This study contributes to research on source integration in argumentative writing, with a focus on the understudied aspect of source choice and use in counterarguments. Using source-based argumentative essays written by 13 students in one English as a second language section of a first-year composition course in the United States, the author examined the types of sources related to confirmation bias as cited by students in counterarguments. Analyses of the essays included observing students' stances on the issues; identifying the counterarguments; classifying the sources as confirmatory of students' stances, opposing, neutral, or background; and counting the number of citations.The findings reveal that the students mostly cited background and confirmatory sources when writing counterarguments. Insufficient citation was evident in both counterarguments and entire essays. Pedagogical implications include guiding students toward reading and integrating opposing sources to potentially improve the quality of counterarguments and to promote perceptual gains beyond the classroom as students write about social issues important to them.
Purpose
This study aims to explore students’ interests in multimodal texts by focusing on videos of social issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 50 students in a first-year multilingual composition course were analyzed in two phases. Phase One examined 14 students’ reasons for self-selecting videos for multimodal analysis essays in one section of the course. Phase Two explored 50 students’ selected videos in four sections of the course across four semesters. The videos were classified as either problem- or solution-oriented to examine the students’ interests.
Findings
Analyzing the students’ responses in Phase One revealed that most of the selected videos included solutions to a social problem, and the students advocated the compelling ways in which the characters therein dealt with those problems. The findings for Phase Two revealed that the students’ selections were equally divided between problem- and solution-oriented videos. Nevertheless, a gradual increase in the selection of solution-oriented videos was observed over time.
Practical implications
A significant implication of this study is that it can help teachers expand their understanding of interesting and meaningful texts and make more engaging and effective instructional decisions.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature on text selection as it highlights students’ inclination toward what type of learning content interests them.
This study explores how third-grade students became critical consumers of news written for kids, reading both with and against current events articles.
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