientation, • motives for writing, • identity, • epistemological underpinnings writing, • and attributions for success/failure (as examples). Teacher motivational include these same judgements as well as beliefs about their preparation and their students’ competence and progress as writers (to provide additional examples). This Research Topic is interested in papers that examine how such beliefs operate, develop, are related to other cognitive and affective variables, how they are impacted by instruction, and how they are related to students’ writing performance. Submitted studies can include original research (both quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods), meta-analysis, and reviews of the literature.
This book introduces the Cycle of Responsibility (COR) model—the next step in the evolution of the Gradual Release of Responsibility model, which has been a conceptual mainstay of literacy education for decades. This new model shifts the current linear model to a cyclical process of multifaceted interactions that better reflect the complexities of early literacy, and with an emphasis on constructing knowledge together in the context of vibrant learning communities. Focused on reading, writing, and word study in the primary grades, the COR is put into motion through five key motivators: challenge, creativity, collaboration, choice, and independence. Vignettes demonstrate how to enact COR in classroom contexts. This practical resource is based on the authors’ shared research and teaching experiences in employing the COR to empower children as literacy learners and teachers as agents of impactful instruction. Book Features: Presents the Cycle of Responsibility model—a new, field-tested teaching and learning model. Moves away from linear task completion to a cyclical collaborative process that reflects the energetic, complex, and creative world of classrooms. Provides a teacher-centric approach that emphasizes shared construction of knowledge and the forces that motivate young learners.Includes vignettes from the authorÕs first-grade classroom to illustrate ideas in practice, as well as a chapter on teacher professional learning. “This book is a great example of how committed scholars of practice can transport research-based practices into a discourse that speaks to teachers. . . . Read it! Try it! You’ll like it!” —From the Foreword by P. David Pearson, emeritus professor, UC Berkeley
