GUST’S Dr Hussain Al Sharoufi obtains int’l copyrights for his AWW
New Web-based application for essay and research writing
KUWAIT CITY, April 15: Dr Hussain Al Sharoufi, Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics, at the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST), was awarded Certificate of Copyrights from the Intellectual Property Department at the Ministry of Economy, in the United Arab Emirates, for his new Web-based application, Academic Writing Wizard, AWW. Main features of AWW 1. Generates statistical reports by class, student, and percentage, which can be used for institutional evaluations and for assessing learning out- comes.
2. Provides paper-free environment.
3. Provides prompt feedback on the lexical cohesion of students’ essays.
4. Enhances students’ writing abilities by using a user-friendly interface.
5. Provides students with numerous sources to boost their academic writing.
6. Provides teachers with an exceptional environment to grade their students’ papers using latest educational technology.
7. Provides both students and teachers with an objective assessment based on textual cohesion.
8. Helps students create natural flow in their academic writing.
No more trial and error in academic writing!
AWW is mainly devised to introduce students to the building blocks of academic writing. Once students get acquainted with the application, they can start exploring the power that enables them to identify unknown techniques in essay writing.
AWWdoes not teach grammatical rules, spelling, or punctuation; however, it helps students master the grammar of text, which is extremely important for creating academic essays.
AWW is a new educational software that is based on several studies in textual analysis and applied linguistics for evaluating students’ essays. The application provides students with the ability to pre-plan their essays in a conscious way. Students should draw one box for each paragraph, and mention in detail and in advance the required textual elements: reference, whether backward or forward, transitional signals, lexical repetition, and lexical phrases.
The first element, which is reference, shows the possible referential connections that students would like to make with other words in text. Having made their selections, students should then opt for the appropriate transitional words to connect their first paragraph with the following paragraphs. Finally, they should choose lexical phrases taken from an academic list based on a detailed academic database.
The application evaluates essays and papers based on the three textual elements. The final grade given to an essay/paper will include the system evaluation, which is out of 50%, and the instructor’s evaluation, which is out of 50%.