Counselors’ Claims of Insufficient Knowledge in Academic Writing Consultations

Abstract

Contributing to academic literacies research, this study investigates how counselors at university writing centers in Sweden and Finland handle the micro-level management of knowledge in advice-giving. While writing counselors are experienced in academic writing, they are not necessarily familiar with students' subject areas and may also lack access to other relevant information, such as specific writing instructions. Using Conversation Analysis, we examine how writing counselors address their lack of relevant knowledge through claims of insufficient knowledge (CIK). CIKs are typically used in assessment activities, to downgrade both positive and negative assessments, but sometimes also to upgrade positive assessments. Our findings demonstrate how the distribution of knowledge is negotiated in academic writing consultations and illustrate the epistemic complexity of this setting.

OKAY as a content word: Regulating language and constructing centres of norms in Finnish, Finland-Swedish, and Sweden-Swedish academic writing consultation meetings

“…( The sequence starts (lines 1 and 2) with an indirect and thereby polite question from the counsellor, formulated with further mitigating devices such as a claim of insufficient knowledge, 'I don't know', combined with a time shift, from the present tense 'know' to the perfect 'have thought'. Indirect questions, claims of insufficient knowledge and other mitigating devices are frequently used by counsellors and supervisors in Sweden-Swedish consultation meetings, and have been discussed in previous studies (Henricson & Nelson 2017, Skogmyr Marian, Henricson & Nelson 2021. The counsellor's assessment 'it looks okay' in line 11 closes the sequence and gives another example of how the counsellor acts as a centre of normative power.…”

“…Consultation with regard to academic writing is offered to university students in many countries, although the forms and traditions may vary (Lennartson-Hokkanen 2016, Babcock & Thonus 2018, Skogmyr Marian, Henricson & Nelson 2021. Writing counsellors at Swedish and Finnish universities are experienced linguists and university educators.…”

“…Writing consultation is a form of institutional interaction and as such involves participants with distinct and asymmetrical roles and a clear division between expert and non-expert (see Benwell & Stokoe 2006, Heller 2017, Skogmyr Marian, Henricson & Nelson 2021. The writing counsellor participates as the institutional expert, that is, in academic writing, whereas the student participates in the role of advice-seeking non-expert.…”

‘Yes? I have no idea’: teacher turns containing epistemic disclaimers in upper primary school whole-class discussions

“…However, there are some studies that touch upon teachers' K-epistemic stances. An example of this is a study by Skogmyr Marian, Henricson, and Nelson (2020) in which writing counsellors in academic counselling sessions claim insufficient knowledge in relation to their assessments of the student's writing because of students' primary access to the assignments and the subject area. Houen et al (2019) are, to our knowledge, the first to study teachers' use of epistemic disclaimers in classroom interaction.…”