Authenticated Writing Competence Of Agricultural Education Graduate Students: A Comparison Of Distance And On-Campus Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2005.04013Abstract
The quality of graduate student writing was examined in two different courses offered both on and off the campuses of Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State Universities. In all, 19 on-campus and 25 off-campus students participated. A neutral third-party designed the instrument and used content analysis techniques to analyze writing samples. Data from the content analysis were summarized by the authors using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. The location of the student, whether on- or off-campus, was not significant in explaining writing ability. Of the students sampled, 7% were able to demonstrate adequate writing; 34% achieved a score that suggested that their writing ability may be adequate; and 60% either suggested or demonstrated inadequacy in their writing ability. When given this structured writing task, and using this single measure, 93% of graduate students in this sample were unable to demonstrate complete proficiency in writing.