Academic Writing Ideas in Flux

Diane SchmittNottingham Trent University

Student Voices

I can read all of the words, but I don’t understand the sentence.I wrote every thought I had in everyday language, because I haven’t had any academic vocabulary at that stage.When I heard about the plagiarism software, I freaked out. How do I express the specialized language? I spent 12 hours a day for two weeks and I got a 7% match.

Children with reading problems read less than proficient readers.Children with reading problems read less challenging texts than proficient readersThe result is that children with reading problems read even less and even less challenging materials.The gap between proficient and less proficient readers grows wider and wider.

(Stahl, 2003)

The Matthew Effect

Vocabulary, the Matthew Effect and International Students

Understanding the gist is not enough to fully engage in PG classes.Students may be forced to rely on background knowledge and familiar topics to complete their PG assignments instead of broadening their knowledge.Lack of automaticity hinders the activation of known vocabulary in other modalities.Reading speed bumps up against library loan periods.Slow reading speed also leads to truncated reading.

More on Vocabulary, the Matthew Effect and International Students

Lack of vocabulary leads to difficulty in expressing complex ideasVocabulary gain and loss – when vocabulary is not consolidated there is little or no overall growth.Danger of inadvertent plagiarism. Overall missed opportunities and scaled back goals.

(based on Banerjee, 2003)

Writing promote[s] the truest method of learning. (Sternglass, 1997: 293)

Does it really?

Where is the thinking in the field for second language writers?

View 1Linda Lonon Blanton

Discourse, Artifacts, and the Ozarks:Understanding Academic LiteracyJournal of Second Language Writing, 1994

View 2Ilona Leki

Undergraduates in a Second LanguageLawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007

Where is the thinking in the field for second language writers?

View 1 - Linda Lonon Blanton1. Reading and writing are integrated.2. Language is medium in which student, teachers and texts

interact.3. Class work is activity- oriented and collaboratgive4. Language use is necessitated by the need to complete the task

at hand.5. Tasks call for interacting with texts6. Texts do not constitute the sole authority on any subject.7. Students’ experience is called for and valued in text interaction.8. Tasks provided opportunities for students to claim authority as

they balance individual responses with those of audience.9. Language occurs in the context of meaningful communication.10. The teacher fosters the acquisition of literate behaviours.

Where is the thinking in the field for second language writers?

View 2 - Ilona Leki1. Writing researchers exaggerate the role of writing in the lives of L2

undergraduates and in their intellectual and academic development.2. Students took away from L2 writing classes some understanding of

grammar, organizing essays, responding to essay exams, increased fluency, some vocabulary and transition words.

3. Knowledge of discourse communitySubject matterGenre knowledgeRhetorical knowledgeWriting Process

4. Developing socio-academic relationships – peers, partners, professors and in some cases, writing centres.

Writing is privileged in the academy

“To the extent that the academic community is a community, it is a literate community, manifested not so much at conferences as in bibliographies and libraries, a community whose members know one another better as writers than as speakers.”(Brodkey, 1987)

A Quiz

The university as experienced by the student is a. the same as the academyb. different from the academyc. depends on the disciplined. depends on the level of studye. other

Student Writers - Visible or Occluded?

…the academic community is a community, manifested … in bibliographies and libraries… a community whose members know one another better as writers than as speakers.(Brodkey, 1987)

Access – Lave and Wenger, 1991

Learning occurs as a result of “legitimate peripheral participation” in a community.Participation requires access to the full range of activities needed to learn

how to write for university tools that can be used jointly for learning practice/doing rather than instruction about

Blanton asks?

Does the term academic “community” carry the connotation held by many that communities are warm and cohesive places?

University of Essex

Plagiarism is a serious academic offence but more often than not it results from misunderstanding rather than a deliberate intention to cheat.  Many students simply do not understand what plagiarism is exactly. 

Although confusion is understandable especially at the beginning of your study, ignorance will not be accepted as an excuse or as a defence against an accusation of plagiarism.   You must therefore make sure that you understand what plagiarism is and how you can avoid it.   

University of WaikatoWhat happens if you don't follow this advice? When one of your teachers thinks that one of your assignments has problems with acknowledgement and referencing, he or she has to decide whether to treat it as a mistake or as misconduct – i.e. plagiarism. If they decide it is a mistake they are likely to explain the mistake to you, so you don't make it again, and they will give the assignment a mark that reflects, among other things, the inappropriate acknowledgement and referencing. You are expected to learn quickly how to acknowledge correctly by using the appropriate style of referencing, and you will be told all about this in your first classes and in handouts you will receive, so don't expect your teachers to tolerate mistakes for very long!

Affinity Space? (Gee, 2003)

People come, take what they need and goThis is interaction, but is it socialization in the discourse community sense of discourse as a social activity?

Why do we ask students to write in university?

a. to foster communityb. to enhance learningc. because we want to know what

students think about the topics raised in our classes

d. to replicate activity in the “real world”e. to police student activityf. because we haven’t got enough to dog. some combination of the aboveh. other

Change in the academy?

The more diverse backgrounds and experiences of those participating in the community of writers connected to the academy, the faster academic discourse will change, and it is likely to become far more interesting than it is now.(Blanton, 1994:5)

Academic Genres

Genres embody strategies for responding effectively to particular situations. Genres develop as situations change.How do school or university-based genres develop? Who develops them?

International Students

English speaking community

University community

Typical International Students

Enter with IELTS score of 6.0 or 6.5Reading speed of around 200 wpmAverage vocabulary size of around 4000 wordsLittle previous experience of reading long texts in EnglishLittle previous experience of writing long texts in English

Reading and Writing Like a University Student

Writing to Learn?Leki’s students clearly differentiated between actual text production and the activities that constituted preparation for writing.Few writing experiences promoted student intellectual or disciplinary growth in any way particular to writing itself.

Transfer of Skills?

“A student’s literacy skills undoubtedly transfer to other disciplines, … it is behaviours and not skills that make the critical difference for students academic success.” (Blanton, 1994:8)Students who did poorly on general education courses did well in discipline courses and vice versa.Students noted that it was easier to write more, more quickly.Disciplinary writing often came with very clear instructions of what to write and how to write it.

What was most valuable?

Successful socio-academic relationships Effective peer group work Study groups Being part of a cohort Feedback and discussion about

writing from the writing centre and professors

So what am I muddled about?

English for Academic Purposes courses emphasize writing over all other language skills.EAP courses tend to teach English for General Academic PurposesAdvocates of situated learning argue that disciplinary writing needs to taught within the context of the discipline.Fragile knowledge – students are asked to write too early in relation to content knowledge, and students don’t write enough to develop as writers.

So what am I muddled about?

University policies and practices can get in the way of helping students develop. Relationship between reading and

lectures and writing. Access to feedback (editors and

proofreaders). Use of text matching software.