Students� navigation of the uncharted territories of academic writing
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Date
2013
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Abstract
Many students enter tertiary education unfamiliar with the �norms and conventions� of
their disciplines. Research into academic literacies has shown that in order to succeed
in their studies, students are expected to conform to these norms and conventions,
which are often unrecognized or seen as �common sense� by lecturers. Students have
to develop their own �map� of their programme�s expectations in order to make sense
of the seemingly mysterious practices they are expected to take on. This study, undertaken
at a University of Technology in South Africa, details students� perceptions of
their writing difficulties and their attempts to navigate their way through various writing
tasks. The findings reveal that students experience a range of difficulties and that the
students often feel unsupported in their travails with academic writing.
Description
Keywords
Student writing, Academic literacies, Academic development, Higher education, Language development
Citation
Bharuthram, S. & McKenna, S. (2013). Students� navigation of the uncharted territories of academic writing. Africa Education Review, 9(3): 581-594