Doctorate as genre: supporting thesis writing across campus

Increasingly learning advisors provide generic support for doctoral students. The terms ‘genre’ (a category, type or family) and ‘generic’ (ambiguously both ‘of a category’ and ‘non-specific’) are interrogated here in relation to such support. Literary studies scholars divide texts by genre for the purpose of analysis. It is helpful to see the doctoral thesis as a literary genre and discuss generic writing support in this context. Taking a theoretical position, I suggest that doctoral writing support can be theorised and conceived differently to complement supervisory support within disciplines. Ideas about the social significance of genre translate well to doctoral writing, which is also socially situated, speaking back to the discourse by which it is produced. Generic learning support is a contested phrase in higher education, a non-specific bolt-on process suspected of being never pertinent because it is not embedded in a discipline. Yet it is highly useful for doctoral students, a fact recognised in burgeoning practice. Around the world, generic support for doctoral study is increasingly provided as universities strive to sustain a healthy completion rate and ensure that discipline-specific, mainly supervisory, support is firmly complemented. Arguing for the thesis as genre enables the term ‘generic’ to have traction for those providing doctoral support across campus and opens up a theoretical way of discussing practice.     

浅谈过程体裁教学法与英语写作教学

"过程体裁法"是一种结合了"成果法"、"过程法"和"体裁法"的优点于一体的写作教学法,近年来,在我国英语写作教学领域"过程体裁法"得到了越来越多学者的关注。本文将过程体裁法中的一些相关概念,模式应用于英语写作教学,从而提高学生的英语写作能力。     

写作:作者与写作对象及阅读者的话语交流

写作的过程也是一种对话的过程。写作因话语交流而实现了价值的最大化。"话语交流式"作文的本质就在于促使写作者与写作对象、阅读者建立相互依赖、相互作用的主客体结构,努力唤醒写作者的主体意识,使写作者在双向或多向的沟通交流中,能真实、自由、个性化地表达,以提高驾驭语言的能力,促进写作智能的发展,达到"自能"作文的境界。本文试从"话语交流式"作文的具体内涵、现实意义及实施的策略方面分述之。     

Writing for professional recognition in higher education: understanding genre and expertise

ABSTRACT

This study draws on the theoretical frameworks of genre theory and writing expertise to explore how educators manage and excel in writing for professional recognition. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four educators from different disciplines in which participants discussed their experiences of preparing and writing for Senior Fellow. Despite the fact that writing for professional recognition can be a contentious genre to manage with its reflective features favouring those from certain disciplinary backgrounds, the participants described positive and affirming experiences. The findings also suggest that educators are strategic in their approach, and that the writing process can have unexpected affordances including a developed knowledge of writing, professional confidence and a sense of empowerment. The findings have implications for developing systems and resources to support educators preparing for fellowship.     

Exploring children's discourses of writing

This article reports on a study which was part of a two year writing project undertaken by a University in South East England with 17 primary schools. A survey sought the views of up to 565 children on the subject of writing. The analysis utilises Ivanič's ( 2004 ) discourses of writing framework as a heuristic and so provides a unique lens for a new understanding of children's ideological perspectives on writing and learning how to write. This study shows the development of learned or acquired skills and compliance discourses by the participating children within which accuracy and correctness overrides many other considerations for the use of the written word.     

Encouraging children's early writing efforts

A study of preschool classroom teachers reveal insights into the nature of children's writing efforts and how teachers can best foster those abilities.     

Word processing: its impact on children's writing

This paper describes the effects of using a word processor on the creative writing of a small group of children with learning disabilities. Each week the children wrote one word-processed and one handwritten story. The effects of using a word processor seemed to be influenced by the particular problems the children were experiencing with written work. For the children with severe spelling problems, using a word processor seemed to result in fewer spelling errors, while for the children who were still predominantly concerned with the mechanics of the writing task, using a word processor seemed to result in longer stories.     

Writing together to foster wellbeing: doctoral writing groups as spaces of wellbeing

ABSTRACT

Candidate wellbeing is recognised as a continual challenge for doctoral programs, with government mandates requiring an institutional response. This article explores the experiences of candidates undertaking intensive writing sessions (‘Write-Ins’) and their influence on their wellbeing. Exploratory findings demonstrate opportunities for Write-In models to contribute positively to ‘Spaces of Wellbeing’. Spaces of Wellbeing theory highlights four dimensions of space that influence wellbeing: capability, security, integrative and therapeutic spaces. Findings show the Write-Ins contributed positively to wellbeing by offering space for candidates to enhance writing productivity, to work to their own pace, to connect with others, and to work flexibly.     

著书当为读者谋——谈曹雪芹的作者与读者关系观

曹雪芹了解读者的阅读需求,尊重读者的阅读选择,能和读者平等相待。他重视作品的愉世功能和审美功能,体现了“著书当为读者谋”的创作倾向。     

著书当为读者谋--谈曹雪芹的作者与读者关系观

曹雪芹了解读者的阅读需求，尊重读者的阅读选择，能和读者平等相待。他重视作品的愉世功能和审美功能，体现了“著书当为读者谋”的创作倾向。     

Children's cognitive effort and fluency in writing: Effects of genre and of handwriting automatisation

This study investigated the cognitive effort of 5th and 9th graders while writing a text. We manipulated genre (narrative text vs. argumentative text) and tested how level of handwriting automatisation contributes to cognitive effort and fluency in writing. The participants were 23 students from Grade 5 and 21 from Grade 9, who wrote two texts differing in genre while performing a secondary reaction time task. The results showed that cognitive effort interacted with genre. Cognitive effort decreased between Grades 5 and 9 only for writing argumentative text. Handwriting did not contribute to fluency in writing, but contributed to cognitive effort only in 5th-graders' writing of narrative text. The findings are discussed in light of the factors contributing to cognitive effort and fluency in writing.     

Writing plan quality: Relevance to writing scores

If writing matters, how can we improve it? This study investigated the nature of writing plan quality and its relationship to the ensuing writing scores. Data were drawn from the 1998 Provincial Learning Assessment Programme (PLAP) in Writing, which was administered to pupils in Grades 4, 7, and 10 across British Columbia, Canada. Common features of writing quality were qualitatively identified in a sample of writing plans across the three grade levels. An analytic scoring scheme based on (i) identified features of writing quality in writing plans, (ii) evaluative terms commonly used as criteria to measure writing performance in both large-scale and classroom assessments, and (iii) theory and research in writing, was developed and used to assess a sample of 1,797 writing plans. Correlation and regression analyses were used to determine relationships between quality of writing plans and writing scores. Evidence of features of writing quality in writing plans was associated with higher writing scores. Identification of features of writing plan quality provides valuable instructional information to promote student writing.     

Planning text structure as a way to improve students' writing from sources in the compare–contrast genre

The aim of this study was to improve 7th- and 8th-grade students' (N = 83) compare–contrast reports when writing from sources. An instructional unit was designed and implemented for this purpose. It focused on increasing students' knowledge of compare–contrast text structure and on having students memorize and use a table to plan the structure of their reports. There was a large effect size of instruction, such that students in the instruction group made far greater gains in the holistic and structural quality of their writing (from pretest to posttest) than students in the control group.     

Writing as a learning tool: Testing the role of students’ writing strategies

The claim that writing facilitates students’ learning, although widely accepted, has little support from empirical research. A possible explanation for the lack of empirical evidence is that writing-to-learn research has disregarded that students use different writing strategies. The purpose of the present experimental study is to test whether it is effective to adapt writing-to-learn tasks to different writing strategies when teaching literature. A course “Learning to write argumentative texts about literature” was developed in two different versions: one adapted to a planning writing strategy, the other to a revising writing strategy. Participants were 113 tenth-grade high school students in the Netherlands. Our hypothesis is an adaptation hypothesis: we expect that the more a student will use a planning writing strategy, the more the student will profit from the lessons in the planning condition, and that the more a student uses a revising writing strategy, the more beneficial the revising condition will be. However, results show that for improving literary interpretation skill, a course adapted to the planning writing strategy is more effective for almost all students.     

Writing in policy,writing out lives

In this paper we argue that education policy on HIV and AIDS is policy about life. As such, the contexts and the realities of teachers and learners in the classroom need to be embedded in the policy. We make a case that HIV and AIDS policy needs to extend beyond the prevention mode to one that includes care and support in the policy context. Through the stories of three HIV positive teachers in Zimbabwean primary schools, we show the real people and the real bodies that inhabit the classrooms where policy seeks to find expression. In so doing we illustrate that policy on HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe is blind to the lives and contexts of teachers and learners.     

Thematic patterns in children's writing: Human behavior evoking personal meaning

Conclusions Observing young writers and emergent writing behavior is necessary in order to gather information on the child's processes of writing and constructing meaning. It is through the powerful process of writing that children—in fact, all human beings—can learn more about themselves and the world around them: When he was five and a half years old Paul wrote and posted this sign over his workbench desk: DO NAT DSTRB GNYS AT WRK. The GNYS (genius) at work is our human capacity for language. DO NAT DSTRB is a caution to observe how it works, for the logic by which we teach is not always the logic by which childrent learn. (Bissex, 1980, p. 199) Writing allows children to discover meaning, entertainment, or power; writing is composing the self as well as composing written language. An analysis of thematic patterns in children's writing suggests the power of writing as just one road to becoming oneself. Previously, she was a kindergarten and primary grades teacher for ten years.     

Responding to technical writing in an introductory engineering class: The role of genre and discipline

A case study of an experienced professor's comments on a design report in a first‐year engineering class was conducted over the period of an academic year. When compared with the commenting styles of technical writing teachers, the engineering professor's comments were found to be highly directive, and thus at odds with the preference for facilitative comments that prevails in composition studies. However, differences in genre conventions explain much of the discrepancy.     

Managing the written text: the beginning of punctuation in children's writing

This study aims at understanding the use of punctuation in children's early writings in connection with the organisation of the written text. Data are drawn from a larger comparative study in which written stories of Little Red Riding Hood were collected from primary school children who speak one of the three Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian). The corpus consists of 134 written stories of second grade children from low income families. Different quantitative and qualitative analysis are presented. Results show that all children, in spite of differences in literacy practices, try to make sense of the conventions of a system of writing, including punctuation marks (PMs). Some children seem to assume a ‘graphic principle', while others make sophisticated attempts to distinguish the function of PMs for different types of speech genre. Contrastive textual use of PM seems to be critical also for teaching purposes.     

论写作过程中的读者意识及其培养

写作教学一直是中小学语文教学的重点和难点。长期以来,很多中小学生对写作兴趣索然,甚至产生畏难排斥的情绪,解决学生的写作困境迫在眉睫。影响学生写作能力和兴趣的因素是多方面的,其中较为重要的是写作过程中对象性不强及教师对学生读者意识培养的忽视。基于此,语文课程标准提出更为具体的要求、教师观念的转变,以及在教学过程中采取多种方法培养学生的读者意识是解决当前写作教学困境的重要途径之一。