Susan Lang | The Ohio State University (original) (raw)
Papers by Susan Lang
Computers and Composition, 2000
The Journal of Writing Analytics, 2019
Welcome to Volume 3 of The Journal of Writing Analytics. This issue contains two invited articles... more Welcome to Volume 3 of The Journal of Writing Analytics. This issue contains two invited articles, four research articles, six research notes, and a special section featuring research presented at a U.S. humanities conference. As was the case with Volume 2 in 2018, our 2019 authors continue to advance a remarkable research range. And, as now seems to be the norm for our journal, the authors continue to come from diverse fields. We begin by introducing the research of our colleagues and then turn to a reflection on the developments we see in their work.
The Journal of Writing Analytics
This article proposes a functional taxonomy for the growing research specialization 1 of writing ... more This article proposes a functional taxonomy for the growing research specialization 1 of writing analytics (WA). Building on prior efforts to taxonomize research areas in WA and learning analytics, this taxonomy aims to scaffold a coherent and relevant WA research agenda, including a commitment to reflection, evidence-based propositions, and multidisciplinarity as the research specialization evolves. To this end, the article offers a conceptual and practical overview of WA in the following sections: history, theorization, implementation paradigms, data, digital environments, analytic processes and uses, assessment, ethical considerations, and ongoing challenges. This overview highlights current limitations and needed WA research as well as valuable opportunities for the future of WA.
Background: Research incorporating large data sets and data and text mining methodologies is maki... more Background: Research incorporating large data sets and data and text mining methodologies is making initial contributions to writing studies. In writing program administration (WPA) work, one could best characterize the body of publications as small but growing, led by such work as Moxley and Eubanks’ 2015 “On Keeping Score: Instructors' vs. Students' Rubric Ratings of 46,689 Essays” and Arizona State University’s Science of Learning & Educational Technology (SoLET) Lab. Given the information that large-scale textual analysis can provide, it seems incumbent on program administrators to explore ways to make regular and aggressive use of such opportunities to give both students and instructors more resources for learning and development. This project is one attempt to add to this corpus of work; the sample for the study consisted of 17,534 pieces of student writing representing 141,659 discrete comments on that writing, with 58,300 unique words out of over 8.25 million total w...
The Journal of Writing Analytics
Online Education: Global Questions, Local Answers, 2005
College English, 2002
LaPidus notes that, in addition to preparing students, supplying "realistic disserta-tio... more LaPidus notes that, in addition to preparing students, supplying "realistic disserta-tion requirements and effective mentoring" is an essential component of developing "a broader and more realistic view of graduate education, one that is consistent not only with the size and scope of the ...
College English, 2002
LaPidus notes that, in addition to preparing students, supplying "realistic disserta-tion re... more LaPidus notes that, in addition to preparing students, supplying "realistic disserta-tion requirements and effective mentoring" is an essential component of developing "a broader and more realistic view of graduate education, one that is consistent not only with the size and scope of the ...
kathleen gillis, susan lang, monica norris, and laura palmer texas tech university recently, we e... more kathleen gillis, susan lang, monica norris, and laura palmer texas tech university recently, we embarked upon a large scale examination of two popular electronic plagiarism checkers-Turnitin.com (Tii) and SafeAssignment (SA). Two specific events encouraged this effort. The first was an invitation from our assistant vice provost to participate in an upcoming university roundtable discussion that sought to answer the question "Should our campus purchase a site license for plagiarism detection service and, if so, which product would best meet our needs?" Second, our university was revising its writing intensive criteria, and faculty who taught these courses were interested in finding ways to enhance students' use of writing as a tool for learning while not increasing the amount of time they had to spend assessing that writing. Admittedly, none of us were fans of plagiarism detection applications; as is the case with many faculty members, our attitudes toward these applications had been formed after only limited contact with them. To combat this bias, we chose to examine the reports generated by each application after submitting a total of 400 freshmen essays to the two applications under consideration. Why freshmen essays? First, decisions about writing programs, whether they be first-year or full WAC/WID programs, must reflect local conditions. In this case, the First-Year Writing Program at Texas Tech University was in the process of moving toward a WAC/WID emphasis with hopes that this would constitute the first step of instituting a four-year writing program in the College of Arts and Sciences. It was important to learn how each of these plagiarism-detection systems interprets writing from students who are currently engaged in a WAC/WID-like First-Year Writing Program. Second, we felt we had to move beyond anecdotes and conduct a more robust study, one that actually involved the submission of a large number of documents. While many studies have tested the accuracy of the programs and their ability to deter or prevent plagiarism, the samples were small in number, ranging anywhere from two to 150 drafts
Texts and textuality: textual instability, theory, and …, 1997
... 302 Susan Lang If we approach the novel from the perspective of a hypertext, that is, a multi... more ... 302 Susan Lang If we approach the novel from the perspective of a hypertext, that is, a multiply-threaded text with a variety of con-nections between the individual topics ready for the reader to navigate, we might begin by examining how Catherine survives the confined and ...
Computers and Composition, 2000
The Journal of Writing Analytics, 2019
Welcome to Volume 3 of The Journal of Writing Analytics. This issue contains two invited articles... more Welcome to Volume 3 of The Journal of Writing Analytics. This issue contains two invited articles, four research articles, six research notes, and a special section featuring research presented at a U.S. humanities conference. As was the case with Volume 2 in 2018, our 2019 authors continue to advance a remarkable research range. And, as now seems to be the norm for our journal, the authors continue to come from diverse fields. We begin by introducing the research of our colleagues and then turn to a reflection on the developments we see in their work.
The Journal of Writing Analytics
This article proposes a functional taxonomy for the growing research specialization 1 of writing ... more This article proposes a functional taxonomy for the growing research specialization 1 of writing analytics (WA). Building on prior efforts to taxonomize research areas in WA and learning analytics, this taxonomy aims to scaffold a coherent and relevant WA research agenda, including a commitment to reflection, evidence-based propositions, and multidisciplinarity as the research specialization evolves. To this end, the article offers a conceptual and practical overview of WA in the following sections: history, theorization, implementation paradigms, data, digital environments, analytic processes and uses, assessment, ethical considerations, and ongoing challenges. This overview highlights current limitations and needed WA research as well as valuable opportunities for the future of WA.
Background: Research incorporating large data sets and data and text mining methodologies is maki... more Background: Research incorporating large data sets and data and text mining methodologies is making initial contributions to writing studies. In writing program administration (WPA) work, one could best characterize the body of publications as small but growing, led by such work as Moxley and Eubanks’ 2015 “On Keeping Score: Instructors' vs. Students' Rubric Ratings of 46,689 Essays” and Arizona State University’s Science of Learning & Educational Technology (SoLET) Lab. Given the information that large-scale textual analysis can provide, it seems incumbent on program administrators to explore ways to make regular and aggressive use of such opportunities to give both students and instructors more resources for learning and development. This project is one attempt to add to this corpus of work; the sample for the study consisted of 17,534 pieces of student writing representing 141,659 discrete comments on that writing, with 58,300 unique words out of over 8.25 million total w...
The Journal of Writing Analytics
Online Education: Global Questions, Local Answers, 2005
College English, 2002
LaPidus notes that, in addition to preparing students, supplying "realistic disserta-tio... more LaPidus notes that, in addition to preparing students, supplying "realistic disserta-tion requirements and effective mentoring" is an essential component of developing "a broader and more realistic view of graduate education, one that is consistent not only with the size and scope of the ...
College English, 2002
LaPidus notes that, in addition to preparing students, supplying "realistic disserta-tion re... more LaPidus notes that, in addition to preparing students, supplying "realistic disserta-tion requirements and effective mentoring" is an essential component of developing "a broader and more realistic view of graduate education, one that is consistent not only with the size and scope of the ...
kathleen gillis, susan lang, monica norris, and laura palmer texas tech university recently, we e... more kathleen gillis, susan lang, monica norris, and laura palmer texas tech university recently, we embarked upon a large scale examination of two popular electronic plagiarism checkers-Turnitin.com (Tii) and SafeAssignment (SA). Two specific events encouraged this effort. The first was an invitation from our assistant vice provost to participate in an upcoming university roundtable discussion that sought to answer the question "Should our campus purchase a site license for plagiarism detection service and, if so, which product would best meet our needs?" Second, our university was revising its writing intensive criteria, and faculty who taught these courses were interested in finding ways to enhance students' use of writing as a tool for learning while not increasing the amount of time they had to spend assessing that writing. Admittedly, none of us were fans of plagiarism detection applications; as is the case with many faculty members, our attitudes toward these applications had been formed after only limited contact with them. To combat this bias, we chose to examine the reports generated by each application after submitting a total of 400 freshmen essays to the two applications under consideration. Why freshmen essays? First, decisions about writing programs, whether they be first-year or full WAC/WID programs, must reflect local conditions. In this case, the First-Year Writing Program at Texas Tech University was in the process of moving toward a WAC/WID emphasis with hopes that this would constitute the first step of instituting a four-year writing program in the College of Arts and Sciences. It was important to learn how each of these plagiarism-detection systems interprets writing from students who are currently engaged in a WAC/WID-like First-Year Writing Program. Second, we felt we had to move beyond anecdotes and conduct a more robust study, one that actually involved the submission of a large number of documents. While many studies have tested the accuracy of the programs and their ability to deter or prevent plagiarism, the samples were small in number, ranging anywhere from two to 150 drafts
Texts and textuality: textual instability, theory, and …, 1997
... 302 Susan Lang If we approach the novel from the perspective of a hypertext, that is, a multi... more ... 302 Susan Lang If we approach the novel from the perspective of a hypertext, that is, a multiply-threaded text with a variety of con-nections between the individual topics ready for the reader to navigate, we might begin by examining how Catherine survives the confined and ...