Academic Writing Ideas in Flux

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Academic Writing Ideas in Flux

• Diane Schmitt
• Nottingham Trent University

2
Student Voices

• I can read all of the words, but I dont
  understand the sentence.
• I wrote every thought I had in everyday language,
  because I havent 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.

3
The Matthew Effect

• Children with reading problems read less than
  proficient readers.
• Children with reading problems read less
  challenging texts than proficient readers
• The 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)

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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.

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More on Vocabulary, the Matthew Effect and
International Students

• Lack of vocabulary leads to difficulty in
  expressing complex ideas
• Vocabulary 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)

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• Writing promotes the truest method of
  learning.
• (Sternglass, 1997 293)
• Does it really?

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

• View 1
• Linda Lonon Blanton
• Discourse, Artifacts, and the Ozarks
• Understanding Academic Literacy
• Journal of Second Language Writing, 1994

• View 2
• Ilona Leki
• Undergraduates in a Second Language
• Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007

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

• View 1 - Linda Lonon Blanton
• Reading and writing are integrated.
• Language is medium in which student, teachers and
  texts interact.
• Class work is activity- oriented and
  collaboratgive
• Language use is necessitated by the need to
  complete the task at hand.
• Tasks call for interacting with texts
• Texts do not constitute the sole authority on any
  subject.
• Students experience is called for and valued in
  text interaction.
• Tasks provided opportunities for students to
  claim authority as they balance individual
  responses with those of audience.
• Language occurs in the context of meaningful
  communication.
• The teacher fosters the acquisition of literate
  behaviours.

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

• View 2 - Ilona Leki
• Writing researchers exaggerate the role of
  writing in the lives of L2 undergraduates and in
  their intellectual and academic development.
• Students took away from L2 writing classes some
  understanding of grammar, organizing essays,
  responding to essay exams, increased fluency,
  some vocabulary and transition words.
• Knowledge of discourse community
• Subject matter
• Genre knowledge
• Rhetorical knowledge
• Writing Process
• Developing socio-academic relationships peers,
  partners, professors and in some cases, writing
  centres.

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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)

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A Quiz

• The university as experienced by the student is
• a. the same as the academy
• b. different from the academy
• c. depends on the discipline
• d. depends on the level of study
• e. other

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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)

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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

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Blanton asks?

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

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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.   

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University of Waikato

• What 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!

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Affinity Space? (Gee, 2003)

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

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Why do we ask students to write in university?

1. to foster community
2. to enhance learning
3. because we want to know what students think about
   the topics raised in our classes
4. to replicate activity in the real world
5. to police student activity
6. because we havent got enough to do
7. some combination of the above
8. other

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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, 19945)

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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?

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International Students
English speaking community
University community
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Typical International Students

• Enter with IELTS score of 6.0 or 6.5
• Reading speed of around 200 wpm
• Average vocabulary size of around 4000 words
• Little previous experience of reading long texts
  in English
• Little previous experience of writing long texts
  in English

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Reading and Writing Like a University Student

• Writing to Learn?
• Lekis 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.

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Transfer of Skills?

• A students literacy skills undoubtedly transfer
  to other disciplines, it is behaviours and not
  skills that make the critical difference for
  students academic success. (Blanton, 19948)
• 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.

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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

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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 Purposes
• Advocates 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 dont write enough to develop as writers.

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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.