Modelling uncertainty : the transition to academic writing development in higher education

Academic Writing Development

O Academic writing development discourses are usually very focussed on success, achievement and progression.

O These factors drive academic writing development initiatives and strategies which are sold to students on the basis

O They will help you write better!!O You will get better grades !!O You will be more successful !!

Student perceptions of themselves as academic writers

I am good at it I don’t need any help

I’m not that bad at it Not bad enough to seek help anyway

I am bad at it I hope I scrape through

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT FAILURE AND UNCERTAINTY

There is too much focus on failure or success as simple negative or positive binary end points with regard to students’ academic writing development.

Good writing is often presented unproblematically as the end product ( and desired outcome) of successful learning.

I want to focus more on failure and uncertainty as an inevitable…even welcome them as essential stages of the academic writing development process.

O Failure and uncertainty are important aspects of the kind of critical reflection one should engage with around academic writing development.

O We as teachers should not be afraid of uncertainty, and we should make sure that our students are not afraid to fail.

O The possibility of failure is, and always should be, present in the writing development process…not as a threat but as an essential part of the learning process

Becoming and being OAcademic writing identities emerge through

disrupted processes which can involve not only ‘becoming’ but also ‘unbecoming’ at different stages of the process.

OBecoming an academic writer is not a smooth, straightforward, linear or automatic, process.

OAcademic writing often involves conflict and feelings of uncertainty, inauthenticity, marginalisation, exclusion and failure.

O Adapted from Colley and James’ (2005)

Embracing Failure O Students should expect to be uncertain and be

prepared to fail as part of their development as academic writers.

O They need to develop the confidence to take risks with their writing and be experimental and creative.

O They deserve the chance to produce lots of purposeful, low stakes writing (that can and will fail).

O They will benefit from sharing their own and hearing about other people’s struggles with the writing process ( including their lectuer’s).

Principles of dialogic teaching

O Collectivity O Support O Cumulative O PurposefulnessO Reciprocity

O Alexander (2006)

Collectivity O Working together on texts means students

get to talk about the process of assembling writing for different purposes.

O They get to see how different people write, and make mistakes when writing.

O They get to share negative and positive experiences of writing.

O Group blogs/presentations O Wikis O Patchwork writing

Support O It helps to have proactive rather than deficit

model. O Peer support/dialogue is very important O We should try to keep the process of writing

development open-ended. O Writing frameworks/macro/micro writing

scriptsO Planning/drafting/editing activities O Peer review O Modelling

Cumulative O Support and development should be little and

often.O Planning needs to be positioned as an

essential part of the whole writing process. O Drafting should be an on-going focus for

discussion. O Regular classroom based/online discussion

opportunities about progress with assignments (group and individual)

O Relevant formatives

PurposefulnessO Writing development activities work better

when they are clearly linked into and/or embedded into discipline based learning

O The focus should be holistic NOT techniscist : context, audience, purpose

O Practice/preparation for final summative assignments e.g. opening/concluding paragraphs

O Double entry journals based on recommended reading

ReciprocityO We need to develop communities of practice,

which involve members working with each other - ‘experiencing, belonging, doing sharing and becoming – together’ Wenger (1998)

O ‘and failing and being uncertain….’

O Writing ( and failure) should not be experienced solely as an individual act

We must expect to fail...but fail in a learning posture, determined not to repeat mistakes, and to maximize the benefits from what is learned in the process." 

Ted Engstrom