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1 – 10 of over 88000Jill Haldane and Philip Davies
This chapter presents a discussion of innovations in pedagogic approaches for high-achieving, pre-degree pathway program students at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.The…
Abstract
This chapter presents a discussion of innovations in pedagogic approaches for high-achieving, pre-degree pathway program students at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
The question under discussion in the academic language classroom is the extent to which dynamic cohorts of multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary students are being enabled to fulfill individual learning goals as well as the institution’s expectations of pathway learners and academic language users. Wingate (2015) argues that in the absence of an epistemological and socioculturally embedded literacy instruction, students are not equitably prepared for success in the discipline or the wider institution. The chapter reviews critiques of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and Academic Literacies by addressing “the best of both worlds” (Wingate & Tribble, 2012, p. 492) approach.
The chapter continues with a case study into the Academic Vocabulary in Literacy strand of the Foundation EAP course on the International Foundation Programme at Edinburgh University. There then follows close analysis of innovation by course designers to adapt the “best of both traditions” model (Wingate & Tribble, 2014, p. 2) into an integrated academic language and literacy approach. It is posited that this approach could enable attempts at transition for high-achieving foundation students by experiencing language in dynamic and multi-modal genres.
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This paper seeks to consider whether academic writing should be regarded as knowledge in the making and why all such writing should be continuously challenged.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to consider whether academic writing should be regarded as knowledge in the making and why all such writing should be continuously challenged.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is that of a reflective discussion which considers academic writing in context, knowledge, reflectiveness and helping others to contest academic writing.
Findings
The paper concludes with the view that all academic writing and concept‐mongering are properly open to rigorous challenge.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is limited by its presentation of one writer's stance or point of view. Some may also consider this a strength.
Practical implications
Academic developers and those interested in helping train academic writers especially, but not exclusively, at the postgraduate level should find the ideas presented useful sources for further conversations.
Originality/value
The main value of the paper is that it summarizes a view of academic writing not as objective or neutral but as personal stance and counter‐stance.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of research evaluation policies and their interpretation on academics’ writing practices in three different higher education…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of research evaluation policies and their interpretation on academics’ writing practices in three different higher education institutions and across three different disciplines. Specifically, the paper discusses how England’s national research excellence framework (REF) and institutional responses to it shape the decisions academics make about their writing.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 49 academics at three English universities were interviewed. The academics were from one Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics discipline (mathematics), one humanities discipline (history) and one applied discipline (marketing). Repeated semi-structured interviews focussed on different aspects of academics’ writing practices. Heads of departments and administrative staff were also interviewed. Data were coded using the qualitative data analysis software, ATLAS.ti.
Findings
Academics’ ability to succeed in their career was closely tied to their ability to meet quantitative and qualitative targets driven by research evaluation systems, but these were predicated on an unrealistic understanding of knowledge creation. Research evaluation systems limited the epistemic choices available to academics, partly because they pushed academics’ writing towards genres and publication venues that conflicted with disciplinary traditions and partly because they were evenly distributed across institutions and age groups.
Originality/value
This work fills a gap in the literature by offering empirical and qualitative findings on the effects of research evaluation systems in context. It is also one of the only papers to focus on the ways in which individuals’ academic writing practices in particular are shaped by such systems.
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University students often struggle with academic writing because of the challenges involved in negotiating the hidden rules and implicit discursive practices in academic writing…
Abstract
University students often struggle with academic writing because of the challenges involved in negotiating the hidden rules and implicit discursive practices in academic writing. An academic literacies approach has emphasized writing as social practice and recognized that the literacy practices of the university are often epistemological. Blogs provide an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in situated, socially interactive writing in academic contexts. This study sought to explore blog writing from an academic literacies perspective. Data were collected from of two cohorts of students (Winter 2010 and 2011 terms) participating in a small university fourth year seminar class. The data consisted of blog postings from the two cohorts, interviews with the instructor, and course evaluations. The blog posts and comments were analysed using an intertextual analytical framework. Findings indicate that students do develop academic literacies through blog writing because of particular features of blogs: the immediate audience, the flexibility of purpose of blogs and the informal style of language.
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Multimodal writing portfolios were introduced and integrated into an undergraduate course and a graduate course in a research-oriented university in northwest Taiwan. This study…
Abstract
Purpose
Multimodal writing portfolios were introduced and integrated into an undergraduate course and a graduate course in a research-oriented university in northwest Taiwan. This study aims to examine the influence of multimodal writing portfolios of novice researchers' academic writing.
Design/methodology/approach
Comparative case studies involve collecting data from several cases and analyzing the similarities, differences and patterns across cases (Merriam, 2009). To address this underdeveloped area of research, a comparative case study method was employed to understand undergraduate and graduate students' multimodal writing portfolios in academic writing in two courses in Taiwan.
Findings
First, multimodal writing portfolios enabled novice researchers to be more familiar with the structure of academic paper and they had better performance in intrapersonal and linguistic aspects. Second, novice researchers held positive attitude toward multimodal writing portfolios because they regarded process of making multimodal writing portfolios as preparation for their future academic writing. Finally, participants highly valued the class PowerPoint slides, weekly writing tasks and the instructor's modeling as effective facilitation for making multimodal writing portfolios.
Research limitations/implications
Limited studies focus on multimodal writing portfolios (e.g. Silver, 2019). The present case study explores the integration of a multimodal writing portfolio into one undergraduate and one graduate course to explore learners' attitude and performance in academic writing.
Practical implications
Novice researchers can learn to compose multimodal academic texts for the academic writing community.
Social implications
Suggestions on effective integration of multimodal writing portfolios into academic writing instruction were provided based on the research findings.
Originality/value
The findings of the study provide the field of L2 writing with insights into the pedagogical development of multilingual writing portfolios and help educators to be better prepared for teaching novice researchers to comprehend and compose multimodal texts and enter the academic writing community. The framework in Figure 1 and suggestions on course designs for academic writing can inform educators on the integration of multimodality in academic discourse. Moreover, this study moves beyond general writing courses at the tertiary level and could contribute to L2 writers' deeper understanding of how multimodal writing portfolios can be constructed.
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Felix Maringe and Jennifer Jenkins
This paper examines the experiences of engaging with academic writing of international doctoral students in the schools of humanities and education at a UK university. The purpose…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the experiences of engaging with academic writing of international doctoral students in the schools of humanities and education at a UK university. The purpose of this paper is to uncover the real accounts of international students whose cultural and language backgrounds are often marginalised and considered, not as facilitators, but as barriers to academic writing in the western context of universities.
Design/methodology/approach
Developed broadly within an interpretive post-positivistic paradigm, the study utilised Harré and van Lagenhove, 1999 Positioning theory and Goffman’s theory of Stigma to interrogate accounts of 12 students from the two schools in a year-long project involving three focus group discussions, questionnaire responses and personal reflective summaries by the students.
Findings
The paper highlights the notions of stigma associated with their foreign writing conventions and how students experience tensions and apprehensions about their ability as they painfully negotiate the new academic writing conventions of the institution. International students position themselves as vulnerable outsiders working within an ill-defined but highly valued language environment.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited to the extent that it utilises a very small number of students as its key source of evidence. However, the study was not aimed at providing generalisation as much as it sought to explore issues associated with the use of language by international studying in UK universities.
Practical implications
The study has practical implications for the professionals in HE to develop clear guidelines about what constitutes good English and to provide greater support to international students who see themselves as vulnerable outsiders in an environment which marginalises their linguistic and cultural identities.
Social implications
The study has implications for the social, cultural, and academic integration of international students in HE institutions.
Originality/value
The paper signals a need for diverse writing frameworks which seek to promote rather than silence and marginalise potentially rich sources of knowledge and understanding in an increasingly globalising world.
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Saija Katila, Mikko Laamanen, Maarit Laihonen, Rebecca Lund, Susan Meriläinen, Jenny Rinkinen and Janne Tienari
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how global and local changes in higher education impact upon writing practices through which doctoral students become academics. The study…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how global and local changes in higher education impact upon writing practices through which doctoral students become academics. The study explores how norms and values of academic writing practice are learned, negotiated and resisted and elucidates how competences related to writing come to determine the academic selves.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses memory work, which is a group method that puts attention to written individual memories and their collective analysis and theorizing. The authors offer a comparison of experiences in becoming academics by two generational cohorts (1990s and 2010s) in the same management studies department in a business school.
Findings
The study indicates that the contextual and temporal enactment of academic writing practice in the department created a situation where implicit and ambiguous criteria for writing competence gradually changed into explicit and narrow ones. The change was relatively slow for two reasons. First, new performance management indicators were introduced over a period of two decades. Second, when the new indicators were gradually introduced, they were locally resisted. The study highlights how the focus, forms and main actors of resistance changed over time.
Originality/value
The paper offers a detailed account of how exogenous changes in higher education impact upon, over time and cultural space, academic writing practices through which doctoral students become academics.
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While there are many guides available on how to construct academic texts, the actual experience of writing can often remain unspoken. In this chapter, I share my personal…
Abstract
While there are many guides available on how to construct academic texts, the actual experience of writing can often remain unspoken. In this chapter, I share my personal experience of academic writing in entrepreneurship research, including the enabling and constraining aspects. My aim is to make academic writing more visible and encourage open discussion about this important activity. I approach academic writing as a comprehensive experience, encompassing various dimensions such as embodied, emotional and social aspects. I reflect on the influence of my body, physical conditions, emotions and writing habits on my writing process. Additionally, I consider the impact of external expectations and the context of working in entrepreneurship research, and how they shape my writing style. By examining these different dimensions of my writing experience, I hope to provide insight into the multifaceted nature of academic writing in entrepreneurship research.
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With growing concerns about an academic literacy crisis plaguing the education system in South Africa, tertiary institutions have to find ways to strengthen the academic literacy…
Abstract
With growing concerns about an academic literacy crisis plaguing the education system in South Africa, tertiary institutions have to find ways to strengthen the academic literacy skills of underprepared students transitioning into higher education. This is more pressing for low socioeconomic status students who are linguistically marginalised and face historically poor graduation prospects. In response, this chapter offers a snapshot of two studies conducted in South Africa that sought to test the efficacy of a purposefully designed academic literacy intervention (Reading to Learn (RtL)). The intervention sought to address inequitable academic literacy skills development of linguistically marginalised students, who are also socioeconomically disadvantaged. Two small-scale, longitudinal studies were run in two separate educational contexts in South Africa – a senior secondary school context and a tertiary context with largely first-generation undergraduate students. Results of both studies showed the RtL intervention to be successful at raising the level of academic writing skills of the research participants. Furthermore, similar to other RtL studies conducted globally, the two studies found weaker-performing students made the greatest gains in their academic writing skills, showing evidence of a convergence effect – more equitable learning outcomes being exhibited in the English classroom.
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Norma Estela Palomino and Paula Ferreira Gouveia
This paper seeks to report on the successful collaboration in an academic learning commons environment, established collaboratively between the University of Guelph and Humber…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to report on the successful collaboration in an academic learning commons environment, established collaboratively between the University of Guelph and Humber College, where library reference and writing center support services are integrated and therefore model student behaviour when writing academic papers.
Design/methodology/approach
After examining previous collaborative efforts between libraries and writing centres, this paper focuses on the relationship between thinking and the writing process itself as the theoretical framework on which a successful collaboration between the University of Guelph‐Humber Library Reference Services and Humber College's Writing Center exists. Statistical data relating to the increased usage levels of reference services, when made available in a writing centre environment, as well as library services satisfaction data are reported.
Findings
Researching and writing anxiety is diminished when students are able to access both reference (researching) services and writing support services in the same location. The increased exchange and interface between reference service providers and writing tutors, while assisting students to write better academic papers, reflects the fact that thinking, researching and writing are interwoven and recursive processes that are further enhanced when supported by their physical collocation. Academic institutions should model and further facilitate the collocation and integration of the research and writing processes by reorganizing services and service delivery units to better reflect student behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
When this paper was written, service level usage data that had been gathered fully supported the continued collaboration of the reference and writing centre services. However, further research needs to be conducted regarding the impact of this cross‐functional, student support service on student success.
Originality/value
This paper is of interest to academic leaders and service providers who are interested in furthering collaborations between students' service providers, primarily library reference staff and writing centre tutors, whose partnership naturally reflects the integrated and recursive research and writing processes.
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