Learning to Write as a Professional: Engineers and Health Professionals in the United Kingdom and Germany

Breuer, Esther; Newman, Sigrid; Newman, Julian

doi:10.1163/9789004264830_014

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…The necessary skills of learning intertextuality and interdiscursivity are not explicitly taught, although this would be quite easy, as the settings of how to write within the academic community depend on intertextuality and interdiscursivity, although they are relatively fixed (Thielmann 2009). The students believe that academic writing skills will most likely not be of much use in their professional careers (Breuer et al 2015), which "makes the task abstract and the learner confused and demotivated" (Orlova/Zeidmane 2011: 523).…”

Section: Interdiscursivity In Professional Writingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to analyse whether this juxtaposition is perceived inside the community of health professionals and engineers, Breuer et al (2015) set up a questionnaire asking German as well as U.K. students, teachers, writing teachers and professionals about their writing attitudes, their writing experiences and their evaluation of the importance of the writing skills that were necessary for performing expected tasks (e.g. structuring, idea generation, and knowledge about genre).…”

Section: Interdiscursivity In Professional Writingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our interviews focused on eliciting a comparison by the professionals of the writing skills taught at university versus the writing skills necessary for their professional careers. We developed an interview script that integrated those aspects from the questionnaire used in a previous study (Breuer et al 2015), which highlighted the largest differences in evaluations by the respective groups (students, teachers, professionals). These aspects were: The script provided only an outline for the interviews, which were generally conducted in an informal, conversational manner.…”

Section: Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, a previous survey by Breuer et al (2015) found that in the professional contexts of engineering and health sciences, these abilities are not taught at either universities or professional schools in Germany or in the U.K.; and while students and professionals admit that writing plays a crucial role in their professional lives, they do not see the point of training writing skills.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…In order to analyse professionals' management of this contradiction between attitude and reality as reported by Breuer et al (2015), a qualitative study was set up in which both German engineers and health professionals were interviewed. The present study focuses on the following questions:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Teaching and Practising Interdiscursivity in the Professional Areas of Engineering and Health – A Qualitative Study

Breuer¹,

Allsobrook²

2019

HJLCB

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Knowing to write effectively is key to communication within the different interfaces of any professional role – client-facing, colleague-facing and/or public-facing. Complaints of poor service from professionals often focus on their failure to communicate, not merely in terms of politeness and consideration, but with respect to a lack of clear explanations underlying professional decisions. In other words, the process of interpreting their specialist body of knowledge to the client appears to be a great challenge. Communication that performs a translation function between the world of the professional and that of the client is ‘interdiscursive’: it involves a fusion of genres. Interdiscursivity also arises in communication within the workplace, for example in seeking or giving authorisation or advice. In this article, we examine the challenges that interdiscursive communication pose, from the point of view of engineering and of health professionals, some of whom are also teachers in these fields at university level. Our findings are based on interviews we conducted with these different groups. We hereby aim to extend the theoretical and contextual framework drawn up by a previous survey study. Although the interview participants show a certain awareness of interdiscursive writing skills, the conclusions drawn from this awareness differ between the groups, as well as between the employed versus the self-employed professionals. While the former group writes in a way that rather disregards the target audience and does not see much sense in learning and training writing skills, the latter group was obliged to find ways of managing the demands they faced.

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Section: Interdiscursivity In Professional Writingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interdiscursivity In Professional Writingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Teaching and Practising Interdiscursivity in the Professional Areas of Engineering and Health – A Qualitative Study

Breuer¹,

Allsobrook²

2019

HJLCB

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Writing Competences in Norwegian Vocational Education and Training: - How Students and Apprentices Express their Professional Competences

Hellne-Halvorsen

Lahn²,

Nore

2021

Vocations and Learning

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This article analyzes the writing competence of Norwegian students and apprentices in three professions: Healthcare, industrial mechanics and electricians. The research forms part of a large-scale assessment project in vocational education and training (VET). A subset of 108 written test-answers were subjected to an explorative analysis focusing on generic and professional writing competencies. A more text-based and trans-contextual working life for many professions requires not only profession-specific communicative competency, but also a stronger engagement in generic literacy practices. The need for written communication with customers, clients and colleagues across workplaces and countries has increased and the use of understandable language when communicating with non-peers is required. In the study, we found that the generic writing competency declined during apprenticeship, but on the other hand that the use of professional-specific terminology increased. We also found that writing competence seemed to be contextualized according to different traditions, text cultures and discourses across the three professions. The article questions the prevalence of text-based examinations in VET and analytical categories for measuring writing competence that do not take into account a multimodal character of professional communication.

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Írást segítő és gátló tényezők egyetemi hallgatók körében

Pintér

Molnár

2019

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Tanulmányunkban egyetemista diákok írásfelfogásának méréséről, illetve az írást serkentő és gátló tényezők közötti összefüggések feltárásáról számolunk be. Arra kerestük a választ, hogy a hallgatók hogyan vélekednek önmagukra tekintve írói szerepben az írást elősegítő és gátló tényezőkről: a tudásalkotásról, mások szerepéről, a produktivitásról, perfekcionizmusról, a halogatásról és az elakadásról. Vizsgálatunk kutatásalapú tanulásra tervezett kurzusokon részt vett másodéves bölcsészhallgatók (N=308) körében zajlott; feladataik közé tartozott egy rövid, tudományos szöveg (kutatási terv) létrehozása közösen vagy egyénileg szakirodalmi források felhasználásával.A hallgatói írásfelfogás mérésére nemzetközi folyóiratban publikált, standardizált és bevizsgált mérőeszközt alkalmaztunk (hat tényezőt mért ötfokú Likert skálán). A megkérdezettek körében arányaiban többen voltak azok, akik fontosnak tartják, hogy társaik véleményezzék szövegüket, és olvasóik megértsék azt. Sokan nyilatkoztak úgy, hogy nem foglalkoznak rendszeresen írással; vannak viszont, akik önmagukat produktívnak, rendszeresen írónak tekintik. A perfekcionizmus tekintetében a hallgatók mintegy fele bátran leírja gondolatait, kevésbé tartva attól, mit gondolnak mások a leírt gondolataikról. A megkérdezettek nagy része halogat saját elmondása szerint, kevesebben, akik nem halogatják az írást. Azok körében, akik az elakadás kérdéseire válaszoltak, többen vannak, akiknek nincsenek korábbi negatív írástapasztalatuk. Kicsit többen vannak azok, akiknek saját bevallásuk szerint nem okoz gondot az írásbeli önkifejezés. A szövegalkotást segítő és gátló tényezők megismerése és figyelembevétele mind a tanulók, mind az oktatók számára hasznos lehet: hozzájárulhat a tanulási-tanítási helyzet és élmény javításához, emellett a folyamatosság segítése, a halogatás és az elakadás oldása csökkentheti a lemorzsolódást is. További vizsgálatokra van azonban szükség ahhoz, hogy az egyes tényezők közötti összefüggésekről pontosabb képet kapjunk; a szövegalkotás folyamatossága mellett a szövegminőségre vonatkozó vizsgálatok is fontosak.

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Learning to Write as a Professional: Engineers and Health Professionals in the United Kingdom and Germany

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Teaching and Practising Interdiscursivity in the Professional Areas of Engineering and Health – A Qualitative Study

Teaching and Practising Interdiscursivity in the Professional Areas of Engineering and Health – A Qualitative Study

Writing Competences in Norwegian Vocational Education and Training: - How Students and Apprentices Express their Professional Competences

Írást segítő és gátló tényezők egyetemi hallgatók körében

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