ShuangShuang Cai, PhD
Developmental & Learning Sciences
I’ve always wanted to be a good writer. I serialized several novels on a Chinese internet novel website for two years. I had plenty of ideas, and many fantastic starts, but no completion. I was curious about how a novelist succeeds in the field of writing. The curiosity drove me to investigate the academic literature on writing expertise and turned into my research interests. I joined the Nebraska Writing Research Group and met numerous outstanding researchers. I enjoy the nurturing and collaborative environment of the group. When I share my research interests and recent findings, our group members always provide informative feedback from various perspectives.
My dissertation project was titled “Deliberate Practice, Writing Self-efficacy, and Self-regulation among Internet Novelists in China: A Phenomenological Approach”. This was a qualitative research study. I’m also interested in other research projects related to writing. I look forward to future group discussions and hope to contribute to the group as well. Shuangshuang.cai@huskers.unl.edu
Linlin Luo, PhD
Cognition, Learning and Development
Writing is a process that has always fascinated me. Through writing, not only I learn more about the topic I’m writing on, but I also discover more about my own thoughts and beliefs. Although writing is never an easy task, I have found it to be always very fulfilling. This makes me want to learn more about writing and the factors related to writing. Thus, I’m excited to join the Nebraska Writing Research Group, where I have the opportunity to learn about the various facets of writing from and with the other researchers.
In the past few years, my research has been focused on note taking strategies in the context of lecture and text learning. After taking Psychology of Reading and Writing, I became interested in investigating the effect of note taking in the area of academic writing. Specifically, I want to look into different ways of taking notes and how they affect college students’ performance on writing from sources and their writing self-efficacy. lluo@huskers.unl.edu
Katie Graham
Doctoral candidate, Cognition, Learning, and Development
I was thrilled to join the Nebraska Writing Research Group in the Spring of 2012. My initial interest in literacy research began while I was working in Florida studying how reading instruction influences student comprehension. As I began teaching freshmen in Nebraska, many of my students expressed frustration with their writing and reading assignments across all of their course subjects. I became very interested in the cognitive processes associated with "reading to write" and "writing to read," especially for those students making the transition from high school to college.
Currently, I am interested in exploring the impact writing prompts or purposes have on a student's ability to read and write critically. I would also like to take a closer look at how background knowledge, interest, motivation, and instructor expectations influence the writing process. My hope is to better understand the nature of student experiences as they transition from high school to college so we can more effectively support them during this sensitive period. I look forward to the future collaborative input from the group! kmgraham898@gmail.com
Pamela Shanahan Bazis
Doctoral student, Special Education and Communication Disorders
I am a third-year doctoral student in the Special Education and Communication Disorders department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I have been in public education for over 25 years, working as an elementary general education teacher, reading specialist, instructional specialist, and dyslexia therapist. Throughout my career, many of my students struggled with writing proficiency, especially those with dyslexia. Unfortunately, there were limited professional development opportunities in writing instruction and even fewer research-based writing interventions for students with learning disabilities. I have always loved writing and know how important writing is for success in school as well as the workplace, which led me to UNL and writing research.
I am currently conducting writing intervention research with my advisor, Dr. Michael Hebert, involving expository text writing, sentence combining, and math writing. Additionally, I am developing a phoneme-grapheme integrated handwriting intervention designed to provide instruction for students with writing difficulties, including dysgraphia.
During my first year as a doctoral student, I was introduced to the Nebraska Writing Research Group (NWRG) through my course work and collaboration with Dr. Roger Bruning. NWRG has afforded me the opportunity to work with a dynamic group of researchers who share a passion for writing research. We are able to support and challenge each other’s research endeavors while staying attuned to the writing research field. I have grown and continue to grow as a writer and researcher through their expertise and support.
Fitsum Abebe
Doctoral student
Writing is not only my ambition to prosper in my educational career but also it is one of the activities that I want to keep through my life. I also believe scientific writing is crucial in knowledge development and dissemination. As a PhD student who is ready to write a proposal and work on a dissertation, it is a huge advantage to join this writing group to collaborate and share ideas to learn from each other.
My research focus is pre-service teachers’ technology integration, knowledge change, and development. I am interested in all quantitative, qualtiative and mixed method research designs, and I believe I would choose one of them depending on my research purpose and research questions.
Kate Sirota
Doctoral student, Educational Psychology
Kate Sirota is a doctoral student in Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. An avid writer and reader since her youth and a former high school English teacher, she joined the NWRG with an interest in research that explores adolescent motivation to write and curricular innovation within communities of practice. Her current research focuses on the changing nature of "literacy" and its impact on youth-driven cultural and creative practices both in and out of the classroom.Junrong Lu
Graduate student, Developmental and Learning Sciences in Educational Psychology
I joined the Nebraska Writing Research Group during my third year at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I hoped that I was in the group earlier because this is a supportive and resourceful group where I can learn from others and share my ideas. One of my research interests is investigating how listening to background music influence college students’ writing. I would like to conduct a qualitative study on the phenomenon and a mixed-method study to explore how the different features of music will influence the writing process. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss my thoughts and get feedback from other members of the group. It is also great to have guest speakers. I start to know more scholars in the area of writing. Finally, the interactions in the group help me reflect on my writing. It is great to exchange information on writing skills and related experiences.