Effective mistake correction in writing and an application: the Maltepe project 2004

Abstract

Educating competent enough writers both in a foreign language is a long, winding, bumpy road where travellers have to sweat a lot and unlike speaking, accuracy is the sine qua non for being effective in the target language and when it comes to writing, things get more serious as there is no listener, no gestures or mimics, etc., and the learner is forced to concentrate on communicating their ideas, feelings in the target language. Therefore, most language learners find the writing a difficult-to-acquire skill if not time-consuming. So do the teachers due to the huge workload it brings during the correction process. This paper aims to help learners become mistake-recognizers and thus minimize the number of mistakes they make in their writing by using a method that was applied at a foundation university.