ERIC Number: EJ1115749
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Jun-16
Pages: N/A
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1554-8244
EISSN: N/A
The Power of Relevant Models: Using a Corpus of Student Writing to Introduce Disciplinary Practices in a First Year Composition Course
Hardy, Jack A.; Römer, Ute; Roberson, Audrey
Across the Disciplines, v12 n1 Jun 2015
In attempts to find appropriate and authentic materials for students who are developing their academic writing skills, instructors often turn to works written by professional academics. However, genres such as published research articles and textbooks in specific disciplines may not be the most suitable models for what first year composition writers are expected to produce. This article suggests using a corpus of successful student writing across disciplines as a more appropriate and more realistic model for lower-level writing students. It describes a first year reading and writing course (taught at an American liberal arts college by the first author of this article) that incorporates the Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers (MICUSP) in helping students become ethnographers of disciplines and genres. As lower-level university students explore disciplines and narrow down their desired fields of study, MICUSP is used as a source of data from which students can (1) conduct linguistic research, (2) write subsequent research papers, and (3) become familiar with potential target academic discourse communities. Using a pedagogy of writing about writing, this process helped students raise their awareness of disciplinary practices. The article gives an overview of the course, focusing on class activities and including student evaluations of these activities. It demonstrates how a corpus like MICUSP can function as a useful and relevant tool in a discipline-specific, genre-based reading and writing course.
Descriptors: Freshman Composition, Writing Instruction, Student Writing Models, Writing Across the Curriculum, Academic Discourse, Discourse Communities, Teaching Methods, Class Activities, Writing Evaluation, Evidence Based Practice, Case Studies, Critical Reading, Research Papers (Students), Content Analysis, Student Surveys, Student Attitudes, Writing Attitudes, Course Evaluation, Applied Linguistics, Beginning Writing, Literary Genres
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Georgia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A