Teaching Academic Writing: Challenges and Opportunities

Christine B. Feak English Language Institute University of Michigan

Typical EAP Writing

Content

• Summary

• Critique

• Research Papers

• Argumentation

• Compare-Contrast

• Causal Analysis

Challenges

• Timing

• When should students take an EAP writing course?

• Should students take a series of EAP writing courses?

• At what point should a topic or genre be introduced?

• What is the right sequencing of topics?

Challenges

• Student interest • Do students want to take a class?

• Do students have to take a class

• Are students actually writing in their degree program?

• Do students see the value of taking a class?

Challenges

Student Proficiency

Virtually, I’d like to buy goods such as clothes, shoes, and books through online buying system for saving my valuable time. I try not to use it, however, after buying soccer shoe two years ago. According to my memory, I could get a soccer shoe before even passing 2 days from that day ordering it. It was very good to get quickly. However, a received soccer shoe was smaller than ordered that. As wanting to change larger one, I called seller the next day. Even though taking my call which is to order it 3 days ago, his telephone number didn’t exist anymore. The situation that I couldn’t exchange another shoe with large size made me embarrassed. As a result, I had to buy another soccer shoe with offline system as not knowing whether I could buy it in online system or not. Because of bad experience from online trade system, buy things directly in stores is more comfortable and reliable than order them using it.

Challenges

Experiential product model- modeling approach

As discussed in the introduction, prior research on experiential products such as Disneyland ticket has shown the peculiar characteristic in product choice or evaluation, compared to the utilitarian product that can be used such as a car.

First, there are papers which talk about the emotion factors in the model framework of purchase. In modeling the demand for experiential products, Fowder, Kadiyali, and Narayan (2009) propose utilizing the emotional product attributes, which are obtained by analyzing the keywords in the movie review. It is verified that consumers have preference over experiencing mixed emotion in the movie. Also, incorporating emotional factors improve the predictive power for market share of US movie industry. Neelamegham and Jain (1999) also incorporated the psychological factors in the multi-stage movie choice model, and find that consumers tend to rely more on their feeling and emotional expectations in making movie choice.

Challenges

• Materials • Books may or may not be available

• In-house developed materials take time to create • 15 hours to produce one good hour of

materials based on authentic texts (Dudley-Evans & St. John 1998).

• Choosing may not be an option

Challenges

• Adjustments

• Danger of oversimplifying what it

means to be writing

• Avoiding “diet” or “lite” EAP

• Knowing what attributes to focus on

Challenges

• Assessment • Mismatch between what we teach and

how we evaluate

• Using rules that may not really hold true

• Scoring rubrics

A Typical Rubric

Understanding of Audience

4 - Exceeds Expectations

Demonstrates a keen understanding of the target audience, and uses appropriate vocabulary and language. Anticipates probable questions and addresses these concerns with evidence pertaining to probable potential readers.

3 - Meets Expectations

Demonstrates a general understanding of audience and uses mostly appropriate vocabulary and language structures.

A Typical Rubric

Understanding of Audience

2 – Needs Improvement

Demonstrates a limited understanding of audience, and generally uses appropriate, if simple, vocabulary and language.

1 - Inadequate

Not clear which audience is intended for this writing.

A Typical Rubric

Hook / Introduction

4 - Exceeds Expectations Introductory paragraph begins with a statement that both grabs the attention of the reader and is appropriate to the audience.

3 - Meets Expectations Introductory paragraph begins with a statement that attempts to grab the attention of the reader, but is incomplete in some sense, or may not be appropriate to the audience.

A Typical Rubric

Hook / Introduction

2 – Needs Improvement Introductory paragraph begins with a statement that might be construed as an attention getter, but is not clear.

1 - Inadequate Introductory paragraph does not contain a hook or attention grabber.

Introduction to an “A” Paper

Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan and T.M. Malthus in An Essay on the Principle of Population share similar views on what drives individuals, yet they have very different visions of how the state should be organized. This essay will first examine the assumptions of both men on the innate characteristics of individuals and the ideal organization of the state. It will then explore the ways in which Hobbes and Malthus are similar and different in their assumptions, and will conclude with a discussion of why two individuals with such similar micro-ontological assumptions came to such different conclusions about the organization of the state.

(An “A” paper in Philosophy taken from MICUSP)

Intro from a Published Paper

In recent years, there has been an emerging demand for robust face recognition algorithms that are able to deal with real-world face images. This is largely due to two factors. . .

Gang Hua, Ming-Hsuan Yang, Erik Learned-Miller, Yi Ma, Matthew Turk, David J. Kriegman, Thomas S. Huang, "Introduction to the Special Section on Real-World Face Recognition," IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 33, no. 10, pp. 1921-1924, October, 2011

Rubric Score?

Inadequate

How Cats Lap: Water Uptake by Felis catus Science 26 November 2010: Vol. 330 no. 6008 pp. 1231-1234

1Terrestrial animals have evolved diverse means to acquire water, including absorption through the skin (1) or extraction of moisture from food (2), but most rely on drinking (3–12). 2Drinking presents a challenge to land vertebrates, because fresh water occurs mainly as horizontal liquid surfaces, such as puddles, ponds, lakes, or streams, and animals must displace water upward against gravity to drink it. 3Crucial in the drinking process is the role of the tongue, which in vertebrates is used in two distinctly different ways. 4Vertebrates with complete cheeks, such as pigs, sheep, and horses, use suction to draw liquid upward and use their tongue to transport it intraorally (13, 14). 5In contrast, vertebrates with incomplete cheeks, including most carnivores, are unable (after weaning) to seal their mouth cavity to generate suction and must rely on their tongue to move water into the mouth (13). 6When the tongue sweeps the bottom of a shallow puddle, the process is called licking (4). 7When the puddle is deeper than the tongue excursion into the liquid, it is called lapping (15). 8Here, we report on the lapping mechanism of the domestic cat (Felis catus).

A Typical Rubric

Theses / Main Idea Structuring

4 - Exceeds Expectations

Introductory paragraph contains a clear thesis of main idea with clear suggestions as to how the body of the essay will support this thesis.

3 - Meets Expectations

Introductory paragraph contains a clear thesis. However, the following support sentences are not necessarily, or only vaguely connected to the body paragraphs. .

A Typical Rubric

Theses / Main Idea Structuring

2 – Needs Improvement Introductory paragraph contains a statement that may be construed as a thesis. However, there is little structural support in the following sentences.

1 - Inadequate Introductory paragraph contains no clear thesis statement.

Topic Challenges

Writing Assignments

1. Global warming is a serious issue that affects the entire world. What can be done at the individual level slow the growing danger of this problem?

2. Compare and contrast the opportunities your generation has with that of your parents’ generation. Provide specific examples.

3. Space exploration is a waste of money. Do you agree or disagree? Support your response with recent examples.

Topic Challenges

Writing Assignments

What invention would you nominate for the Top Invention of the last 25 years? How has it changed our lives?

Choose one of the topics suggested and write a well-organized paragraph.

• What are the causes of stress?

• How have cell phones affected society?

Goals

The goals of most English for academic purposes (EAP) writing classes are transcendent. That is, the usual purpose is to enable students to write better not for EAP writing classes, but for academic purposes (Leki & Carson, 1997, p.39).

Writing Demands

Task Social sciences/ humanities/arts

Sciences/math/ engineering

N=103 % N=97 %

Library research paper

55 53 19 20

Article/Book review

30 29 5 5

Report on an experiment/project

21 20 18 19

Plan/Proposal 21 20 3 3

Case study 18 17 5 5

Summary/Abstract

17 17 5 5

Essay 13 13 1 1

Journal article 11 11 3 2

Unstructured writing

13 13 2 2

Annotated bibliography

7 7 1 1

Miscellaneous 3 2 0 0

MICUSP

MICUSP

• Around 830 papers (roughly 2.6 million words)

• Different types (e.g. essays, reports, response papers)

• 16 disciplines within four academic divisions (Humanities and Arts, Social Sciences, Biological and Health Sciences, and Physical Sciences).

• Papers written by final year undergraduate and graduate students who obtained an A grade for their paper.

• Papers marked up in XML and maintain the structural divisions (sections, headings, paragraphs) of the original paper.

MICUSP

• A file header includes, among other things, information about the discipline and the student’s level, native-speaker status, and gender

• Possible to carry out customized searches in subsections of the corpus, e.g. only in Biology papers written by native-speaker final year undergraduate students.

MICUSP (all disciplines)

MICUSP Biology

MICUSP Engineering (civil, industrial, & mechanical )

MICUSP English

MICUSP Sociology

Challenges

• To what extent should we attempt to teach the genres and subgenres students need to master?

• If we do not, then what do we teach?

• If we do, then how do we go about it?

Challenges

• We can teach the genres

• But these genres are often the result of important work that precedes the writing.

• Can we perhaps tap into the work that underpins the writing students might need to do?

Challenges

• So much academic begins with talk.

• After writing there is more talk.

• Writing involves writing about some results.

• We can teach “data commentary”.

Figure 1 Dollars Donated to Charities Per Household

Table 1. Total Traffic Volume Ambassador Bridge Detroit, Michigan

1998 11, 679,917

1999 12,440,026

2000 12,301,001

2001 11,130,319

2002 10,454,930

2003 9.644,086

2004 8,879,222

2005 8,666,989

2006 9,680,232

2007 9,082,435

2008 7,349,305

2009 6,494,620

2010 7,232,366

2011 7,254,103

Source Material

Contextualized

Interesting

Accessible

Representative

Engaging

What is Missing?

• Involvement

• Engagement

• Students work with a product, an outcome of a process carried out by someone else.

• Access to the creative process that is central to academic writing before writing

Why is engagement important?

• The data collection component of research is common to all fields of study.

• Data enables one to answer research questions.

Why are questions and investigation important?

• Academic writing is all about exploring, answering and writing about questions.

An Example

• For this project you will be creating a research question and gathering data with a team in support of your response to this question.

• Think about the readings we have discussed and written about in the course so far and any questions you may have had about the research you read about.

• Identify others in the class who are also interested your reading. Work with your group to create questions that you can explore on a small scale.

A Sample Questionnaire

1. Are you a graduate or undergraduate student? ____________________

2. Which country did you grow up in? ____________________

What is your reaction to the following? Circle one response.

3. I am satisfied with my grades and GPA.

strongly agree strongly disagree

agree disagree

neither agree nor disagree

A Sample Questionnaire

4. I do my homework and/or study while also doing things on social networking sites. .

strongly agree strongly disagree

agree disagree

neither agree nor disagree

A Sample Questionnaire

5. I study for exams while also doing things on social networking sites.

strongly agree strongly disagree

agree disagree

neither agree nor disagree

A Sample Questionnaire

6. I think time spent on social networking positively affects my grades.

strongly agree strongly disagree

agree disagree

neither agree nor disagree

A Sample Questionnaire

7. I think time spent on social networking negatively affects my grades.

strongly agree strongly disagree

agree disagree

neither agree nor disagree

Please explain your answers to questions 6 and 7.

A Sample Questionnaire

8. I spend ________ hours a week on Facebook, RenRen, or other social networking sites.

0 1-5 6-10 11-15 more than 15

A Student Paper

Does Social Networking Affect University Student Grades?

1There are many onging discussions about whether social networks influence student grades [1]. 2To explore this issue, we collected 45 survey results from a series of related questions given to students at the University of Michigan. 3Our result suggests that the social network websites may have influence on academic performance, but not very significant.

4Generally, social networking websites provide a convenient platform for people to socialize with friends, maintain their relationship in a very efficient way. 5Socializing via internet has become an increasing important part of young adult life [1]. 6In addition, students using these websites share pictures and videos, read a friend’s blog, or get other informations and news. 7In other words, student do not have to make phones call or get together frequently to get updates on their lives. 8Since informations exchange is easier and faster, theoretically, social networking websites may save time on those social activities, freeing up time for other things, thus elevating work efficiency.

A Student Paper

9However, there are also problems along with the convenience of social networking websites. 10Fig. 1 shows the amount of time of respondents spent on social networks while studying. 11About 90% of the students spend no more than 60% of study time on social networking websites. 12The average percentage of the usage of time spend on social networking websites is about 25%, which means 15 minutes wasted for every 1 hour studying.

Fig 1. Social network usage while studying

00.10.20.30.40.50.6

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social network usage while study(%)

A Student Paper

13About half of the respondents (Fig. 2) were unsatisfied with their academic performance. 14Among those respondents, 84% use social websites while studying, which indicates a very high percentage of students are engaged in more than one task while studying. 15Another interesting survey result is that 53% of multitasking students feel affected, and incapable of completing their homework on time. 16Given the existence of many uncontrolled variables, we cannot directly infer that this situation mainly results from social websites usage while studying. 17But social networking websites might be a part of reason to influence their time management and concentration. 18Even more, since the cognitive resource of the human brain is limited [1], the switching between different tasks will reduce the work productivity. 19Generally, social networking websites usage may be linked to a multitasking problem, which causes time management problems and further reduces academic performance.

Support for Writing

5There is little agreement about the possible causes and solutions to this social problem. 6Although past research has focused on psychopathology, incidence of trauma, and the demography of the homeless, little attention has been paid in the psychological literature to the overall quality of life of the homeless. 7Instead, the bulk of the research literature has been confined to clinical aspects of homelessness or to the effects of homelessness on children (e.g., Aptekar, 1994). 8It is often assumed that life on the street is fraught with difficulty, but little information has been collected to suggest which specific life domains might be the least problematic, and in which areas, if any, the homeless might actually be flourishing. 9Unfortunately, overlooking the possible resources and strengths of the homeless limits our ability to create effective interventions.

(From Biswas-Diener, R., & Diener, E. (2006). The subjective well-being of the homeless, and lessons for happiness. Social Indicators Research, 76(2), 185-205.)

Support for Writing

5There is little agreement about ____________ _______________. 6Although past research has focused on _____________________________, little attention has been paid in the _________ literature to ____________________________. 7Instead, the bulk of the research literature has been confined to ________________________. 8It is often assumed that ______________ _______________, but little information has been collected to suggest ____________ _________________. 9Unfortunately, overlooking ____________________________. limits our ability to ______________________.

(From Biswas-Diener, R., & Diener, E. (2006). The subjective well-being of the homeless, and lessons for happiness. Social Indicators Research, 76(2), 185-205.)

Support for Writing

5There is little agreement about how to best support graduate students develop their genre awareness and academic writing skills. 6Although past research has focused on the salient features of genre, little attention has been paid in the Applied Linguistics literature to other important features such as standard phraseology, also sometimes referred to as skeletal phrases (Swales 2008), which also needs to be acquired. 7Instead, the bulk of the research literature has been confined to analyses of the moves in various genres and subgenres (Swales 1990). 8It is often assumed that once students understand the move structure, they will be effective writers, but little information has been collected to suggest that genre awareness is sufficient. 9Unfortunately, overlooking the importance of skeletal phrases limits our ability to offer students the support that they need.

Language Work

TASK

Put together a small reference collection (i.e. a corpus) of 5 articles on your research topic from one or more journals in your area. Be sure that you collect research articles. i.e. no book reviews, review papers, case reports or editorials. This corpus will allow you to compare your language choices with those of experts. The more texts you compile, the better.

Student Analysis

In comparison to my own writing, my vocabulary leans more towards the “FREQUENCY” list rather than the KEY WORDS. This is because I have decided to use terms that are not very technical, except in the case where there use is inevitable. Such examples of these inevitable technical words are “hypertrophy” and “hyperplasia”, because there are no synonyms for these terms. By comparing my writing to these lists I would conclude that my writing is targeting an audience with a general health knowledge, but that it’s not necessarily technically involved with health-related research.

Student Challenges

1With the development of network technology, we are not limit to googling what we need, blogging what we think and messaging what we know, socializing through the Internet is increasingly popular all over the world. 2According to a technical report [1], twitter is popular and now has more than 250 million users. 3Over 100 million tweets are sending each day. 4In addition, with higher access to the Internet and increasing demand for information sharing, the social networking websites have become prevalent among young generation. 5Also, the study and computer time allocation patterns of young people have largely changed. 6Active users have report spend over 3 hours a day on it. 7Therefore, parents and educators worry that less time is devoted to studying by students, who now spend significant amount of time on online chatting, writing, and sharing pictures and videos. 8Hence, we consider question related to social networking sites. 9Given so much time these users have spent on social networking sites, can they do well in their jobs or school work?

Student Challenges

Organization

• General to specific organization

• Each sentence should offer something more specific than the previous one.

• Readers need to be able to anticipate what will come next.

Student Challenges

• Overuse of logical connectors

• Writing according to the green wavy line.

Information Flow

Social-networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter,

QQ and Kaolin, are popular with young adults,

especially college students. Games are especially

popular. So, logging onto Facebook to check the

status of friends or chatting with or playing games

with them if they happen to be online, is

increasingly becoming an important part of their

life.

Parents and teachers are becoming more concerned

about this phenomenon and it is increasingly a

focus of some research. Negative effects can result

from social-networking sites and can hurt academic

performances of students, according to some studies,

while others found the opposite.

Information Flow

Social-networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, QQ

and Kaolin, are popular with young adults, especially

college students. The reason for this popularity is that

students can remain connected to friends and family. To

stay connected students log on to Facebook to check the

status of friends, to chat, or to play games if they happen

to be online. This activity is increasingly becoming an

important part of their life.

The social networking phenomenon has gotten the

attention of parents and teachers, who are concerned

that students are studying less and this may affect their

grades. Given this concern social networking is

increasingly a focus of some research that is investigating

the possible negative effects can result from social-

networking sites. Although some studies have found a

negative impact on grades, others found the opposite.

Student Challenges

• Overuse of logical connectors

• Writing according to the green wavy line.

• Information flow.

• Collocation.

5Also, the study and computer time allocation patterns of young people have largely changed.

Student Challenges

Academic Phraseology

The observations and summary above

should be cautious because all

respondents were graduate students in the

college of engineering. As graduate

students are better exercising in self-

control compared to other sorts of

students (we mean those such as

undergraduates and high school students).

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