Process writing approach as intervention to first-year students' essay writing challenges at North-West University, Mafikeng campus

Abstract

The researcher has continuously observed the perennial trend of incompetency in the quality of first-year students' academic writing skills at the North-West University, Mafikeng Campus. 'Inadequate' and 'incoherent' best describe the level of incompetency in the quality of these students' academic writing. This has been observed from the essays submitted for assessment. Based on these perennial trends (described as 'inadequate' and 'incoherent'), the researcher was eventually prompted to explore systematically-informed mechanisms by which the observed first-year students' essay writing skills and challenges could be improved. The observed challenges became a catalytic factor in the researcher's employment of the reflective journal approach as an ameliorative mechanism or strategy to address these challenges. The teaching approach embedded in reflective writing is a process that involves eliciting students' views regarding the essay writing problems they encounter, which is what this study aims to achieve by means of participatory action research. Data was analysed qualitatively through the on-going narrative process. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the Grammatical Theory of Learning, the Error Correction (Analysis) and the Building Block Theory. The results of the study indicate the effectiveness of the intervention strategies which was reflected in the journals.