16. What’s involved in academic writing

Teaching Writing in Second and Foreign Language Classrooms By Jessica Williams

“…To write well- one must write…It’s hard to be a good swimmer without going into the water”
-- Jessica Williams –-

Chapter 2 Review:

What’s involved in academic writing?
L2 and FL writers are considerable disadvantage in that they are expected to start producing writing too soon that they haven’t fully mastered the language yet. Although some writing experience in L1 might be helpful in learning to write in L2. Novice L2 writers may have to learn the whole new writing convention of writing in the second language to meet the standard. In addition, not all competent L2 language users are capable to write nor have well-developed literacy skills in their L1. Many researchers agree that there are 2 major contributing factors to L2 writing proficiency: L2 proficiency and L1 writing expertise.

Composing and writing: writing is a more general term and can include the simple encoding of words on paper. Composing has a more limited meaning: expressing meaning through writing. It is a communication with a purpose rather than language practice. Composing is a complex process, involving a variety of skills and types of knowledge.
Writing clearly and persuasively is a skill that takes time to develop and involves much more that writing down spoken language. There are more than linguistic knowledge but also entails gathering ideas and inform those ideas to the readers. In put is considered important for develop writing. Reading is one of the most important components of input for producing a text. Writing is a multidimensional skill that takes time and practice to master.


Academic Writing and its context.
All acts of communication take place within social contexts, and an academic setting is no exception. Scholars refer to the academic setting as a new discourse community, with a whole set of rules, conventions and expectations for generating and exchanging information. Different types of writing require different discourse conventions to convey particular purposes or genres. A genre is a particular type of text: report, memo, newspaper, poem, and academic paper. Learning to write involves mastering a variety of genres. Student writers will find that not all writings are alike. The requirement of each task is determined by the social group, or discourse community that uses the particular genre. Part of the job of writing teacher is to introduce students to the practical reality of the discourse community they are attempting to join, that is to facilitate their apprenticeship in writing.

My Perspectives on this chapter: What are the discourse communities that Thai tertiary students attempting to join in the future? - Electronic discourse community-
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