The schematic structure of Spanish PhD thesis introductions

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Carbonell-Olivares ◽  
Luz Gil-Salom ◽  
Carmen Soler-Monreal
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Spanish Literature ◽  
Genre Studies ◽  
Doctoral Thesis ◽  
Rhetorical Studies ◽  
Phd Theses ◽  
Academic Genres ◽  
Phd Thesis

Since the 1990s written academic genres have received considerable attention in discourse and rhetorical studies, especially texts written in English. Although few studies describe PhD theses as a genre, some work has been carried out on their macrostructure and the rhetorical moves of certain sections. In the Spanish literature, genre studies on academic writing are scarce relative to those in English, especially in the case of doctoral theses. We analyse the introductions of 21 doctoral theses in computing written in Spanish using Bunton’s model (2002) for thesis introductions in English. The results indicate that most of the steps in this model are applicable to our corpus, but several new steps and sub-steps have been distinguished to account for the observed moves of Spanish PhD thesis introductions. The complexity of the thesis introduction is related to the scope and depth of the research carried out for a doctoral thesis, the need to display extensive knowledge of the field and to justify the relevance of the research.

Markers of identification in Indigenous academic writing: A case study of genre innovation

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shurli Makmillen ◽  
Michelle Riedlinger
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Genre Studies ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Research Article ◽  
Rhetorical Genre ◽  
Academic Genres

AbstractThis study contributes to research into genre innovation and scholarship exploring how Indigenous epistemes are disrupting dominant discourses of the academy. Using a case study approach, we investigated 31 research articles produced by Mäori scholars and published in the journal AlterNative between 2006 and 2018. We looked for linguistic features associated with self-positioning and self-identification. We found heightened ambiguous uses of “we”; a prevalence of verbs associated with personal (as opposed to discursive) uses of “I/we”; personal storytelling; and a privileging of Elders’ contributions to the existing state of knowledge. We argue these features reflect and reinforce Indigenous scholars’ social relations with particular communities of practice within and outside of the academy. They are also in keeping with Indigenous knowledge-making practices, protocols, and languages, and signal sites of negotiation and innovation in the research article. We present the implications for rhetorical genre studies and for teaching academic genres.

scholarly journals Scenes from Graduate School: Playing in the Smooth Spaces of Academic Writing

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 57-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Bray
Keyword(s):  
Graduate School ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Work ◽  
Writing Studies ◽  
Genre Studies ◽  
Graduate Studies ◽  
Rhetorical Genre Studies ◽  
Rhetorical Genre ◽  
Academic Genres

In this essay, I describe how I have experienced difficulties writing in particular academic genres. Finding spaces to play in these genres has helped me to ease these difficulties and negotiate the conflicts and contradictions of the academy. To explore and explain innovative spaces within genres, I extend Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of smooth and striated spaces with work in rhetorical genre studies. I conclude that opening smooth spaces in striated academic genres is not only important for students like me but may also help us better respond to the changing realities of graduate studies and academic work in Canada. I offer some suggestions as to how writing studies scholarship could support these efforts.

A Need Analysis in Academic Writing by Using Integrative-Based Approach: The Perspective of University Students

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helaluddin Helaluddin
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
University Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Need Analysis ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Academic Genres ◽  
The University ◽  
Academic Year

This article discusses the needs and interests of the university students in Banten Indonesia for learning to write with an integrative approach as an initial stage in the development of academic writing textbooks. The participants in this study were 60 students in the first semester of the 2018/2019 academic year who took an Indonesian language course. It was found that students were familiar with writing activities. But the majority were limited to non-academic genres such as writing poetry, short stories, and writing personal blogs. Also, students have almost the same problems in academic writing, both from linguistic aspects, technical aspects, to issues of developing writing ideas. Another thing that was found in this study was the participation of lecturers who they expected in guiding and providing input during academic writing learning.

The Impact of Knowledge of English Rhetorical Patterns of Organisation on BA Accounting and Finance Students' Writing Academic Genres

2020 ◽  
pp. 128-149
Author(s):  
Malika Kouti
Keyword(s):  
Direct Instruction ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Rhetorical Patterns ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Academic Genres ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

This chapter discusses the impact of knowing the English rhetorical pattern of organisation on BA Accounting and Finance students' academic writing. More specifically, it focuses on the knowledge of how to structure a letter of application for job hunting purposes. This case study involved the analysis of 40 letters of application written by 40 Accounting and Finance students in the Department of Accounting and Finance at the University of Ghardaïa, Algeria after they had been trained to structure this type of letter. The training lasted for two sessions in the Department of Accounting and Finance at Ghardaia University, Algeria. The training was a direct instruction in which students were shown activities that assisted them in mastering the rhetorical pattern of organisation that concerns letters of application. They were also shown the difference between formal and informal letters of application. The obtained results demonstrated the efficiency of the direct instruction in teaching Accounting and Finance students how to write a letter of application.

scholarly journals Citation Mania in Academic Theses Writing: A Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
Jabulani Sibanda
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Simple Point ◽  
Context Analysis ◽  
Pragmatic Function ◽  
Phd Theses ◽  
Different Parts

  This study, premised on the assumption that students over-use citations in academic writing, investigated manifestations of over-citation in three PhD theses. A review of diverse pragmatic functions citations serve, helped in the identification of needless citations which lacked consonance with any of the functions. A content-context analysis of the pragmatic function of each citation in the three theses, revealed over-citation and superfluity in the theses. Manifestations of over-citation included: expressing general or common-sense information; using multiple citations to make a simple point; citing sources to express what the writer did; attributing own deductions and inferences to authors; not following-up on citations; repeating concepts and attendant citations in different parts of the thesis; making most thesis sections literature sections; citing individual words not ideas, unclear content of citation, independent citation of each source for the same idea, over-using a source within a paragraph or section, citing back to back, evincing citation density to the eye. On the basis of the varied manifestations of over-citation and the extent of its compromise on the quality of student presentations, the study recommends sustained efforts in developing sound academic writing skills even at postgraduate levels, and sensitisation of students to pragmatic purposes citations should serve.

scholarly journals Escritura académica en tres escuelas de ingeniería chilenas: La familia ‘Informe técnico’ como macrogénero discursivo en el área de Ingeniería Civil Informática

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-130
Author(s):  
Enrique Sologuren Insúa
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Genre Theory ◽  
Educational Role ◽  
Technical Report ◽  
Academic Genres ◽  
Didactic Strategies ◽  
Significant Attention

Los géneros producidos por estudiantes han comenzado a recibir mayor atención debido a su diversidad de funciones en el aprendizaje disciplinar. Así, este trabajo se enmarca en el ámbito del estudio de géneros de formación en español. El objetivo de esta investigación es identificar, definir y caracterizar los géneros de la familia ‘informe técnico’ con el objeto de comprender su rol formativo en la enseñanza de la ingeniería civil y en los procesos de alfabetización académica-profesional en esta disciplina. El estudio se aborda desde un enfoque cualitativo, particularmente desde la teoría del género del discurso y explora el macrogénero informe técnico en ingeniería civil informática (MGITEC) en el corpus de aprendientes HÉLICE-2017. Esta familia genérica presenta una alta relevancia en el discurso académico de la ingeniería civil y en la subdisciplina informática. Los resultados del análisis de los corpus textuales evidencian la gran diversidad de recursos genéricos utilizados en la comunidad de práctica concernida. A partir de los datos obtenidos se identificó un continuum de los géneros discursivos que van desde informes orientados a la inserción académica hasta la producción escrita de informes orientados a contextos profesionales. En él se despliega una amplia variedad de tipos de informes que cumplen propósitos formativos de relevancia en la aplicación de pensamiento analítico, crítico y creativo para la resolución de problemas: la raison d’être de la ingeniería. Finalmente, la investigación permite configurar relaciones intergenéricas en la escritura académica de informes y proyectar estrategias didácticas de alfabetización disciplinar en el ámbito de la ingeniería. Genres written by students have received significant attention due to its diversity of functions in subject learning. Thus, the present article is framed within the study field of academic genres in Spanish. The aim of this research is to identify, define and characterize genres of the ‘technical report’ family to understand its educational role in civil engineering and in the processes of professional-academic literacy in this field. The study adopts a qualitative approach, specifically from the discourse genre theory and explores the technical report macrogenre in computer science civil engineering (MGITEC, for its acronym in Spanish) in the student corpus HÉLICE-2017. This genre family is highly relevant in the academic discourse of civil engineering and in the subdiscipline computer science. Results of the text corpus analysis reveal a great diversity of genre resources used in this community of practice. In consequence, a continuum of discourse genres was identified based on the collected data, from reports of academic insertion to reports of professional context. Different types of reports are displayed in this continuum. These reports meet relevant educational purposes when it comes to using analytical, critical and creative thinking for problem solving: the raison d’être of engineering. Finally, this piece of research makes it possible to define relations between genres in the academic writing of reports and to provide didactic strategies for subject literacy in engineering.

scholarly journals Cheonggyecheon: Streaming Currere

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Chancellor
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Personal Journey ◽  
Doctoral Thesis ◽  
Non Linear

In this paper I share my personal journey into rhizomatic thinking. Here I illustrate how a rhizome opened new possibilites to my previously confusing learning process. As a vehicle I ask the question, when considering the pedagogical nature of place, how does the new facilitate currere? I am also taking the opportunity to write in a way that is new and unfamiliar to me because the conventional and acceptable have been unable to help me understand the meanings I am seeking. I felt uninspired among traditional styles of academic writing until I encountered the doctoral thesis of Warren Sellers where another way of seeing and writing is explored. This generative experience gave me the momentum to link past learnings in new rhizomatic ways and begin a discussion within this journal about how place and pedagogy connect. My visit to Cheonggyecheon Stream in Seoul provided me the place and my reading of the texts of Warren Sellers, Noel Gough, Chaim Soutine, Margaret Sommerville and Lloyd Rees gave me examples of others who have searched. As I remember my physical experience of this new place, the stream becomes the search, the bridges spanning it, the new understandings and scattered along the banks, the rhizomes grow. A new place facilitates currere. This journal provides a forum where possibilities are viewed as exciting (Doll, 2009, p. 71). Tentative steps into new spaces are welcomed. Above all, conversation oils the machine, here I can share my thoughts with others who are exploring learning in diverse ways and from non linear perspectives.

Functions of the verb decir (‘to say’) in the incipient academic Spanish writing of bilingual children

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-280
Author(s):  
Laura E. Dubcovsky
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Interactive Narrative ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Content Areas ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Dual Language Program ◽  
Bilingual Classroom ◽  
Academic Genres

There is great concern about the lack of access to academic writing, especially for minority language schoolchildren. Although much research is devoted to social context and personal interactions in the classroom, a closer look at language itself would contribute to a better understanding of the development of literacy in a bilingual setting. The aim of this study is to examine the uses of one particular linguistic feature in incipient academic genres. Drawing on a functional linguistic framework, the article analyzes four functions of the verb decir (‘to say’) in texts written in Spanish by children in a Dual Language Program during two consecutive school years. The analysis includes texts taken from three main content areas — Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. Results show that decir was used to fulfill interactive, narrative, informative and reflective functions, which occur with different frequencies in the three content areas. The article especially discusses those functions that may lead to more advanced literacy. The study concludes with implications for the bilingual classroom, suggesting that linguistic awareness of different uses of the verb decir could help schoolchildren to organize incipient academic texts

Academic writing

2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Paltridge
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Genre Studies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Corpus Studies ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
Register Studies ◽  
Discourse Studies

This article reviews research and developments that are relevant to second language students writing in academic settings. First, it reviews research into writing requirements at undergraduate and postgraduate levels of study. It then discusses the particular socio-cultural context of academic writing, including the notions of genre and discourse community, and the politics of academic writing. The article then reviews descriptions of academic writing that draw on register studies, discourse studies, genre studies, and corpus studies. This includes cross-cultural comparisons of academic writing, disciplinary differences in academic writing, and critical views on the nature of academic writing. The article then reviews the development of approaches to the teaching of academic writing. The article concludes with a discussion of the assessment of academic writing and indications for future research in the area of second language academic writing.

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