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Exploring Genres & Writing in Higher Education

Discover the genres of assessed writing in British higher education at a seminar on Academic Literacies & Research. Learn about the BAWE Corpus initiatives & multidimensional register analysis. Engage with professional writing perspectives.

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Exploring Genres & Writing in Higher Education

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  1. Annual one-day seminar Research, scholarship and practice in the area of Academic Literacies Friday 30 June 2006 University of Westminster The Centre for Higher Education Research, the Educational Initiative Centre, Polylang EAP and the Academic Writing Centre

  2. An Investigation of Genres of Assessed Writing in British Higher Education RES-000-23-0800 Warwick - Reading - Oxford Brookes

  3. Current Researchers Hilary Nesi, Sheena Gardner, Jasper Holmes, Sian Alsop, Laura Powell, CELTE, Warwick Paul Thompson, Alois Heuboeck SLALS, Reading Paul Wickens, Signe Ebeling, Maria Leedham ICELS, Oxford Brookes

  4. Project Aims • Develop a Corpus of British Academic Written English (BAWE) • Characterise proficient student writing across disciplines and years

  5. BAWE Corpus Grid

  6. The probable 28 disciplines

  7. Planned Corpus Size

  8. Four Research Strands • Corpus development • Discourse community perspectives • Multidimensional analysis of register • SFL analysis of genres

  9. 1. Corpus Development • Collect assignments • Tag files and prepare for submission to Oxford Text Archive • Develop interfaces for end users

  10. Access to the Corpus • ?Full texts available from the Oxford Text Archive • ?On-line search engine to allow for concordancing with limited co-text • ?Shared portal with BASE, MICASE, MICUSP

  11. 2. Discourse Community a. Departmental documentation b. Tutor interviews c. Student interviews d. Assignment submission forms

  12. 3. Multidimensional Register Analysis • Biber’s dimensions; lexico-grammatical features • Feature analysis of the academic corpus • search for clusters of distinctive features by • <level, <disc, <discGroup and <type

  13. 4. Systemic Functional Genres School history genres • Analytical exposition: (Background)^ Thesis^ Arguments^ Thesis Reinforcement • Analytical discussion: (Background)^ Issue^ Arguments^ Position • Challenge: (Background)^ Arguments^ Anti-Thesis

  14. Tutor Interviews • What role does assignment writing play in your department? • What different types of written assignment do you set your students? • What are the main differences between these types? • In what ways does student writing progress? • What do you value / dislike in student writing?

  15. Essays • All assign essays • ‘Essay’ has many meanings….

  16. Essays have a basic structure • Introduction, body, conclusion (Biological Sciences) • Introduction, logical sequence of argument, conclusion (Medicine) • Argument, counter-argument, conclusion (Hospitality & Tourism)

  17. Compared to other assignment types • The structure of essays is less prescribed (Theatre Studies) • Greater scope .. in terms of what they’re writing about (Engineering) • An essay is generally more ‘rangy’, with a freer structure (Law) • Essays have more flexibility than practical reports, and may address only a subset of the classic RA (Psychology)

  18. Essays involve critical thinking • ‘A chance to show .. that you can think deeply about a subject’ (Anthropology) • Give more scope for originality (Psychology) • ‘The traditional Law essay would probably take the form of a critical discussion’

  19. Engineering assignments: • Essays • Laboratory reports • Project reports • Reflective journals • Posters (e.g. for transport museum) • Summaries of analysis + recommendations • Site investigation reports (both factual and interpretative) • Funding proposals • Business plans

  20. Published Academic Research • ‘Over time, student writing should approximate ever more closely to the writing that academics submit for publication in learned/scientific journals’ (Economics). • student writing should conform to ‘the style you’d expect in a research paper’ - ‘publishable in style, but not in content’ ( Food Sciences) • Biology students are advised to ‘write in the style of current opinion journals’. • Physics expects students ‘to write a scientific paper – as might be published in a scientific journal for an audience of their peers’.

  21. Professional Writing • Publishing project proposals and letters to authors, in the persona of a publisher. • Case reports (patient description + management plan) assess competence to progress as a medical practitioner. • Demonstration and analysis of computer coding (‘preparing students for real life’) • ‘problem questions’ apply the law ‘rather as barristers and solicitors have to do’.

  22. Disciplinary differences: ‘education is a value in itself, and it’s part of a person’s development of selfhood …… it depresses me when students view it as a kind of grim vocationalism’ (Theatre Studies) there is ‘little point’ in writing academic essays in some modules, as Publishing is a vocational degree and assignments ‘try to replicate what goes on’.

  23. For some, the essay is limiting ‘The fact that essays are still used as the only mode by the majority of English literature assessors seems to me very limiting’ (English Studies) ‘We are a traditional department and we still use mainly essays and we’re very conscious that we would like to, and perhaps need to, do something about that’ (Sociology)

  24. a) Creative writing • Crime fiction (Sociology) • dramatic dissertation: playscript of the facts or trial of a legal case (Law)

  25. b) Reflective writing • Students produce original work and then evaluate it (Computing, English Studies, Theatre Studies) • Students write reflectively about their experiences during group work (Engineering, Hospitality & Tourism) • Students write reflectively about the educational value of a practical task (Anthropology) • Students reflect on past personal experiences (Medicine)

  26. c) Empathy Writing writing for school children, friends, museums, or newspapers (Physics, Biology, Mathematics and Engineering)

  27. d) New Technologies • Blogs • Website evaluations (Medicine, Theatre Studies) • Web-page design (Publishing) • Powerpoint presentations (Business and others)

  28. Undergraduate Research Project: Centre for English Language Teacher Education * Laura Powell

  29. Aims &Objectives • Student attitudes towards different genres of academic writing • Eg, Essays, Lab Reports, Case Studies, Creative Sketches • How does the student know what is expected?

  30. Interview 36 students Physical SciencesPhysics Chemistry Engineering Social SciencesLawBusinessSociology ArtsEnglishHistoryPhilosophy LifeSciencesMedicinePsychologyBiological Sciences

  31. What is the most important feature of an academic essay?

  32. What is the most important feature of an academic essay? TI EX CL A CR S PR R B

  33. Life Sciences Social Sciences Physical Sciences Arts

  34. Trigger Questions • Structure • Creativity or Originality • Is there a right answer? • How standardised is too standardised?

  35. Medicine Structure: & Philosophy “It’s proof, proof, proof. A fixed journey on a regimented path.” “The more unique, the higher the mark. They don’t agree with set structures. They don’t agree with exams even.”

  36. Social Sciences CL EX A R B Structure

  37. Structural Flexibility and Creativity “Just argue for and against the title to provide as balanced a view as possible and to cover the subject matter in enough depth.” Law, First Year

  38. Structural Flexibility and Creativity “It’s a means to an end. We have x-points and x-answer. It’s just a case of getting there really.” Physics, Second Year

  39. A-Levels Feedback Intuition How do you know? Website Course Handbooks

  40. Marker’s Subjectivity • I cater my essays to the first-marker English Literature 3nd year • It’s easier to know what they want and write to them when you’ve read their papers and interests Chemistry 4th year

  41. Marker’s Subjectivity “No, it doesn’t vary from marker to marker. They have to follow a very specific set of marking guidelines, you see.” Law, First Year

  42. First Year & Finalists

  43. First Year & Standardisation Second Year “It’s taken a year of trial and error and I still don’t have an inkling of an idea what they want. We need guidance. It’s insufficient.” 1st year, Philosophy

  44. First Year & Standardisation Second Year “To get beyond a 2:1, individuality is key. ‘This is what I want to say and that’s how I will say it.’ If we curb subjectivity, how would we deserve the marks?” 2nd year, Philosophy

  45. Questions? • Your possible use of the corpus?

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