The ‘problem’ of student writing: Adapting to the requirements of academic discourse on entering university

Frank Prescott

(Department of English Applied Linguistics, Eötvös Loránd University)

Basic writing skills are lacking.

They have no real understanding of the basics of writing a proper essay – structure, style, register.

They can’t structure a set of ideas in a logical sequence.

… very often they don’t write a thesis, so I’m reading but I’ve no idea toward what thought I’m reaching or where I’m going, or what is the point.

They don’t know how to write essays – they just assemble bits from the Internet.

Having to check on Google whether it’s original or plagiarised every time is a very distressing thing.

Nuffield Review Higher Education Focus Groups Preliminary Report.

(Wilde, S., Wright, S., Hayward, G, Johnson, J., & Skerrett, R., 2006). “Why Johnny can't write, even though he went to Princeton” (Bartlett, 2003,

The Higher Education Chronicle

).

“

The neglected ‘R’: The need for a writing revolution

” (The National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges, 2003)

Students Academic Skills Course Teachers Academic Discourse within the university

Research Questions

The student

what are her/his problems with writing?

what are the causes of these problems?

how aware is the student of them and what to do about them?

Research design Longitudinal ethnographic study over one academic year 20 students 4 academic skills teachers 10 core subject teachers Ethnographic interviews (McCracken,1988) Constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967)

FP: What do you feel are your strengths and weaknesses in writing, if you’re able to comment on those?

C2: Well, I noticed that when I was writing the home essay about the genitive types my weakness was that I arranged my thoughts first, then tried to link the sentences and that didn’t work. So, I started writing, then rearranged my thoughts as the sentences came out. So it’s quite complex for me. So I basically cannot arrange the ideas and then, um, construct the sentences. And that can be a weakness because it takes more time this way. (Interview 3 with Student C2, p. 1)

FP: How are things going at the moment at the university?

B5: Well, they’re okay but everything’s starting to get very, I don’t know, there’s too many things I have to do. So that’s not good.

FP: Uhuh. Don’t worry it’s the same for everybody, teachers as well.

B5: (Laughs) That doesn’t really help. But that’s – yeah, we have this Linguistics essay and haven’t even started it and I have to hand it in a week from now. So that’s horrible.

And then I’m writing an in-class essay today, and tomorrow, and next week I have another one. And I have 3 handing things, and ugh!

(

Interview 2 with student B5, p. 1

)

Main categories

English Learning History The Importance of Attitude Awareness of Writing Problems Managing One’s Own Learning Strategies for Coping with Difficult Papers Taking Action to Tackle Problems

… there is a great deal of difference between one person and the next one, and it depends mainly on the background, not only in terms of the social position of the family, which is most obviously a very decisive factor, but also the background in terms of the previous, former education, like grammar school for instance.

So some of them are excellent actually, at the very beginning already in the first year and in the Introductory class, and some of them fail to acquire the skills up to the very end of the five year period of training. LIT3(1)

Strategies for coping with difficult papers

Padding with quotes and examples Teamwork Using other’s essays Getting help

Taking action to tackle problems

Seeking teacher’s help Teach yourself Go native Change course Drop out

Implications

Self-fulfilling prophecies Myth building More not less writing Communication and collaboration Awareness and understanding

Thank You

Frank Prescott [email protected]