Writing academically

Hello, my name is Gillian Lazar and I work for the Academic Writing and Language (AWL) team in the Learner Development Unit. For more information about this, please go to:

http://unihub.mdx.ac.uk/study/ldu

This Hotseat 

From the 1st Thursday, we will be discussing some of the key aspects of academic style as well as how to reference appropriately in your written assignments. To get the ball rolling, please look at Texts A and B in the task below. 

A Task from the Learner Development Unit

Writing academically: Key features of academic writing and referencing appropriately.

Compare Text A and Text B. What differences do you notice between them? Why is Text B more ‘academic’ than Text A?

click here if you prefer to have the tasks in Microsoft word format 

Text A.

Pupils get really lacking in confidence and feel really horrible about themselves. This is definitely a problem if the teacher thinks they aren’t speaking properly and they say really informal stuff. So then ethnic minorities find that the way you speak holds up your achievement. If you don’t speak this proper English, it’s because you don’t come across it much because at home you are chatting in another language. Also, schools are really stressed now about league tables so if they think that pupils not speaking English makes problems for them in the league tables , then maybe they don’t want them in the school. So, I think this is really bad and the school system should do something about it.

Text B

Language has also been considered as an important factor in the underachievement of some ethnic minorities. Success at school often requires being able to speak and communicate in what is seen as ‘correct’ or Standard English. In many ethnic minority households, English is spoken as a second language. Thus, students from these households might be disadvantaged as they encounter Standard English less frequently. This linguistic disparity between the home language and the Standard English of the classroom can generate some difficulties between the student and the teachers. For example, Bernstein (cited in Bartlett, Burton and Peim, 2001) emphasizes that some teachers might label pupils who do not always use Standard English as dull or stupid. This affects the students, leading to withdrawal and loss of self esteem, especially when answering questions from the teacher. In addition, some concerns about league tables mean that there have been times when ‘…pupils from non-English speaking backgrounds were increasingly seen as a threat to a school’s public performance profile’ (Harris, Leung and Rampton 2002:37). In some cases, this may mean that prejudice against students who do not speak standard English increases in schools.

References

Bartlett, S., Burton, D. and Peim, N. (2001) Introduction to Education Studies. London: PCM.

Harris, R., C. Leung and B .Rampton  ‘Globalization, Diaspora and Language Education in England’ in  Block, D. and Cameron, D. (2002)  Globalization and Language Teaching. London: Routledge.

click here if you prefer to have the tasks in Microsoft word format 

Please post up any thoughts or comments as to what features of Text B make it more 'academic' than Text A.

Of course, during the hotseat you will also have an opportunity to pose any other questions you may have about your academic writing or language. I look forward to meeting you soon!

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