Saturday, October 24, 2015

Similarities between these three situations in academic writing


Tutoring for group writings, essay reviews through a simulation, and class summaries, are conceived as instances of support and guidance for students that are faced with the task of writing on a subject that they still don't master. This challenge characterizes learning in higher education, but has gone unnoticed by many. The dual nature of this rugged enterprise requires a two-faceted approach from teachers, in order to help students join a community of specialized discourse as much as specialized knowledge.
The three situations described above share the goal of giving some visibility to the need of reviewing writing, not only at the superficial spelling and syntax level, but also at the level of concepts and discursive organization. All three provide the opportunity to share with others the role of reader-reviewer. All three let you review language and ideas together, as a way of progressively getting closer to the concepts and to the specific language of the discipline. In this sense, the teacher provides feedback focused on the conceptualization of the content, which is what provides the most appropriate logic structure for writing.