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International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

Open Access Journal

ISSN: 2222-6990

Colour Your Writing: The Case for Online Learning

Nur Sherina Zainal Abidin, Noor Hanim Rahmat, Zarina Razlan, Mok Soon Sim, Shahira Adam, Muhammad Haekal Kamarulzaman

http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v12-i7/13930

Open access

Writing is feared not only by weak writers; but also good writers. This is because the process of writing involves many stages. The process of writing requires the writer to go through many drafts. A complete cycle of the writing process includes the planning stage, the translation stage and also the reviewing stage. Traditionally, writing instructors include the process of face-to-face writing conferences when discussing the changes to be made on the drafts. With the online mode, the teaching of writing has taken a new turn by settling with online teaching of writing with face-to-face writing conferences converted to online writing conferences. The process of learning to write may still bring fear to some writers especially now that the learning is done online. The use of colours in learning has a positive impact on the learners. If writing brings anxiety and fear to writers and colours help to reduce stress during learning, can colours be used to reduce fear in writing? This study is done to explore the use of colours in learning academic writing. Learner are exposed the learning of writing using colours via online. Findings showed that in online learning writers perceive using the coloured scaffolds as the most positive aspect of the activity. They also put high emphasis on the translating and review stage in their online academic writing. Writers also felt that they should spend minimum time for the planning of the essay. The findings in this study bear interesting pedagogical implications for the teaching and learning of academic writing online. Specifically, this new approach can help reduce stress among both writing teachers by using colourful versions of the essay. This colourful approach can also aid future writing teachers to add more fun (colours) when doing writing conferences with writers online.