How do we play the genre game in preparing students at the advanced undergraduate level for research writing?

Paxton, Moragh

doi:10.1080/13562517.2011.530755

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Beyond these studies that explicitly built from Rhetorical Genre Studies or Russell's () activity theory model, analysis within many disciplinary literacy studies could be meaningfully extended through activity theory concepts. For example, Paxton () studied the “fairly problematic pedagogical space” (p. 53) of undergraduate honors theses, focusing on the challenges and barriers for one student as she attempted to create this genre. Paxton's finding that thesis supervisors often intentionally and unintentionally withhold explicit instruction in the genre is valuable, yet attention to the supervisors’ sense of activity system outcomes could have helped the researcher sharpen the analysis further.…”

Section: From Theory To Practice: a Friendly Critique Of Existing Resmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconciling Disciplinary Literacy Perspectives With Genre‐Oriented Activity Theory: Toward a Fuller Synthesis of Traditions

Fisher

2018

Reading Research Quarterly

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A persisting gap in the field of disciplinary literacy is lack of conceptual clarity around the term discipline. In this theoretical article, the author explains some concerns with existing definitional imprecision and argues that genre-oriented activity theory offers a way to reconceptualize the focus of disciplinary literacy, especially in relation to academic, professional, and other literacies. The author provides an overview of Rhetorical Genre Studies, focusing on a genre-oriented activity theory model from David Russell, to demonstrate how genres within activity might be used to productively reframe some of the scholarship of disciplinary literacies. Specifically, the notion of genres as recurrent mediating tools used within multilayered, laminated activity systems may offer a more complex frame for exploring disciplinary literacies. The author offers a brief review of previous disciplinary literacy research to show how the field might benefit by incorporating a genre-oriented approach and closes with research questions for future study. I n his Richard Braddock Award-winning article, "Ways of Knowing, Doing, and Writing in the Disciplines," Carter (2007) analyzed undergraduate program outcomes at the college level and proposed four metadisciplines, each oriented around a shared motive such as problem solving, empirical inquiry, research from sources, or performance. He viewed these metadisciplines as overarching structures stretching across individual disciplines. Surprisingly, Carter (2007) suggested that the field of writing/ composition, as a member of the performance-oriented metadiscipline, was closer to dance performance than to literary analysis in terms of many of its central values and assumptions. Yet, within most school settings, writing is generally housed in the same unit as literature, often within English language arts departments (at the K-12 level) or within departments of English (at the college level). Thus, Carter's approach to categorization breaks open some traditional assumptions about the relations between disciplines and school-based subject areas, as well as relations among disciplines.More significantly, Carter's (2007) work can be used to illuminate a continuing gap in disciplinary literacy scholarship and pedagogy: the lack of definitional clarity around the notion of discipline. Although he proposed structures even larger than disciplines that

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Section: From Theory To Practice: a Friendly Critique Of Existing Resmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconciling Disciplinary Literacy Perspectives With Genre‐Oriented Activity Theory: Toward a Fuller Synthesis of Traditions

Fisher

2018

Reading Research Quarterly

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“…Collaborative approaches have been reported from universities in the UK (Morley 2008) and South Africa (e.g. Thesen & van Pletzen 2006; Paxton 2011). However, these initiatives are often limited to specific contexts without making a wider impact beyond individual departments or institutions.…”

Section: Collaborative Discipline-specific Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic literacy across the curriculum: Towards a collaborative instructional approach

Wingate

2016

Lang. Teach.

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I respond to the conference theme ‘English across the Curriculum’ by suggesting that ‘Academic literacy’ should be taught across the curriculum. I first explain the concept of academic literacy, which describes the range of abilities that students have to acquire when starting out in a new academic discipline. I then discuss the dominant instructional provision at universities. As this provision fails to address students’ real learning needs, I argue for curriculum-integrated academic literacy instruction that is based on the collaboration between English for academic purposes (EAP) specialists and subject lecturers. I provide examples of collaborative, discipline-specific approaches to supporting student learning, and present some insights from an intervention study that I have carried out to explore feasible ways of teaching and collaboration. Finally, I discuss the need for lecturer training to achieve a curriculum-integrated approach, and report on my experience of running a professional development module which aimed to enable lecturers to embed academic literacy development into their teaching practice.

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“…In terms of genre development, Paxton (2011) focuses on the research thesis and how 'writing and knowledge of the genre are often not taught, but must be acquired through a form of apprenticeship' (Paxton 2011, 53). Hurst (2010b) also considered the research thesis genre and how the implicit assessment of academic literacy often disadvantages EAL students, suggesting the need to make genre conventions explicit in academic literacy interventions.…”

Section: Academic Literacy Research In South Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

‘The thing that kill us’: student perspectives on language support in a South African university

Hurst¹

2014

Teaching in Higher Education

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South African higher education institutions, in line with international practice and as a result of the 'social turn', are progressing towards mainstream academic literacy support for students. This shift has a political dimension in South Africa where, historically, disadvantage has had racial dimensions, in its departure from 'deficit' models of academic development and support. On the other hand, there are practical factors to be considered in the kinds of support we offer students. This article describes a survey of students studying in Engineering and the Built Environment at an Englishmedium university in South Africa to uncover language issues in their university careers. Students identify difficulties relating to a broad range of academic literacies, yet the research suggests that the process of mainstreaming academic literacy may have to be accompanied by targeted support for English as an Additional Language students.

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How do we play the genre game in preparing students at the advanced undergraduate level for research writing?

Cited by 10 publications

References 11 publications

Reconciling Disciplinary Literacy Perspectives With Genre‐Oriented Activity Theory: Toward a Fuller Synthesis of Traditions

Reconciling Disciplinary Literacy Perspectives With Genre‐Oriented Activity Theory: Toward a Fuller Synthesis of Traditions

Academic literacy across the curriculum: Towards a collaborative instructional approach

‘The thing that kill us’: student perspectives on language support in a South African university

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