Improving students writing skills

1
Improving students writing skills

• Patrick Tissington
• Peter Reddy

2
Should we offer writing support?

• Separate courses essay writing 101?
• Embedded in programmes?
• In writing centres?
• As remedial support?
• How contextualised?
• We have heard that students do not appreciate
  feedback about their writing

3
Role of essay writing

• Essay writing a very peculiar British practice?
• Not a key to employability or is it?
• Is writing just spitting out what has been
  stuffed in? (the bulimic model in Jane Halonens
  memorable phrase)
• Or, as argued in the RLF publication Writing
  Matters, is writing an act of meaning making, a
  form of academic training?

4
Students may not need to write essays at workbut

• They do need to
• Construct a line of argument
• Use evidence to support or reject a case
• Evaluate claims and assertions
• Write letters
• Verbally and on paper - move from reporting
  knowledge to constructing their own meanings

5
The role of writing in academic development

• Is writing an activity that helps students to
  reflect and think, and to grow and develop?
• How should we react to student hostility to us
  drawing attention to the mechanics of writing?
• RLF Fellows and employers express concern at poor
  writing
• Is poor writing impoverished thinking?