Revealing disciplinary variation in student writing: a multi-dimensional analysis of the Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers (MICUSP)

Corpora ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack A. Hardy ◽  
Ute Römer
Keyword(s):  
Dimensional Analysis ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Successful Student ◽  
Communicative Functions ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Procedural Discourse ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Procedural Evaluation ◽  
Level Student

The purpose of this study was to uncover sets of co-occurring, lexico-grammatical features to help to characterise successful student writing. The writing was captured by the Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers (MICUSP, 2009) and was taken from sixteen disciplines. MICUSP is a corpus of A-graded, upper-level student papers of different disciplines and paper types ( O'Donnell and Römer, 2012 ; and Römer and O'Donnell, 2011 ). Following Biber (1988) , we used a multi-dimensional analysis to identify dimensions of frequently co-occurring features that best account for cross-disciplinary variation in MICUSP. The four functional dimensions of MICUSP appear to distinguish between: (1) Involved, Academic Narrative versus Descriptive, Informational Discourse; (2) Expression of Opinions and Mental Processes; (3) Situation-Dependent, Non-Procedural Evaluation versus Procedural Discourse; and (4) Production of Possibility Statement and Argumentation. Along with a description of the methodology, this paper defines the features that constitute the factors, which have been labelled based on their communicative functions. Similarities and differences at the disciplinary and genre-specific levels are discussed as are the implications for discipline-specific and register-based pedagogies.

Linguistic Markers of Stance and Genre in Upper-Level Student Writing

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Aull
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Development ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Linguistic Markers ◽  
Writing Research ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Level Student

Stance is a growing focus of academic writing research and an important aspect of writing development in higher education. Research on student writing to date has explored stance across different levels, language backgrounds, and disciplines, but has rarely focused on stance features across genres. This article explores stance marker use between two important genre families in higher education—persuasive argumentative writing and analytic explanatory writing—based on corpus linguistic analysis of late undergraduate and early graduate-level writing in the Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers (MICUSP). The specific stance markers in the study, both epistemic and textual cues, have been shown to distinguish student writing across levels; this study, then, extends the analysis to consider the comparative use of these markers across genres. The findings show two stance expectations persistent across genres as well as significant distinctions between argumentative and explanatory writing vis-à-vis stance markers that intensify and contrast. The findings thus point to important considerations for instruction, assignment design, and future research.

Quantifying Disciplinary Voices: An Automated Approach to Interactional Metadiscourse in Successful Student Writing

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyung-Jo Yoon ◽  
Ute Römer
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Academic Communities ◽  
Successful Student ◽  
Advanced Students ◽  
Automated Processing ◽  
Novice Writers ◽  
Level Student ◽  
Study Offer

This article reports on a study that explored cross-disciplinary variation in the use of metadiscourse markers in advanced-level student writing, put forward as a realistic target for novice writers. Starting from the stance and engagement categories included in Hyland’s model, we first conducted a comprehensive quantitative analysis of interactional metadiscourse across disciplines. For this analysis, we used an automated processing tool that generates quantity scores for each metadiscourse category. We then carried out a detailed qualitative analysis of selected items that contributed significantly to these category scores. The data for our analyses come from a corpus of 829 student papers from 16 different disciplines. The results showed notable differences in students’ use of metadiscourse features across academic divisions and disciplines. We suggest that this offers evidence of advanced students’ ability to express interactional strategies that are in line with disciplinary expectations. We also found, however, that disciplines that fall into the same academic division were not necessarily similar in their use of interactional metadiscourse, which calls into question the usefulness of existing disciplinary groupings. The findings of this study offer insights into how to build an appropriate writerly stance in different academic communities.

L2 Theme development in Discursive and Experimental undergraduate student writing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Chen ◽  
Sheena Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽  
Writing Development ◽  
Experimental Writing ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Report Writing ◽  
Functional Linguistics ◽  
Successful Student ◽  
Lexical Density

Abstract To complement earlier studies of writing development in the BAWE corpus of successful student writing (Nesi & Gardner 2012; Staples et al. 2016), we examine the Systemic Functional Linguistics notion of Theme as used by L2 writers across first- and third-year and in two distinctive discourse types: persuasive/argumentative Discursive writing of assignments in the soft disciplines and Experimental report writing of assignments in the hard sciences. Theme analysis reveals more substantial differences across the two discourse types than between first- and third-year L2 undergraduate writing. Textual Themes are consistently more frequent than interpersonal Themes, and some variance is found within subcategories of each. Significant differences in lexical density occur across third-year discourse types and between first- and third-year Experimental writing where a predominance of N+N topical Themes is also found. These findings are important as previous research has tended to focus on L1 Discursive writing.

‘Two rules are at play when it comes to none’: A corpus-based analysis of singular versus plural none

English Today ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 50-56
Author(s):  
Sugene Kim
Keyword(s):  
Academic English ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Plural Noun ◽  
Actual Use ◽  
Grammar Rules ◽  
Singular Noun ◽  
Prescriptive Grammar ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Indefinite Pronoun ◽  
Level Student

This paper identifies discrepancies between prescriptive grammar rules concerning the number of the indefinite pronoun none and the actual use of this pronoun in modern academic English as shown in the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE) and Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers (MICUSP). Whereas prescriptive rules state that the number of none is determined by its referent or by the user's desired effect, the analyses of the MICASE and MICUSP search results suggest that, regardless of the modality of discourse, (1) the number of none with an anaphoric referent is determined by the number of its referent and (2) the principle of proximity applies without exception when none is used as part of a ‘none of + singular noun/pronoun’ phrase and applies frequently but not always when followed by an ‘of + plural noun/pronoun’ phrase.

Penerapan Matlamat Pendidikan Islam Oleh Guru Cemerlang Pendidikan Islam: Satu Kajian Kes Di Beberapa Buah Sekolah Menengah Di Malaysia

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamarul Azmi Jasmi ◽  
Ab. Halim Tamuri ◽  
Mohd Izham Mohd Hamzah
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
School Principal ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Islamic Education ◽  
Successful Student ◽  
Qualitative Approaches ◽  
Teaching Goals ◽  
School Senior ◽  
Similarities And Differences

Artikel ini cuba mengupas matlamat Pendidikan Islam yang ingin dicapai oleh Guru Cemerlang Pendidikan Islam (GCPI) dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran di dalam kelas. Kupasan matlamat ini berdasarkan kajian kes yang menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif yang dilaksanakan di lapan buah sekolah menengah di Malaysia dalam bentuk temu bual bersama GCPI, dua orang rakan serta dua orang pelajar mereka, dan Pengetua atau Guru Penolong Kanan sekolah. Dapatan data verbetim temu bual ini kemudian disusun tadbir dalam program N'Vivo versi 7.0 untuk menghasilkan tema dan jadual matriks berkaitan dengan matlamat Pendidikan Islam. Hasil dapatan kajian menunjukkan terdapat empat pola matlamat yang ingin dicapai oleh GCPI dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran Pendidikan Islam mereka di dalam kelas, iaitu memindahkan ilmu, perubahan tingkah laku, pelajar menjadi cemerlang, dan pelajar berjaya di dunia dan akhirat. Kupasan matlamat ini dibentangkan dengan perbandingan pemahaman responden terhadap matlamat ini, alasan terhadap matlamat dan pengakuan terhadap matlamat yang wujud itu kepada GCPI. Seterusnya, dapatan kajian ini dibincangkan untuk melihat ciri persamaan dan perbezaan yang wujud antara dapatan kajian ini dengan pandangan tokoh pendidikan tentang matlamat pendidikan Islam. Pada bahagian akhir artikel ini, satu model matlamat dibina daripada pola dapatan kajian untuk dijadikan asas pegangan kepada guru-guru Pendidikan Islam. Kata kunci: Matlamat pendidikan; guru cemerlang pendidikan Islam This article will examine the teaching aims that should be achieved by the Excellent Teacher of Islamic Education (ETIE) during the lesson of Islamic Education in the classroom. This research was a case studies using the qualitative approaches that was carried out in eight secondary schools in Malaysia. In this study, the researcher conducted several interviews with eight ETIE, two of their colleagues, two of their students, their school principal or school senior assistant teacher. The verbatim data from the interviews were managed and compiled using the N'Vivo version 7.0 in order to construct related themes and matrix tables regarding the aims of teaching of Islamic education. The findings showed that there were four patterns of goals that should be achieved by the ETIE during the lesson of Islamic Education in the classroom, i.e. the transferring knowledge, behavioral changes, excellent student, and successful student in this world and the hereafter. The discussion covers comparison of respondents’ understanding on the teaching goals as well as the reasons and explanation for setting the teaching goals by the ETIE. Furthermore, the discussion also looked at the similarities and differences between the findings of this study and the views of educational experts regarding the aims of Islamic Education. Finally, based on the findings, a model of teaching goals of Islamic Education was formulated as a guidelines for Islamic Education teachers. Key words: Teaching aims; excellence tacher in Islamic education (ETIE)

Pedagogical strategies for developing interpretive language about images

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-118
Author(s):  
Louise Ravelli
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Tertiary Level ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Pedagogical Strategies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
English Curriculum ◽  
Successful Student ◽  
Strong Relation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reflect on pedagogical strategies which support the teaching of critical analysis of visual and multimodal texts in a tertiary-level course for Arts students. Design/methodology/approach The paper describes strategies which focus on developing students’ abilities to express interpretive critique, as opposed to mere description. These strategies give students strong scaffolding towards success in their interpretive writing. The course in question is a tertiary-level Arts course which teaches Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) approach to “reading images” in relation to contemporary media texts. The basic structure of the course is described, along with the macro steps which underpin the pedagogy. Examples of highly successful and less successful student writing are compared to reveal the key components of effective interpretive answers. Findings In addition to the normal expectations regarding essay structure and style, and in addition to mastery of the technicality of the course, successful and less successful student writing depends on their mastery of a specific set of moves within the essay. These moves integrate textual observations with clear explanations and a strong relation to interpretation. Practical implications While the course and strategies discussed are for tertiary-level students, the strategies described are adaptable to primary and secondary levels also. Multimodal texts are an integral part of the English curriculum, and all teachers need to explore strategies for enabling their students’ critical engagement with such texts. Originality/value Visual and multimodal texts are an exciting and also challenging part of English curricula, and new analytical frameworks and pedagogical strategies are needed to tackle these texts. In particular, the gap between simply describing visual resources (applying the tools) and critical analysis (using the tools) is vast, and specific pedagogical strategies are needed to help students develop the necessary interpretive language.

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