-~~~

_ ~

__

lull VIII,

I ~'I~ ~,~'''".

i~

12

~ ~,~~~~~~ ~;~ ,~ ~`

,~.~_

,~r~~

° L'~

~4

,~

~~ ~ ~

~/

/

~

a

~~

~~

~~

"~

~:.1 7

~

~~

~

~,.~

~ s'"

The Teaching of the Academic Essay:

i~~'~'; ~,

Is a Genre Approach Possible?~~ ;'

Tony Dudley-Evans

University of Birmingham

United Kingdom

~~~, ~,~~~u l'

i , l l ~~~j jl'

i I~li~l ~~:~~~

I~i~I

~ii~i'~

~ ~~~~ ~~

i~l~u~i

i ~„,,

,,,The increased prominence of genre-based approaches to the teaching of academic

~” Iii ~

!or professional writing has been a fe

ature of En

glish for Specific Purposes courses

in the last ten

yeazs. T'he influential zesearch of Swales (1981; 1990) on the

introduction to

the academic article and th

at of Bhatia (1993) on promotional genres

~ I ~I'~

have been translaCed into teaching materials (for example, Swales & Feak, 1994;

~~~~~ ~~II

Weissberg & Buker,1990 ,that

rovide valuable i

nsi hts for st

udents in

to the wa s

~~'`' ~~!

~F

g

Y

II!~ o~

of st

ructuring r

esearch reports and ar

ticles. There are no doubt numerous other se

tsof in-house materials that also make use of th

is reseazch. The academic article, in

~' ',I!

particular, has a regularity in its discourse structure that lends itself to

an analysis

ithat makes use of "moves" that typically occur in a more or less fixed order.

1 Ii i

Although t

here have been concerns about the dangers of an o

verprescriptive

~ ~

approach to the academic writing re

sulfing from a genre approach (

Paltridge,1996;

~ I it

Prior,1995) and about th

e absence of re

search into other f

aculty genres such as the

~ ~ h~~

',master's or doctoral dissertation (Dudley -Evans, 19

97), there is li

ttle doubt th

at th

e ~'

~ I I

e~sting research into genre has enriched and broadened the teaching of academic

~writing. Si

milarly, the awareness that much nonliterary writing involves the miffing

i~!, i ij

of ge

nres, and the need to manipulate the generic conventions (Bhafia,1997a), ha

s ~y

I~~Iled to increased sophistication in the teaching of professional writing.

~ ~~!~,I~

~~

THE ESSAY

In t

his chapter, however, I wish to

discuss the problems and c

hallenges of

; 1°developing a genre approach to the teaching of a Typical classroom genre (Johns,

I I~<1997) that does not lend it

self to

a move analysis along the lines of th

e work on the

i I ~

225

~II'~,

r

''ill22

6DUDLEY-EVANS

academic ar

ticle and pr

omor

iona

l ge

nres

refe

rred

to ea

rlie

r. Th

is is

the essay or,

as

it is mo

re precisely called in

the uni

vers

ity in

which I teach (th

e Un

iver

sity

of

Y ~

' „

Birm

ingh

am, E

ngla

nd),

"The 2000- or 3000-Word Ass

bQnment: 'The experiences

that I wis

h to

draw upon come from te

achi

ng international students on

various

mast

er's

courses related to bu

sine

ss, finance, banking, an

d ac

coun

tanc

y at

the

• ~

University of Birmingham. The par

ticu

lar co

urse

s that I ref

er to ar

e the MBA in

Inte

rnar

iona

l Ban

king

and

Fina

nce an

dtwo

master's c

ourses, one in

Accounring an

d

Finance, the ot

her i

n Money, Bank

ing,

and Finance. Th

ese ar

e all o

ne-year co

urse

s

-„».

r -

. that fo

llow a heavy le

ctur

e program from la

te Sep

temb

er th

rough to

May, at whi

ch

m .

c ''`

time

the examinations ta

ke pla

ce. In the fi

nal part of the co

urse

, the students carry

out as

mall

-sca

le research pr

ojec

t ov

er th

e summer per

iod,

whi

ch is

wri

tten

up in a

10,000- to

15,000-word dissertation.

Duri

ng the yea

r, st

udents hav

e to

wri

te bet

ween

ten

and 12 ass

ignm

ents

(the

numb

er vanes according to wh

ich course they follow and whi

ch options they take

within the cou

rse)

_ The len

gth of these assia menu is usually between 2,000 an

d

:,..

_ ;~_

_.

3,000 wo

rds.

— _

The courses themselves az

e ve

ry much des

igne

d for in

ternational s

tude

nts an

d

aze f

ollo

wed by very few

home st

uden

ts. They are

pos

texp

erie

nce c

ours

es des

igne

d

..._,.

.b ,

for young professionals with some exp

erie

nce in

the areas of b

usin

ess,

accounting,

~ ~

bank

ing,

port

foli

o ma

nage

ment

in inv

estm

ent,

and so on, an

d ai

m to

provide a mix

of practical tra

inin

g in

the

se are

as supported by an introduction to the re

leva

nt

f, literature in

the fi

eld. The aim

s of th

e co

urse

thus differ si

gnif

ican

fly from th

ose of

othe

r ma

ster

's cou

rses

in hu

mani

ties

, science, and

enb neer

ing,

whi

ch are

mor

e

r' ~

academically oriented. The bus

ines

s, acc

ount

ancy

, and finance courses ar

e very

much geared to

ward

the

needs of t

he in

ternarional s

tude

nts a

nd are

seemingly qui

te

succ

essf

ul in

blending elements of t

raining with more tr

adit

iona

l academic re

quir

e-

1 '.

menu. To giv

e an example, a

ssignments may ask students to

adopt th

e po

siti

on of

an in

vest

ment

counselor a

dvising a cl

ient

on th

e desirability of investing in

diff

eren

t

mazk

ets,

thus reflecting closely the typ

e of pro

fess

iona

l activity that th

ey might

engage in

onc

e th

ey have ob

tain

ed the mas

ter'

s qualificarions. They will, ho

weve

r,

''

be exp

ecte

d to

jus

tify

the

ir recommend

ations in the as

s bQnment by re

fere

nce to

appr

opri

ate so

urce

s, thus sa

risf

ying

the aca

demi

c si

de of the course. In fact, the

courses, in

my experience, fa

ce similar challenges to

master's courses in

TEFI-~

'TESL run in my own dep

artm

ent where there is a constant and sr

imul

atin

g ne

ed to

z ba

lanc

e aspects of th

eory and practice in

tra

inin

g te

ache

rs.

#.

' The stu

dent

s thus have to

wri

te in three ma

in academic or classroom genres

~ i I

throughout th

e course: t

he assignment (or

essay), th

e examination answer, and the

;

{ ~

dissertation. Of th

ese,

the as

s banment is

the most difficult t

o pr

epar

e st

uden

ts fo

r. -

yj The dissertation f

ollo

ws something like the traditional I

lVIRAD for

mat (

introduc-

a ~

tion

, met

hod,

resu

lts,

and discussion) and

lend

s its

elf to an approach that in

trod

uces

~ ~

students—flexibly!—to t

he various moves th

at th

ey will n

eed to

use

in th

e different

J ~ ,

se

ctio

ns of the

dissertation. St

uden

ts are

pre

pare

d for ex

amin

afio

n qu

esri

ons

through t

eam-

taught se

ssio

ns in

whi

ch su

bject and

lang

uage

teachers work together

~A

__

r,~,,,

;

12' TE

'`~C

HING

'TI~

ACADEMIC ESSAY

227

to demystify the

mea

nin

of uestions and to de

velo

a

ro r

iate

str

ateg

ies f

or

I ianswers. Assbents az much trickier f

or a van

e of

~eas

ns. Fi

rst, th

ey ~a

rYqu

ite co

nsid

erab

ly in wh

at the

y expect st

udents to do. Som

e ar

e ba

sica

lly r

eviews

~i~lof th

e literature, o

ther

s present case stu

dies

, and oth

ers mirrorprofessional docu-

~menu presenting advice for cl

ients. They thus also vary in

the a

mount of

"l~o

wl-

edge-tellin ”

b tr

ansf

orma

rion

" ex e

cted

g or

"kno~,ledQe-

p (g

erei

ter & Sc

arda

mali

a,19

87);

the re

view

s of th

e li

tera

ture

will mostly in

voIveknowledge-telling, b

ut th

ecase stu

dies

and

the simulation of pr

ofes

sion

al doc

umen

ts will co

mbin

e lmowl-

Ied

ge-t

elli

ng and

lm o

wled

ge- transformation

in t

hat th

e dr

aw on

the

relevant

,~,I

iso

urce

s, bu

t th

e student is

expected to

develo

a critique of p

ast o

r current pr

acti

ce

~,i i,~,i

in the

subject aze

a and to

sim

ulat

e docum nts rovidin

reco

mmen

dati

ons for

Icl

ient

s. Sec

ond,

they

do no

t lend themselves to

a straightforward move analysis,

partly bec

ause

they do not usu

ally

have a nu

mber

of d

elineated s

ecrions i

n the

way

that an

article or

dissertation

will normally have, an

d even whe

re there i

s a

deli

neat

ed se

cfion, such

as t

he in

troduction or c

oncl

usio

n th

e e d

oes n

ot se

em to

be

ldl ~~~i

ia predictable str

uctu

re for

these sec

tion

s in

the

same way there i

s in the ac

adem

ic

~~°I~'I~I~~'

''~article. The wri

ter may ado

pt a num

ber of st

rate

gies

in introducing or concluding

II I ~'iU

the essay, and

thus the move approach that see

ms so re

leva

nt to the venting of

r.i,

arti

cles

, the

ses,

and rep

orts

is of li

mited va

lue.

RESEARCH INTO ESSAYS

~' ~lRe

sear

ch i

nto the

disc

ours

e structure of ass

i ICI

gnments, or essays as th

ey w

ill

gene

rall

y be cal

led,

is lim

ited

. Jordan (1997, p.

7) re

port

ed on the va

riou

s study

skil

ls req

uire

d in

ess

ay wriring, l

isting the fol

lowi

ng sk

ills:

1. pl

anni

ng, w

riring dra

fts,

revi

sing

;2.

summarisin ,

ag Paz'aphrasing and synthesising;,

3. co

ntin

uous

writing in an

aca

d emi

c st

yle or

gani

zed appro

riat

ely;

I II

4. using quotations, fo

otno

tes,

bib

liog

raph

y;

P

i ~,5.

find

ing an

d an

alys

ing evidence, using data ap

prop

riat

ely.

Thes

e are clearly i

mportant sk

ills

and

are 1"

a ilcely to be

tau

Q t a

s ar

t of a

rocess

rpp

oac

h to

the t

eaching o

f writing, gut

, as J

ordan noted, th

y elate t

o all th

bthat students have to wr

ite an

d ce

rtai

nly do not

hel

p di

sfin

guis

h what is

part

icul

arto

the ess

ay.

~~Jordan (1997,

p_ 9) As

o li

sted

a num

ber of specific academic concepts/

func

tion

s: des

crib

e, def

ine,

exemplify, classify, as

sume

, hypothesize, compare,

„ `~

Iex

pres

s, ca

ufion, and

so on. The teaching of these functions is the bas

is of many

~ ' ''i

English fo

r Academic Pu

rpos

es textbooks, b

ut ag

ain do

es no

t help s

ort o

ut wha

t is

direcfly inv

olve

d in

writing an essay as

opposed to other c

lassroom genres.

The one at

temp

t to d

evise a se

t of moves th

at I am fa

miliaz wi

th is

that of

Hyland

' "'

(1990, p.

69), who su

gges

ted th

at the

argumentative ess

ay has th

ree s

tages: th

esis,

;„ ,,

II'

I~I,.o

',i _

~i

22g

DUDLEY-EVANS

argument, and con

clus

ion.

With

in each st

age t

here

are a number of moves, as shown

in Table 1

2.1. Many of the moves are o

ptio

nal,

and t

hese a

re i

ndic

ated

in

parentheses.

TABLE 12

.1Ge

nre of

the Arg

umen

tati

ve Ess

ay

Stage

Move

Thes

is

(Gam

bit)

~ ---

cont

rove

rsia

l or dramatic st

atem

ent

(Inf

orma

tion

)ba

ckgr

ound

mat

eria

l(P

ropo

siti

on)

stat

es wri

ter'

s po

siti

on and delimits topic

(Eva

luat

ion)

brie

f support of proposition

(Mazker)

introduces and

/or idenfifies alist

--^ "

-

Argu

ment

(Mazker)

signals the cl

aim and relates it

to the te

xt

(Res

tate

ment

)rephrasing or repetition of proposition

(Cla

im)

reas

on for

acc

epta

nce of the pro

posi

tion

. Eit

her

a. st

reng

th of pe

rcei

ved shazed assumprions;

b. ge

neralization bas

ed on evi

denc

e; or

c. fo

rce of

conv

icti

on(S

uppo

rt)

_ _ .

grou

nds th

at ix

nderpin th

e cl

aim:

either

a. assumptions use

d to make the claim; or

b. da

ta or re

fere

nces

Conclusion

(Marker)

signals conclusion boundary

(Conso

lidation)

relates argument to

the proposition

(Aff

irma

tion

)re

stat

es proposition

(Clo

se)

wide

ns con

text

or perspective of

proposition

This

set of moves is useful; it is qu

ite revealing about the de

velo

pmen

t of

_an

argumentin an essay, butthe number of o

pfio

nal moves is pr

oble

mati

c. One so

luti

on

to th

is mig

ht be to th

ink o

f elements n

ot as

moves as i

n the Swa

les and Bhatia mod

els,

but as what Young (1994), in

ana

lyzi

ng university le

ctur

es, describes as pha

ses.

,

Y

Phases are

"str

ands

of di

scou

rse that re

cur discontinuously th

roug

hout

a particular

12. TEACHING THE ACADEMIC ESSAY

229

inte

rspe

rsed

wit

h ot

hers

resulting in an interweaving of threads as the discourse

prog

ress

es" (p. 16

5)..

But th

e main problem, a

t lea

st in

the use

of t

he model, i

s th

at it

fails t

o account

for the fa

ct that th

ere is

considerable

variation among the ess

ays required by

different d

isci

plin

es or e

ven within one di

scipline among di

ffer

ent subject lect

urer

s.As Ho

rowitz (198

6a, p. q

.4'7) stated, in ess

ays t

here

is "a sp

ecif

ic range of a

ccep

tabl

ewriting be

havi

ours

dictated not by the in

dividual but by the ac

adez

nicc

ommu

nity

.»Si

mila

rly,

Kusel (1992, cit

ed in

Jor

dan,

1997

, p. 237) concluded fr

om a st

udy of the

stru

ctur

e of e

ssay

introductions a

nd conclusions from si

x di

ffer

ent sub

ject

areas t

hat

the discourse of

these sec

tion

s varies considerably across disciplines. However

pote

ntia

lly u

sefu

l it may be, Hy

iand

's mod

el is

ess

enti

ally

rath

er li

mite

d and se

ems

base

d more on intuition a

bout what an es

say s

houl

d in

clud

e than on

det

aile

d analysis

of a sui

tabl

e co

rpus

of es

says

.An

othe

r approach to the analysis of the es

say is tha

t of

O'B

rien

(1995), who

noted th

at the Rhe

tori

cal Structure Th

eory

(RST~ presented by Mann and Thomp-

son (1

986;

19$8) pr

ovided a useful means of understanding why "weak>° tex

ts are

incoherent. RST ana

lysi

s involves the es

tabl

ishm

ent of

link

ages

bet

ween

different

span

s of

text, whi

ch mig

ht in

volve relations s

uch as CIaim and Evi

denc

e, or

Cau

seand Re

sult

. O'

Brie

n shows tha

t la

ck of coherence in a sec

tion

can be ex

plic

itly

highlighted by in

dicating the absence of l

inkages be

twee

n di

ffer

ent s

ecti

ons of

the

text By analogy, t

he RST app

roac

h can al

so be used to he

lp wri

ters

strengthen the

coherence of

their te

xt by increasing the number of sp

ecif

ic links. Al

thou

gh this

research is clearly relevant and dea

ls with a key as

pect

of academic wri

ting

, its

weakness is th

at it

doe

s not address the more gen

eral

pro

blem

of pr

esen

ting

and

developing in

the ess

ay an argument su

ppor

ted by evidence and citation in

the st

yle

expected by the sub

ject

depamnent.

T~ ~'V

RITI

NG COURSE

The failure to

identify any

tex

t analysis immediately and di

rect

ly app

lica

ble to

the

teac

hing

of writing essays has

led

to va

riou

s co

nclu

sion

s. The main one is

tha

t the

wziting co

urse

should concentrate on int

rodu

cing

stu

dent

s to the aca

demi

c stance

expe

cted

of a postgraduate st

uden

t in the

se departments, no

tabl

y the "rhetoric of

objectivity," or the "r

heto

ric of no rhetoric."The two con

srit

uent

s of th

e co

urse

are

(a) a focu

s on ce

rtain r

elevant f

eatures o

f the ess

ay, not

ably

the us

e of

an app

ropr

iate

style i

n wriring, th

e pr

esen

tati

on and discussion of

data, t

he use

of he

dgin

g devices

in the

making of

cla

ims,

the use

of so

urce

s and (b) one-to-one tut

oria

ls in which

students are helped to

str

uctu

re the ess

ays co

here

ntly

and to adopt the ap

prop

riat

est

ance

exp

ecte

d by

the dep

artm

ent.

It might be th

ough

t that

a more ext

ensi

ve team -ta

ught

program alo

ng the Imes

Dof sim

ilar

pro

gram

s run

with ot

her departments

at Birmingham (7nhnc Rr

BC~18V-T-tvanc 104M __.___~

_i ,

230

DUDLEY-EVANS

j 12. TEACHING THE ACADEMIC ESSAY

1

rega

rd to the assignments th

at the

y set. Thi

s indeed wou

ld be extremely desirable,

_ The foc

us on th

ese as

pect

s of

language ser

ves two purposes: It

helps stu

den~

,but t

he nature of th

e staff in the Bu

sine

ss School is suc

h th

at it

has

not bee

n po

ssib

leremove th

e kind of b

asic

styl

isti

c errors t

hat make th

eir w

riti

ng app

ear "foreign" and

to set up more than a limited number of team

-tau

ght cl

asse

s on exa

mina

tion

th

at may tak

e the at

tent

ion away fro

m the content of

the ess

a It also helps to

questions in the per

iod leading up to the ex

amin

atio

ns at th

e en

d of

the fir

st and

i~ne oduce st

uden

ts to the st

ance

as an academic

writer expect d of them by

the

seco

nd ter

ms. There are two reasons fo

r th

is. F

irst, many of t

he courses are opt

ions

, pa

rtme

nts.

This

effort is

tak

en a st

age further i

n the su

bseq

uent

unit

s, whi

ch dea

land st

uden

ts sel

ect th

eir own prob am from a large number of op

tion

s av

aila

ble.

with the nee

d for ca

utio

n in

aca

demi

c writing

This

means that i

t is i

mpra

ctic

al to co

ncen

trat

e on a pa

rtic

ular

ess

ay as many in the

P

band the need for

the use of he

dgin

gdevices

arti

cula

rly when mak

ing claims bas

ed on da

ta collected. Students aze

b oup will n

ot, in f

act,

be writing tha

t essay. Second, many of t

he courses are

tau

ght

taught to present data appropriately and to use mo

dal verbs, app

ropr

iate

rep

orti

ngby visiting l

ectu

rers

, and it

is therefore difficult to

ask them to participate i

n azfurthenr

- ~

verb

s such as in

dicate

and suggest, and ot

her hedging de

vice

ssu

ch as the use of

clas

ses re

late

d to Eng

lish

and stu

dy skills. The team-

taug

ht sessions

at

I vabue exp

ress

ions

lik

e a szgnifzcant amo

unt,

slightly hi

gher

(Ch

anne

l, 1994•

conc

entr

ate on gen

eral

examinarion ski

lls and st

rate

gies

for answers.

Hyland, 1996 m mak

intr

oThe part of th

e En

glis

h course tha

t foc

uses

on lin

uis

tic f

eatu

res of th

e es

sa

~ b be

nera

liza

tion

s from the data.

'

conc

entr

ates

on int

rodu

cing

aspects of E

nglish st

yle, pa

rticularly the choice of le s

These two units on linguistic f

eatures and hedging work wel

l and az

e popular

with stu

dent

s, pa

rticularly as they dea

l with the act

ual pr

oble

ms tha

t the

seem to

and grammatical features tha

t ar

e more formal and "a

cade

mic"

in style. Many

face in the first p

erio

d of th

e one-yeaz cou

rse when the are ha

ving

to rite the

sep

othe

r as

sign

ment

s for the first t

ime.

The

re is, how

ever

, on

e main danger with the

international students are

unaware of the differences between informal s oke

n

Engl

ish and the more for

mal style expected in an essay, and thi

s lack of awa

rene

ss

---

approach. Because of the lack of

exte

nsiv

e co

ntac

t between EAP and the de

art_

may hav

e be

en inc

reas

ed by the oth

erwi

se desirable con

cent

rati

on m gen

eral

mental st

aff facul

PEn

glis

h courses on spoken lanb age and on a communicative app

roac

h to the

~ h') m

enti

oned

ear

lier

, the materials are general in nature and do

not re

late

directly to particular ass ban

ment

s. Thi

s ca

n be

compensated for

to some

teac

hing

of that lanb age.

The cou

rse'

emphasizes features such as the following:

-extent in

the one-to-one tu

tori

als where st

uden

ts aze helped with the actual s

tructure

of th

e es

say th

at they az

e writing, pa

rtic

ulaz

ly the int

rodu

ctio

n and the conclusion.

1. the preference for more for

mal verbs su

ch as in

vest

igat

e ra

ther

than look

But onl

y ce

rtai

n st

uden

ts with particular pro

blem

s wi

ll have the o

ortu

ni

ofinto, flu

ctua

te ra

ther tha

n go up and down, ob

tain rather t

han get, and so on

; ha

ving

a tu

torial, and there is

the consequent da

nger

that th

e str

ate~

ie s au ht i

n th

ewriting class wi

ll not

, in fa

ct, be tr

ansf

eree

b

g2. th

e ne

ed to av

oid colloquial expressions such as sor

t of negative, the future

d to the wr

itin

g of the actual ass

ignm

ents

requ

ired

by the de

part

ment

s.is up in the ai

r, pretty good;

3. th

e ne

ed to avoid co

ntra

cted

forms suc

h as isn

't, ca

n't,

and so on

; USE OF SOURCES

4. the preference fo

r no

mina

lize

d forms, for example, th

e co

oper

atio

n of IBM

and App

le led

to the es

tabl

ishm

ent of a new fa

ctory rather than IBM and

Apple have been co

oper

atin

g, and thi

s has le

d to the setting up of a new

fact

ory;

5. th

e avoidance of

"run on" expressions such as

etc., and and so f

orth;

6. the car

eful

and sel

ecti

ve use

of the pe

rson

al forms I, we, and you and the

avoidance of one

; and

7. th

e av

oida

nce of

direct questions and the pre

fere

nce for indirect que

stio

ns.

Thes

e is

sues

are tau

ght through short exercises comparing informal and formal

lang

uage

, and act

ivit

ies i

n wh

ich students are

ask

ed to revise pas

sage

s written i

n an

~nan

~rop

nate

s y e.

__ _

___

As a result of th

ese misgivings about the pedagogical materials, a maj

or ef

fort has

been

made to en

sure

tha

t the fi

nal p

art o

f the writing course, t

he use

of sources and

quotation or

citation, reflects the

actu

al p

ractice in

the dep

artm

ents

and t

heexpectations of the le

ctur

ers ma

rkin

g as

sign

ment

s.There is

a considerable amount of confusion about the ri

ghts

and wro

ngs of

usin

g sources, on the pa

rt of bo

th students and

lect

urer

s in the

se cou

rses

. The

conc

ept of pl

agia

rism

indeed ha

s been much dis

cuss

ed in th

e literature in recent

year

s wi

th int

eres

ting

contributions by Pennycook (1996), Sc

ollo

p (1

995)

, and

Widdowson (1

993), among many others. Many of th

ese co

ntri

buri

ons su

gges

t that

the de

fini

tion

of pl

agia

rism

is ve

ry dif

ficu

lt to pi

n down and will va

ry from culture

to culture. Pennycook (1996) ar

gued

tha

t the ex

tens

ive qu

otat

ion of

others' ac

tual

word

s without at

trib

utio

n of th

e so

urce

is ac

cept

able

behavior in Chi

nese

soc

iety

,and Widdowson (1993) seem

ed to su

gges

t th

at we al

l plagiarize o

ne ano

ther

all t

hetime. While ac

cept

ing th

at pla

giar

ism is a dif

ficu

lt concept to define and tha

t we

academics do ste

al one

ano

ther

's ide

as, I fe

el tha

t too much „t,

;~„~

,,,,

~,;~

;.,,

. ,...

..

----~I

li~,lf ~,I "~~. II1~1

~I~~ ~~

~~~ ~I~'r ; ~~

~'

i

~~

,I

,;;~ , if;

S; ,~

~:'~

}~} ~~

1 jv.

:K

~',

fi~~

,~N~~~ _

j..

''I:. ~~~4

,

232

DUDLEY-EVANS

aware of or quickly understand the issue

s of plagiarism, provided that the

y az

e

disc

usse

d fu

lly i

n class t

ime.

They know tha

t to copy ext

ensi

vely

and wid

ely from

essa

ys wri

tten

by the previous year's s

tude

nts or fro

m the I

nter

net i

s dis

hone

st, and

that to quo

te di

rect

ly fro

m a so

urce

without at

trib

utio

n is wrong. They al

so know (o

r

quickly understand) t

hat in mo

st ca

ses t

hey wi

ll nee

d to

con

vert

the or

igin

al wor

ds

from

a sou

rce in

to their own words and

tha

t the ke

y criterion of suc

cess

ful an

d

correct citation is whether th

ey hav

e shown understanding of the so

urce

. It i

s my

experience th

at once the basic g

utpo

se of making use of s

ources is

und

erst

ood,

it is

the t

echniques of qu

otation an

d ci

tati

on th

atre

ally

cause th

e pr

oble

ms. S

tude

nts ar

e

worr

ied by que

stio

ns such as

how many quo

tati

ons can be used in

an essay, how fa

r

the original te

xt needs to

be ch

ange

d, and how one

actu

ally

shows un

derstanding of

the te

xt.

In this re

gard

I have fo

und the em

phas

is on the "si

n" of plagiarism that is

freq

uent

ly pl

aced in

university re

gulations and de

part

ment

al ha

ndouts un

helpful. In

one of the d

epartments whose st

uden

ts I teach, ahan

dout

on pl

agiarism is

distributed

at th

e be

ginn

ing of th

e academic yea

r. The following quotes ar

e extracts fro

m this

handout:

s

Plag

iari

sm is

considered by the U

nive

rsit

y as

a se

rious o

ffence. I

t is a fo

rm of c

hear

ing

and as

suc

h is

penalised by the examiners ac

cord

ing to

its e

xten

t and gravity.

Plag

iari

sm is

a fo

rm of c

heating in

whi

ch the

stu

dent

tries t

o pa

ss off

som

eone

else

'swo

rk as his or

her own

. When it

occurs it

is usually fou

nd in di

sser

tati

ons,

theses or

assessed es

says

. Typ

ical

ly su

bstantial p

assages az

e "li

fted

" ver

bati

m fro

m a particular

source wit

hout

proper at

tribution h

avin

g been mad

e.

Do not

copy fr

om oth

er st

udents. S

taff

can eas

ily de

tect

copy

ing.

It is

difFicult to disagree with anything in these quotes, b

ut th

e to

ne and

emphasis

of th

e document seem le

ss tha

n he

lpfu

l. Cl

early, co

pying fro

m ot

her s

tude

nts or th

e

Internet is ch

eati

ng and deserves punishment if di

scov

ered

. But is a fa

ilur

e to

attribute sources so

sin

ful?

In many cas

es it

wil

l result from a lack of kno

wled

ge

abou

t the te

chniques of a

ttri

buti

on and

unwillingness to

alter the or

igin

al ra

ther th

an

from

a preparedness to

take ri

sks through cheating.

It is my experience th

at most st

uden

ts are unc

erta

in about how far

to go in

changing the original te

xt of a source. In the "k

nowl

edge

-tel

ling

" pa

rt of assign-

ments where

the focus

is on,

for example, an a

ccountancy tec

hniq

ue or an

inve

stme

nt procedure, it is actually difficult to ch

ange

the ori

gina

l wording that

much

. The key

thi

ng is

to include a re

fere

nce an

d to

show that o

ne has

understood Y "

the source. S

wale

s an

d Fe

ak (1994, p.

126

) get

down to the re

al nub of the matter

when the

y as

k in

the. e

xercise qu

oted

nex

t to

dza

w th

e line between what

is

acce

ptab

le and

what is not:

1. cop

ying

a par

agra

ph as it is

from the so

urce

without any acknowledg-

ment

;

12. TEACHING TF~ ACAD~C ESSAY

233

2. cop

ying

a par

agra

ph making only sma

ll cha

nges

, such as

rep

laci

ng a

few verbs or ad

ject

ives

with synonyms;

3. cu

tting an

d pa

stin

g a pa

ragr

aph by usi

ng the sentences of th

e original

but l

eaving one or two out

, or by putting one or tw

o sentences in

adi

ffer

ent o

rder

;4.

composing a par

agra

ph by tak

ing sh

ort s

tand

ard phrases from a num

ber

of so

urces and putting th

em together with some words of your own;

5. pa

raph

rasi

ng a par

agra

ph by re

writ

ing wI~ substantial changes in

lang

uage

and org

aniz

atio

n, amount of de

tail

and

exa

mple

s; and

6. quoting a par

agra

ph by pla

cing

it in

block for

mat with the

sou

rce ci

ted.

As Swa

les and Fe

ak acknowledged in

Chair te

ache

rs' b

ook (

Swal

es & Feak,1994,

p. 68

), it

is difficult to

decide wh

ethe

r Op

tion

4 co

nstitutes ac

cept

able

behavior or

not. In my survey of fi

ve key

established lec

ture

rs in th

e MBA in International

Banking and Finance co

urse

, only one regarded Opt

ion 3 as acceptable, b

ut three

foun

d Op

tion

4 ac

ceptable.

There is the same problem with th

e us

e of da

ta tak

en from th

e Internet. Many

stud

ents

in

business, banking, and

fin

ance

cou

rses

loo

k up reports posted by

comp

anie

s on

the Internet and make eff

ecti

ve use of data the

y find there about

turnover, p

rofits, a

nd sal

es. A

gain

, it i

s very dif

ficu

lt to ch

ange

the

wording very

much as it

con

sist

s of ba

sic description and presentation of da

ta..

'The

key t1~Ilg i

sto

ack

nowl

edge

the

source.

By contrast, when stu

dent

s engage in

"kn

owle

dge-tr

ansf

orma

fion

," th

at is

, in

eval

uati

ng techniques or models, or in

making recommendations for ac

tion

, th

eissues are

clea

rer.

It is

much eas

ier for

students to

use

thei

r own wor

ds because th

eyare evaluating rather t

han re

port

ing,

and

the exp

ecta

tion

is that the

y will do so.

In teaching st

uden

ts what is and

what i

s not

acceptable in

t]ie use of s

ources, i

tha

s be

en fou

nd that a fu

ll dis

cuss

ion of at

I the

issu

es and

a de

tail

ed eic

amin

atio

n of

the te

chni

ques

of referencing, bot

h in

the

tex

t an

d in

the

bibliography, are

mor

eef

fect

ive than a focus on th

e techniques of pa

raph

rasi

ng. It is useful to di

scus

sex

ampl

es ofparaphrasing t

o see whe

ther

itha

s been don

e adequately, b

ut th

is is

not

enough in itself. We have found th

at te

achi

ng the

tec

hniq

ue of ma

ltin

g a re

fere

nce

in the text is

par

ticu

larl

y important; it is sur

pris

ing how often han

dboo

ks and

text

book

s foc

us on

ly on th

e bi

blio

grap

hy. The qu

esti

ons addressed i

n the cou

rse ar

ethe a

dvantages a

nd dis

adva

ntag

es of i

ntegral o

rnonintegral ci

tation (Swa

les,

1990

),the preferences within the dep

artm

ents

for

either th

e A.

pA or nu

mber

sty

le of

referencing in

the tex

t, and a discussion of whether li

mited di

rect

quotation from

sources i

s des

irab

le. It is my ex

peri

ence

that

the amo

unt o

f ref

eren

cing

that

different

disc

ipli

nes favor va

ries considerably: polirical science see

ms to fa

vor a larger

amount of di

rect

quotation than other so

cial

sci

ence

s, whereas the

sci

ence

s and

engineering us

e very li

ttle

, if a

ny, qu

otat

ion.

The quesfion of what is acceptable behavior in

the

use

of s

ources and

how far

the so

urce

rea

lly needs to

be adapted an

d paraphrased ul

tima

tely

com

es down to

.,,..

,. _.. s

_ _

234

DUDLEY-EVANS

what is

acc

epte

d by sub

ject

lecturers ma

rkin

g the as

s b~nments. There is ev

iden

ce

j that lec

ture

rs supervising dis

sert

atio

ns or ma

rkin

g as

s D~nments fo

r international

~ ,

students in

applied li

nguisrics often do not, in f

act, pi

ck up cas

es where th

e student

has ta

ken verbatim quite lon

g ch

unks

from the or

igin

al te

xt, and cer

tain

ly option 4

in the exe

rcis

e from Swales and Fe

ak quoted

earl

ier is regarded as

acc

epta

ble.

4 Wh

ethe

r this is a result of the widespread use of continuous ass

essm

ent an

d the

~ co

nseq

uent

incr

ease

in the amount of ma

rkin

g that has

to be done, or an acceptance

V ~

of the dif

ficu

lty of chant ng the behavior of international students re

main

s a

quesfion that i

s difficult t

o an

swer

. It i

s ce

rtai

nly a ca

se, I would arg

ue, where we

as EAP teachers ne

ed to be aware of an

d ac

t upon wha

t Graves (1

975) refe

rred

to

,' as the "i

nformal or

der"

or practical s

yste

m of wha

t is actually ac

cept

ed by su

bjec

t

lecturers a

s com

pare

d with th

e "fo

rmal

order," whi

ch is

set down in

the i

nsti

tuti

on's

regulations. Grav

es' example of the in

form

al or

der comes from th

e Thi

rd Wor

ld, but

i ~

the same phenomenon can be ob

serv

ed, I would su

gges

t, in Fi

rst Wor

ld un

iversities.

Wils

on (1997) has indeed suggested that the li

mite

d use of copying from

_: ,

_ sources may be a us

eful

stage on the way to de

velo

ping

the appropriate academic

_ 1

styl

e for

the us

e of references to

support an argument. Dra

wing

on work by Chanock

A

(1996) and Whitaker (199

3), she suggested th

at when students az

e learning t

o wr

ite

i

,.<:. ~

._. ;.

.,...

classroom

genr

es, th

ey dev

elop

"interdiscourse," whi

ch i

s fo

rmed

fro

m their

hypo

thes

es abo

ut what i

s required i

n a new classroom gen

re. She al

so su

ggested t

hat

j th

ere a

re fo

ur st

ages in

the dev

elop

ment

of a

cademic wr

itin

g. Th

ese ar

e: re

petition,

whic

h involves extensive cop

ying

without ci

tati

on; pat

chin

g, whi

ch als

o involves

{ extensive co

pyin

g bu

t with the appropriate cit

atio

ns; plagiphrasing, in wh

ich

students blend copied se

crio

ns, q

uotations, pa

raphrases, and

their own words; a

nd,

finally, con

vent

iona

l ac

adem

ic w

riti

ng. She suggested t

hat the

third

stage,

plag

iphr

asin

g, shows that st

udents az

e beg

inni

ng to

spe

ak with t

heir own vo

ices, and

is an important st

age on

the way to developing the appropriate academic writing

style.

k .,';' I!

DISCUSSION

~ The course described differs from many genre-based courses in

its focus on the

j appropriate academic stance for a master's course and the appropriate strategy for

the use of so

urces. Many EAP writing courses (f

or example, Weissberg & Buker,

1990), assume that non-native speaking writers are essentially familiar with the

# conventions of the genres th

at th

ey have to write, but need help with translating t

hat

~: t

s familiarity with the conventions into appropriate language. This is by now a very

`'

~ '

familiar move-

based type of course based on Swales' research into the academic

~"

article and other si

milar work. The course described here assumes th

atlearners have

',~ had relatively little experience with the writing required of them at the University

of Birmingham and need help with adjusting to the appropriate stance, t

hat is, the

mixing of academic and p

rofessional

wriring expected of them i

n what are

postexperience and essentially practical courses. I

n its focus on stance and strate-

~`.

~ _~_

12- TEACHING THE ACADEMIC ESSAY

235

gies, the course has certain similarities with the approach adopted in Swales and

Feak's Academic Writing for Graduate Students (1994); the difference is that it

isconcerned not with the reporting of research findings but with the process of

showing th

at th

e writer has understood and can summarize the relevant so

urces. The

course also deals with a major academic azea that causes difficulty fo

r international

students at the University of Birmingham: t]~e appropriate use and

citation of

sources.

I believe this description of the wriring course for master's students has a

number of implications for genre teaching. It is now widely accepted that text

analysis attempting only to establish a set of moves for a given genre orpart_genre

(a particular s

ection of the academic ar

ticle, say) i

s insufficient. T'

he move analysis

needs to be supplemented by analysis of sociological fe

atures of the context within

which the text is

used and of th

e discourse community that ~, i

~l read and judge the

text. In

the same way, th

e teaching of moves as part og ~ academic writing course

for graduate students needs to be supplemented by consideration of the appropriate

academic st

ance expected by the department. As Swales and Feak (1994, p. 3) stated

in the introduction

to t

heir textbook, it is important to

stress the concept of

"posirioning."'This i

nvolves asking st

udents to a

ssess what th

ey are ~,

riting in

terms

of how well it is positioning them as junior members of their chosen academic

"communities,"The stances that th

e students taking the courses at th

e University of

Birmingham described here have to adopt are rather diverse, but the basic point

made by Swales and Feak holds true,

There is a particulaz dagge

r in any idnd of ge

nre teaching: The wr~~ng teacher

may find the teaching of a set of ge

neralized moves a strain

method that may lead to a certain comfortable isolation from th actual ds P pl ne.

The ri

sk is

that such an approach will not co

nfront many of the day-to-day problems

students encounter when writing the actual genres required by the department As

always in English for Specific Purposes work, there is a need to find out what the

actual problems are and come up w

ith innovative solutions rather than s

ettle

unquesrioningly for accepted procedures.

Thegenreoftheassessedessayorthe2,000-or3,000-word ass b~entismuch

less predictable than the research report and dissertation. The teaching of issues

related to stance or positioning is, I have argued, much more feasible and more

relevant th

an an attempt to establish and teach a pa

ttern of moves. I

t is t

hus essential

for the writing teacher to find out as much as possible about th

e expectations of the

department th

rough dialogue and the examination of actual te

xts t

hat s

tudents write

and subject lecturers' reactions to them. Such anapproach—especially where it

attempts to find out how one or more aspects of academic writing (for example,

using sources) is re

garded by subject l

ecturers is as

much a genre approach to the

teaching of writing as a course focusing on the moves in the introduction or

discussion sections of a research article.