Teaching Academic Writing as a Discipline-Specific Skill in Higher Education

Book excerpt: It is now held that writing influences and is influenced by the discipline where it occurs. The representations that writers employ to produce and comprehend texts are said to be sensitive to the specificities of their disciplinary discourse communities. This exposes writers to divergent disciplinary demands and expectations on what counts as good and appropriate writing in terms of generic structure, discourse features, and stylistic preferences, reflecting dissimilar practices. Because of such exigencies, academic writing seems at times to be very challenging, especially for novice scholars. Thus, any attempt to perceive the function of academic writing in higher education or to evaluate its quality should not discard the shaping force of the disciplines. Teaching Academic Writing as a Discipline-Specific Skill in Higher Education is a critical scholarly resource that examines the role of writing within academic circles and the disciplinary practices of writing in scholastic environments. The book will also explore the particular difficulties that confront writers in the disciplines as well as the endeavors of educational institutions to develop discipline-specific writing traditions among practicing and novice scholars. Featuring a range of topics such as blended learning, data interpretation, and knowledge construction, this book is essential for instructors, academicians, administrators, professors, researchers, and students.