Plagiarism in Higher Education: An Academic Literacies Issue? – Introduction

2016 ◽  
pp. 499-501
Author(s):  
Rebecca Moore Howard
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Literacies

scholarly journals 'Academic literacies' as moving beyond writing: Investigating multimodal approaches to academic argument

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng-Wen Huang ◽  
Arlene Archer
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Multimodal Composition ◽  
Social Semiotics ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Student Access ◽  
Academic Argument

Research on academic literacies has predominately focused on writing practices in higher education. To account for writing practices in the digital age, this paper emphasizes the importance of extending the focus of academic literacies beyond writing to include multimodal composition. Drawing on social semiotics, we put forward a framework for understanding and analysing multimodal academic argument. This framework views argument in relation to features that make up text, namely mode, genre, discourse, and medium. We also look at ways in which multimodal resources are appropriated into argument through citation. Becoming more explicit about the ways in which academic argument is constructed is important for enabling student access into the discourses and practices of academia.

Library roles in advancing graduate peer-tutor agency and integrated academic literacies

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-293
Author(s):  
Sarah McDaniel
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Graduate Student ◽  
Writing Center ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Peer Tutors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Faculty Advisors ◽  
Peer Tutor ◽  
Graduate Student Success

Purpose This paper aims to apply integrated academic literacies and threshold concepts constructs to the development of graduate student literacies. Western Washington University has developed a graduate peer-tutors program to advance integrated academic literacies and graduate student agency. Graduate peer-tutors are expert-outsiders (Nowacek and Hughes, 2015): expert in conversations about literacies and outsiders to disciplinary expertise. Peer-tutors augment a support ecosystem that includes faculty advisors, subject librarians and others. Libraries should lead innovative programs to develop integrated literacies, and librarians should leverage both subject and literacies expertise as part of an ecosystem of support. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on library, writing center and higher education scholarship, the author draws on research methodologies from writing center scholarship to explore models for integrated graduate student literacies. The author collaborates with graduate peer-tutors to connect theory and practice in the Graduate Research & Writing Studio (GRWS). Findings Peer-tutor models offer a valuable layer of support for graduate students engaged in thesis-writing. Peer-tutors, faculty advisors and subject librarians play important roles in advancing development of integrated literacies. The role of peer-tutors is unique in advancing integrated literacies, and addressing affective barriers and equity concerns. Practical implications Economic pressures have transformed higher education, ushering new populations into graduate programs. Opportunities to enhance inclusivity cannot be realized without support for development of literacies. Libraries should lead with innovative services that address barriers to graduate student success. Originality/value The author leverages the unique laboratory offered by the GRWS and engages graduate peer-tutors in connecting scholarship and practice. Drawing on contemporary theoretical lenses on literacies, she argues for libraries’ leadership of programs that support integrated graduate student literacies.

Re-crafting an Academic Literacies approach to pedagogic communication in higher education

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Reproductive Function ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Theoretical Synthesis ◽  
Institutional Dimension ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Critical Hope ◽  
Communicative Relationship

The communicative relationship between learners and teachers in higher education, particularly as manifested in assessment and feedback, is often problematic. I begin from an Academic Literacies approach that positions academic literacy as requiring learners to acquire a complex set of literacy skills and abilities within specific discursive and institutional contexts. Whilst acknowledging the institutional dimension of academic literacy, I argue that the Academic Literacies approach tends to underestimate its significance. This shortcoming can be addressed by considering student speaking and writing as powerfully constrained by what Bourdieu refers to as the authority of pedagogic institutions, which function in what Sennett calls the culture of the new capitalism. Synthesising Bourdieu and Sennett, I argue, opens up possibilities for creating a pedagogy for itself: a pedagogy conscious of its reproductive function but able to provide both learners and teachers with what Canaan terms critical hope. Through this theoretical synthesis I seek to re-craft the Academic Literacies approach to pedagogic communication so that our understanding of the problems experienced by learners in acquiring academic literacy can be enhanced.

scholarly journals Developing academic literacies through understanding the nature of disciplinary knowledge

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherran Clarence ◽  
Sioux McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Academic Development ◽  
Knowledge Structures ◽  
Development Work ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Disciplinary Knowledge ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Coming To Know

Much academic development work that is framed by academic literacies, especially that focused on writing, is concerned with disciplinary conventions and knowledges: conceptual, practical, and procedural. This paper argues, however, that academic literacies work tends to conflate literacy practices with disciplinary knowledge structures, thus obscuring the structures from which these practices emanate. This paper demonstrates how theoretical and analytical tools for conceptualizing disciplinary knowledge structures can connect these with academic literacies development work. Using recent studies that combine academic literacies and theories of knowledge in novel ways, this paper will show that understanding the knowledge structures of different disciplines can enable academic developers to build a stronger body of practice. This will enable academic developers working within disciplinary contexts to more ably speak to the nature of coming to know in higher education.

Writing feedback as an exclusionary practice in higher education

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Chu-Lin Chang
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Academic Literacy ◽  
Written Feedback ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Academic Communities ◽  
Writing Feedback

This ethnographic research probes into feedback on academic writing received by Taiwanese students in Australian higher education institutions, and examines whether the feedback received helped students to participate in the written discourse of academic communities. Academic writing dominates the academic life of students in Australia and is the key measure of their academic performance. This can be problematic for international students who speak English as an additional language and who are expected to acquire academic literacies in English ‘by doing’. As a social practice, academic writing depends on participation in dialogue for students to be included in the community of academia. However, the findings show that few participants received any useful feedback. Some assignments were never returned; in other cases, the hand-written feedback was illegible, and often included only overly general comments that puzzled the participants. As a result, the learning process came to an end once the students handed in their assignments; feedback failed to promote further learning related to content, and particularly to academic writing. The article highlights the few instances where participants received helpful feedback that was accessible and constructive, and which can be considered best practice for the promotion of academic literacy.

scholarly journals Academic literacies twenty years on: a community-sourced literature review

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hilsdon ◽  
Cathy Malone ◽  
Alicja Syska
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Learning Development ◽  
Professional Fields

In 1998, the paper ‘Student writing in higher education: an academic literacies approach’ by Mary Lea and Brian Street reinvigorated debate concerning ‘what it means to be academically literate’ (1998, p.158). It proposed a new way of examining how students learn at university and introduced the term ‘academic literacies’. Subsequently, a body of literature has emerged reflecting the significant theoretical and practical impact Lea and Street’s paper has had on a range of academic and professional fields. This literature review covers articles selected by colleagues in our professional communities of the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE), the association for lecturers in English for Academic Purposes (BALEAP), and the European Association of Teachers of Academic Writing (EATAW). As a community-sourced literature review, this text brings together reviews of wide range of texts and a diverse range of voices reflecting a multiplicity of perspectives and understandings of academic literacies. We have organised the material according to the themes: Modality, Identity, Focus on text, Implications for research, and Implications for practice. We conclude with observations relevant to these themes, which we hope will stimulate further debate, research and professional collaborations between our members and subscribers.

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