Academic writing as discourse of practice: Genre analysis of students writing in Higher Education in Tanzania
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Date
2017-03-06
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Language, Culture and Society
Abstract
This paper uses genre analysis theory to examine students’ academic writing discourse of practice at
the university. Second language writing of academic genre is fundamental to students' academic sur-
vival, not only as a prime means for assessing students’ academic progress but also for students’ liter-
acy growth in their given disciplines at the university. As students’ writing abilities in academic genre
(or lack of them) have often been central to the discussions on this subject, it is considered vital to fo-
cus attention on the kind of discourse practices students engage in their English language writing pro-
cess and the possible explanations for these. First and second students’ texts at a university are inves-
tigated to see the extent to which students’ use of conjunctions in their writing reflect writing practices
as demanded by university discourse of practice. Also, university writing instructional materials are an-
alysed to see their role in students mentoring process into proficient academic writers. The study find-
ings reveal that students’ use of conjunctions is widely at odds with writing practices of academic gen-
re, ostensibly because not only instructors seem inconsistent and doing little, but also instructional ma-
terials on writing demands are inadequate, in mentoring students through disciplinary apprenticeship
into literate writers of university discourse of practice. Such mentoring is recommended by considering
not only the outcome but also the acculturation process. This approach is envisaged to provide insights
on addressing the widely reported students writing problems in Tanzania.
Description
Journal Article pg. 10-23
Keywords
Genre Analysis, Students’ writing, Discourse Practices, Higher Education