Originality , conformity - PowerPoint Presentation

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Originality, conformity and content-responsibility

Hilary Nesi

Coventry University

February 28 2015

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With particular reference to students’ use of sourcesAre international students misled, or under-informed?

Are they prepared and assessed in the skills that departments actually expect

from them?

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Writing assignments seems to be more important here (in the UK). I was never taught to write in an academic way and essays only play a minor role in my degree course in my country. – Kristian University of Southampton’s Prepare for Success website http

://

www.prepareforsuccess.org.uk/differences_in_university_study.html

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Early stage ‘academic’ writing around the worldGenerally speaking International students have limited experience of any kind of writing, in any languageStaff -student ratios do not allow for individual assessment and feedback

English Academic Writing (EAW) is conceptualised in a variety of ways, even within the same institution.

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Geary (2008) found that Taiwanese instructors conceptualized EAW in two opposing ways:1. as ‘research’ writing,

where

the views and research of others

was far more

highly valued than the

views

of the

student writer

or

2. as ‘creative’ writing,

where the student writer’s views were paramount, and did not require support from external sources

Students were taught one way or the other, depending on the class they attended, and on the textbook the instructor chose.

Geary, M. (2008)

Constructing Conceptualizations of English Academic Writing within an EFL Context.

(Unpublished PhD

thesis)

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The Taiwanese instructors were unaware of any inconsistencyThey assumed that:they all shared

the same conceptualizations of EAW

the EAW

textbook

writer shared their conceptualizations of EAW

The textbook mirrored conceptualizations of EAW in English-dominant

overseas contexts

Slide7

In fact, the textbook reflected test requirements:Language proficiency tests for university entrance also seem to lurch between these

two views of

EAW

, as

‘

research’

writing

or

‘

creative’

writing

(whereas successful academic writing is actually a combination of both)

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WRITING TASK 1The graphs below give information about computer ownership ………...summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

WRITING TASK 2

A person’s worth nowadays seems to be judged according to social status and

material possessions

. Old-fashioned values, such as honour, kindness and trust, no longer

seem important

.

To

what extent do you agree or disagree with this

opinion? Give

reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your

own knowledge

or experience.

This is EAW

as ‘creative’

writing (no references to

external

sources)

These are ‘background’ sources , to accept as fact

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PTE Academic Summary writing TASK

You

have 10 minutes to write your summary. Make sure to include the main points of the reading passage in a full, single sentence of

no

more than 75

words

This is ‘research’ EAW – using

a‘background

’

source (for no particular communicative purpose)

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PTE Academic Summary writing TASK

You

have 10 minutes to write your summary. Make sure to include the main points of the reading passage in a full, single sentence of

no

more than 75

words

This is ‘research’ EAW – using

a‘background

’ source (for no particular communicative purpose)

NB there are no summary assignments in BAWE

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An Educational Testing Service (ETS) Summary writing TASKtest-takers are required to e.g. ‘read a passage, then to

listen to

a lecture discussing the same topic

from a

different point of view, and to summarize

the points

made in the lecture, explaining how

they cast

doubt on points made in the reading

.’

Beigman-Klebanov

et al (2014)

An ‘integrated’ task, but are the student writer’s views integrated into the summary?

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The emphasis is on reproducing contentScore 4 is generally good in selecting the important information from the lecture ..., but it may have a minor omission.Score 3 contains

some

important

information

from

the lecture ..., but it may omit one

major key

point.

Score 2

contains some relevant information

from the

lecture ... The response

significantly omits or misrepresents important points.Score 1 provides little or no meaningful or relevant coherent

content from the lecture.

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ETS claims to reflect The US ‘College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing’ (CCRA.W)

Part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which aims to define ‘the

skills and understandings that all students must

demonstrate’.

http

://

www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/CCRA/W

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CCRA.W standards relating to the use of sources:College-ready students will be able to “gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the

credibility and

accuracy of each source, and

integrate the information

while avoiding

plagiarism”.

http

://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/CCRA/W

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All useful skills, but….The CCRA.W standards seem to imply that source use simply involves gathering, selecting, and integrating sources into the student work (with appropriate acknowledgements)

But at

university

level, sources should also support the writer’s

own

communicative purpose, too.

See

Bizup

(2008)…..

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BIZUP’s categorisation of academic sources:According to the way they are used, sources can be:Background sources, which y

ou

expect your reader to simply trust

outright

Exhibit

sources, primary sources which you analyse to sustain your claims and deal with counter-claims

Argument

sources, secondary sources of theories, concepts etc. which you affirm, dispute, refine

or

extend in some way

Method

sources, which model the

methods

you use

Bizup

, J. (2008): BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing, Rhetoric Review, 27:1, 72-86

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BIZUP’s categorisation of academic sources:According to the way they are used, sources can be:Background sources, which y

ou

expect your reader to simply trust

outright

Exhibit

sources, primary sources which you analyse to sustain your claims and deal with counter-claims

Argument

sources, secondary sources of theories, concepts etc. which you affirm, dispute, refine

or

extend in some way

Method

sources, which model the

methods

you use

Bizup

, J. (2008): BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing, Rhetoric Review, 27:1, 72-86

Background sources don’t

always need to be acknowledged

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BIZUP’s categorisation of academic sources:According to the way they are used, sources can be:Background sources, which y

ou

expect your reader to simply trust

outright

Exhibit

sources, primary sources which you analyse to sustain your claims and deal with counter-claims

Argument

sources, secondary sources of theories, concepts etc. which you affirm, dispute, refine

or

extend in some way

Method

sources, which model the

methods

you use

Bizup

, J. (2008): BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing, Rhetoric Review, 27:1, 72-86

Background sources don’t

always need to be acknowledged

Exhibit sources are often non-

a

cademic, and so difficult to cite correctly

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BIZUP’s categorisation of academic sources:According to the way they are used, sources can be:Background sources, which y

ou

expect your reader to simply trust

outright

Exhibit

sources, primary sources which you analyse to sustain your claims and deal with counter-claims

Argument

sources, secondary sources of theories, concepts etc. which you affirm, dispute, refine

or

extend in some way

Method

sources, which model the

methods

you use

Bizup

, J. (2008): BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing, Rhetoric Review, 27:1, 72-86

Background sources don’t

always need to be acknowledged

Exhibit sources are often non-

a

cademic, and so difficult to cite correctly

Argument sources are usually academic texts

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In the UK, the qaa Has less to say about source use than CCRA.W …….

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UK Quality Code for Higher Education (2013) Enabling student development and achievementHigher education providers should:

consider

the ways in which they can enable students to develop their academic potential through the development of

appropriate academic skills such as reasoning, research, numeracy, writing and referencing

.

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Assuring Quality for International Students Studying in the UK

Regulations and procedures, not skills

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So, what are international applicants most likely to know about EAW?reporting facts (as in IELTS writing task 1) giving their own opinion, independent of any source (as in IELTS writing task 2)

summarising what experts have said (as in TOEFL , PTE Academic test)

avoiding plagiarism (from QAA induction advice)

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And what are international applicants less likely to know about EAW ?How to represent and distinguish between ‘exhibit, ‘argument’ and ‘method’ sources, so that readers recognise their role

How to use sources to support their own ‘creative’ expression of opinions and ideas

How to

carry forward their own arguments and

conclusions

on the basis of external

evidence

Hence the following types of problem:

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problems influenced by ‘creative’ eaw traditions

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Expressing personal opinion too persuasively“I totally agree that it is necessary for a foreign language learner to learn grammar rules

.”

“From

my point of view, there is

no doubt

that it is helpful for students to be given grammar information about a foreign language

.”

Overt expressions of persuasion are more common in journalism (e.g. newspaper editorials) than in academic writing.

They are less common in the BAWE corpus than in published academic writing (as measured by MD analysis)

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the American university admissions process encourages a persuasive approachThe 500-600 word ‘essay’‘treated as

‘a

creative writing piece’

‘

a marketing tool

’

possibly

starting with ‘a personal anecdote or quote’

Advice from the Fulbright Commission on US essay applications

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problems influenced by ‘research’ eaw traditions

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Writing like a textbook“this can only be brought about with the help of pedagogic intervention: explicit teaching and systematic practice informed by a syllabus of known problems. (For detailed discussion, see Swan 2005.)”

Here Swan (2005) is treated as a ‘background ‘source of objective information, rather than as an ‘argument’ source with which to engage.

Slide30

Lack of clarity about the role of the source“Munby’s model was not as learner-centred as later models (Long 2005)”In this case it is not clear whether Long (2005) is the source of the claim, or an example of a ‘later model’.

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Mingling one’s own views with those of the source“There are tensions between

the

types of dictionary

users think they

should use and the types of dictionary they actually

use, and there are also tensions between teacher and learners (Nesi 2012)”

In this case I made the point in the first part of the sentence, but not the point in the second part of the sentence. The student writer was hiding her views behind those of the source.

Slide32

In these sorts of cases, writers may consider it too risky to add to the expert source or give their own interpretation of it.Writers to downplay their own contribution because of their experience of the ‘

research’

approach to EAW,

where the

research

of others

is valued above

the views of the

student

.

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Choosing not-quite-appropriate reporting verbsPerhaps due to reluctance to evaluate the source, and lack of linguistic skill to indicate evaluation and stance

(positive, negative or neutral).

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What kind of source-use expertise should international students be aiming for, and what should we assess?

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We (probably) already assess students’ knowledge of the mechanics of citationAcknowledgement of sources (to avoid plagiarism)Ability to summarise/paraphrase sources

The appropriate use of quotation, integrated into the text or in blocked quotes

Recognition of bibliographical information (family name of author, publisher, place of publication etc.)

The right amount of bibliographic information in the text and in the references

Slide36

Evidence from the BAWE corpus 6,506,995

words

2,896

texts

2,761

assignments

1,953

written by L1 speakers of English

1,251

“distinction” and

1,402

“merit”

1000+

modules &

300

degree courses

Corpus contents

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Arts & Humanities

255

229

160

80

Life Science

188

206

120

205

Physical Science

181

154

156

133

Social Science

216

198

170

207

Numbers of texts at each level and in each

domain

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Distribution of citation types(per million words)

AH

LS

PS

SS

Integral

citations

119.0

253.6

17.4

217.4

Non-integral

citations

544.7

369.9

31.7

605.8

Vancouver-style

12.0

138.5

219.7

67.5

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Distribution of citation types

AH

LS

PS

SS

Integral

citations

119.0

253.6

17.4

217.4

Non-integral

citations

544.7

369.9

31.7

605.8

Vancouver-style

12.0

138.5

219.7

67.5

Best suited for ‘argument ‘ sources?

Best suited for ‘exhibit’ and ‘method’ sources?

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Distribution of citation types

AH

LS

PS

SS

Integral

citations

119.0

253.6

17.4

217.4

Non-integral

citations

544.7

369.9

31.7

605.8

Vancouver-style

12.0

138.5

219.7

67.5

Non-integral citations are the most common

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Distribution of citation types

AH

LS

PS

SS

Integral

citations

119.0

253.6

17.4

217.4

Non-integral

citations

544.7

369.9

31.7

605.8

Vancouver-style

12.0

138.5

219.7

67.5

About 82% of references in the physical sciences use the Vancouver numbering style

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173 different types of reporting verbsin integral citations

AH

LS

PS

SS

suggest (24)

find (63)

point (out) (4)

suggest (71)

point (out)

19

)

state (27)

explain (4)

argue (59)

argue (18)

suggest (27)

state (4)

point (out)

35

)

state (14)

show (20)

highlight (2)

state (35)

write (14)

argue (16)

suggest (2)

find (26)

describe (8)

cite (14)

argue (1)

believe (19)

say (8)

conduct (14)

believe (1)

indicate (16)

use (8)

note (13)

describe (1)

cite (14)

claim (7)

point

(out

)

13

)

emphasize (1)

define (14)

find (6)

claim (12)

expand (1)

note (14)

maintain (6)

describe (12)

focus (on) (1)

explain (12)

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areas which might also be assessed:Awareness of the source role (‘background,’ ‘exhibit’, ‘argument ‘or ‘method’) SSkill with citation formats (integral, non-integral, Vancouver) appropriate to

the source role

Range and

appropriacy

of reporting verbs

The use ‘exhibit’ and ‘argument’ sources

to support the writer’s own propositions,

rather than vice versa.

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In conclusionFormal tests do not assess many of the source-use skills that students need for discipline-specific study.EAP tutors can assess some of the areas that the formal tests neglect – and raise awareness of the gap between test writing and writing in the disciplines.

Above all, students should be able to write ‘content

responsible’

texts (

Leki

& Carson, 1997), that is,

texts related

meaningfully and appropriately to ideas and information in academic sources

Leki

,

I & Carson;, J, (1997) Completely

different worlds: EAP and the

writing experiences of ESL students in university courses.

TESOL Quarterly, 31 39–69

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Thanks for listening!