title: Writing to learn: A Collaborative Endeavour

authors: Spiller, Dorothy

abstract: An interrelated problem in teaching and learning development in higher education is that staff development may be divorced from the disciplines in which teaching and learning occurs, at least this is the case in the New Zealand context. For example, while staff developers may engage with discipline‐specific tasks alongside staff, developmental units on university campuses exist independently of academic departments. A corollary of this is that the development of students’ learning skills such as essay writing, is perceived as the responsibility of learning developers on campus rather than academic staff. This can create an artificial division between teaching and learning. This paper outlines a process which has successfully been used to address these concerns. The focus on ‘writing to learn’ with undergraduate students was a collaborative endeavour which included staff developers working alongside academic staff and students within subject tutorials. This placed the developer at the nexus of both student and staff development and facilitated an ongoing collaborative dynamic with benefits for all parties.

text: Writing to learn: A Collaborative Endeavour An interrelated problem in teaching and learning development in higher education is that staff development may be divorced from the disciplines in which teaching and learning occurs, at least this is the case in the New Zealand context. For example, while staff developers may engage with discipline‐specific tasks alongside staff, developmental units on university campuses exist independently of academic departments. A corollary of this is that the development of students’ learning skills such as essay writing, is perceived as the responsibility of learning developers on campus rather than academic staff. This can create an artificial division between teaching and learning. This paper outlines a process which has successfully been used to address these concerns. The focus on ‘writing to learn’ with undergraduate students was a collaborative endeavour which included staff developers working alongside academic staff and students within subject tutorials. This placed the developer at the nexus of both student and staff development and facilitated an ongoing collaborative dynamic with benefits for all parties.

year: 1999

title: Chinese postgraduates' explanation of the sources of sentence initial bundles in their thesis writing

authors: Li, Liang

subjects: computer science

abstract: Lexical bundles, recurrent multiword combinations in a register, are extremely common and important discourse building blocks in academic writing. An increasing number of studies have investigated lexical bundles in academic writing in recent years, but few studies have explored L2 learners’ interpretations of their own bundle production, particularly sentence initial bundle production. Investigating the sources that have appeared to influence learners’ choices and knowledge of bundles is important as it complements what we know about the structural and functional features of lexical bundles and provides useful first-hand information for second language writing pedagogy. The present study interviewed five Chinese postgraduate students to probe possible reasons for their use of the typical sentence initial bundles identified in the self-built Chinese Masters and PhD thesis corpora. The interviews revealed diverse explanations including interlingual transfer, classroom learning, noticing in reading, a lack of rhetorical confidence, and misunderstanding of rhetorical conventions. The results suggest the need for raising students’ awareness of the common sentence starters in postgraduate academic writing, increasing their confidence as student writers, familiarizing them with rhetorical conventions, and incorporating effective corpus-based tools into pedagogical practices.

text: Chinese postgraduates' explanation of the sources of sentence initial bundles in their thesis writing Lexical bundles, recurrent multiword combinations in a register, are extremely common and important discourse building blocks in academic writing. An increasing number of studies have investigated lexical bundles in academic writing in recent years, but few studies have explored L2 learners’ interpretations of their own bundle production, particularly sentence initial bundle production. Investigating the sources that have appeared to influence learners’ choices and knowledge of bundles is important as it complements what we know about the structural and functional features of lexical bundles and provides useful first-hand information for second language writing pedagogy. The present study interviewed five Chinese postgraduate students to probe possible reasons for their use of the typical sentence initial bundles identified in the self-built Chinese Masters and PhD thesis corpora. The interviews revealed diverse explanations including interlingual transfer, classroom learning, noticing in reading, a lack of rhetorical confidence, and misunderstanding of rhetorical conventions. The results suggest the need for raising students’ awareness of the common sentence starters in postgraduate academic writing, increasing their confidence as student writers, familiarizing them with rhetorical conventions, and incorporating effective corpus-based tools into pedagogical practices.

year: 2018

title: Analysis of errors in the writing of first year university students of Māori

authors: Earnshaw, Lorene

subjects: Te reo Māori

abstract: This paper presents a survey of the range of grammatical and lexical errors made in written Māori by University students taking an introductory course in Māori language. We begin by introducing, and discussing the motivation for, an error classification system which accommodates different classes of error. We then provide an analysis of errors in three different types of student writing: homework assignments, impromptu tests and examination transcripts. We conclude with some remarks about the patterns of error which we found.

text: Analysis of errors in the writing of first year university students of Māori This paper presents a survey of the range of grammatical and lexical errors made in written Māori by University students taking an introductory course in Māori language. We begin by introducing, and discussing the motivation for, an error classification system which accommodates different classes of error. We then provide an analysis of errors in three different types of student writing: homework assignments, impromptu tests and examination transcripts. We conclude with some remarks about the patterns of error which we found.

year: 2004-09