Comparison of Two Writing Mediums: Email and Handwritten Journal Entries a Case Study at a Southern Taiwan University

10.29436/2010NANTAIWAN.201012.0060

Sandy Haggard

EFL writing ； e-mail assignment ； free-writing journals

2010南台灣運動休閒產業理論與實務研討會專刊

2010（2010 / 12 / 01）

60 - 69

英文

If university students are given the same assignment five months apart, one sent via email and one submitted in writing at the end of class, which medium would they write more words and with better grammar and spelling? Case subjects were students from the Applied Foreign Language department at a university in southern Taiwan. Thirteen sophomore-level students were asked to send an email to the instructor in May 2010 free-writing about what was going on in their lives and their feelings. No other stipulations were given. In October 2010, these same students, now juniors, were asked to handwrite a journal entry to submit before the end of class stating what was new in their lives and how they felt about school. In this study, the researcher will compare these two entries for length, grammar usage, and spelling errors. The results of this study may have pedagogical implications for adapting EFL writing lessons.