Variation in disciplinary culture: university tutors

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Variation in disciplinary culture university
tutors views on assessed writing tasks

• Hilary Nesi,
• h.nesi_at_warwick.ac.ukwith Sheena Gardner

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Paper Outline

• 1. The Larger Research Project
• 2. Findings from our interview data
• 3. Applications to BAWE

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Some existing corpora

• The TOEFL 2000 Spoken and Written Academic
  Language Corpus the full range of spoken and
  written registers used at US universities (Biber
  et al. 2002).
• The Lucy Corpus, used to track childrens
  progress from spoken fluency to written literacy.
  
• The Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (exam
  scripts and general essays by British and
  American university and A level students).
• The Cambridge Syndicate Examination corpus
  (A-level General Studies scripts).

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The diversity of assessed genres

• Ganobcsik-Williams survey of student writing in
  three disciplines (2001)
• 64 varieties, including business plans,
  websites, scientific posters and written material
  to support visual work.

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Our Project

• An investigation of genres of assessed student
  writing in higher education.
• Comparisons across disciplines
• Comparisons across years

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The BAWE Grid
1 2 3 4
Arts Humanities
Life Sciences
Physical Sciences
Social Sciences
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The departmental grid
university discipline Brookes Reading Warwick
AH English History of Art Music Archaeology Classics Fine Art History Philosophy Theatre Studies
LS Biological Molecular Sciences Health Human Biosciences Agriculture Food Science Technology Zoology Biological Sciences Medicine Psychology
PS Computing Planning Urban Design Construction Cybernetics Meteorology Engineering Mathematics Physics
SS Anthropology Hospitality Publishing Studies Business Geography Politics Economics Law Sociology
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The sampling grid ( 3072)
discipline year AH LS PS SS
1st 64 X 3 64 X 3 64 X 3 64 X 3
2nd 64 X 3 64 X 3 64 X 3 64 X 3
3rd 64 X 3 64 X 3 64 X 3 64 X 3
4th 64 X 3 64 X 3 64 X 3 64 X 3
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Three strands

• 1. The Discourse Community Genres
• 2. Register Analysis Bibers multidimensional
  analysis
• 3. SFL Genre Analysis

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From the discourse community

• a. Department documentation
• b. Tutor interviews surveys
• c. Student submission forms

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Current interview data
university discipline Brookes Warwick
AH English History Theatre Studies ( Cultural Policy Studies)
LS Anthropology Biological Sciences Medicine Psychology
PS Computing Engineering ( Warwick Manufacturing Group)
SS Hospitality Tourism Sociology Law
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Interview questions

• 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?

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The variety of genres an example from Engineering

• Essays
• Site investigation reports (both factual and
  interpretative)
• Laboratory reports
• Project reports
• Reflective journals
• Posters
• Summaries of analysis recommendations
• Funding proposals
• Business plans

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Some other genres

• Appeals (Law)
• Book / play reviews (History, Sociology, Theatre
  Studies)
• Case notes (Law)
• Crime fiction (Sociology)
• Critical evaluations of own work (English,
  Computing)
• Literature reviews (History)
• Field studies (Sociology)
• Marketing plans (Cultural Policy Studies)
• Blogs (Theatre Studies)
• Patient case reports (Medicine)

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The essay

• Used by all departments in sample
• Perceived as standard and traditional too
  much so for some
• 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)
• It has been the convention to use essays. I
  would like to break away from that
• (Psychology)
• We are a traditional department and we still use
  mainly essays and were very conscious that we
  would like to, and perhaps need to, do something
  about that
• (Sociology)

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Essays have a very basic structure

• Introduction, body, conclusion (Biological
  Sciences)
• Introduction, logical sequence of argument,
  conclusion (Medicine)
• Argument, counter-argument, conclusion
  (Hospitality Tourism)

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Essays have few structural constraints

• The structure of essays is less prescribed
  (Theatre Studies)
• Essays have more flexibility than practical
  reports, and may address only a subset of the
  classic RA (Psychology)
• More open-ended, less structured investigation
  (Hospitality)
• Greater scope than other assignment types in
  terms of what theyre writing about (Engineering)
• An essay is generally more rangy, with a freer
  structure (Law)

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Essays involve critical thinking

• An essay has got to be an argument of some sort
  ... not simply reportage or narrative (Theatre
  Studies)
• 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

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Progression is marked by an increasingly original
and critical response

• Aim to transform A level students who write
  mini-encyclopaedia articles. Good students
  develop a genuine personal voice (Theatre
  Studies)
• Students become more critical in the final
  stages (Hospitality Tourism)
• Masters level students are expected to write
  a good critical document (Warwick
  Manufacturing)
• First year writing should be accurate,
  concise, explicit, but by the third year
  originality should be added to the mixture
  (Psychology)

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Reflective writing is encouraged

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

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Disciplinary variation

• Preparing the professional for the
• workplace
• Preparing the professional academic
• Rejecting grim vocationalism

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Assignments modelled on professional non-academic
writing tasks

• Some interviewees referred to students future
  needs, eg
• Engineering reports (the legal implications of
  making recommendations)
• Demonstration and analysis of computer coding
  (preparing students for real life)
• Case notes and appeals (common forms of legal
  writing)
• Business plans, marketing plans, funding
  proposals (but applied subjects such as
  Hospitality Tourism also use writing tasks as a
  means to get students focused on theory)

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Assignments modelled on professional academic
writing tasks

• Psychology aims to cultivate the writing style of
  the research article published in a respected
  learned journal.
• the great bulk of written work is in the form of
  essays modelled on the classic psychology RA

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Assignments aimed at educating the individual

• education is a value in itself, and its part
  of a persons development of selfhood it
  depresses me when students view it as a kind of
  grim vocationalism
• Theatre Studies

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What do tutors value in student writing?

• Coherent structure 11 / 21
• Originality / Creativity 11 / 21
• Succinct expression 7 / 21
• Adherence to academic conventions 5 / 21
• Engagement / Enthusiasm 5 / 21
• Application / Relevance 5 / 21
• Understanding / Insight 5 / 21