Student Writing and Genre Reconfiguring Academic Knowledge

This book analyzes the work of first year undergraduates from a range of disciplines who were given a task of reworking an essay using a different genre. It compares the original essays with their reworked counterparts to identify the effects of genre shift. Study of this shift opens up new possibilities for writing pedagogy.Using a social semiotic and multimodal approach the book offers an analytic framework which provides a clear, articulated tool for discussing the relationships between texts, knowledge and identity. The effects of genre choice are revealed using the framing concept of orientation - that is, contextual, discursive, thematic and semiotic orientation. Four specific areas of interest emerge: agency and discursive identity, configuration of academic knowledge, disciplinary knowledge as activity and reflexivity and the student experience. The book moves theoretical and pedagogical debates in writing, learning and assessment forward and forms a persuasive argument for why a wider repertoire of activity is desirable in the student context. It will appeal to researchers and postgraduates working in applied linguistics, English for academic purposes and education studies.

1. Introduction \ 2. Shadow Writing \ 3. The Communicative Landscape \ 4. The Affordances of Genres \ 5. A Framework for Analysis \ 6. Repositioning the Writer \ 7. Reconfiguring Information \ 8. From 'Read' Experience to 'Lived' Experience \ 9. Genre as a Pedagogical Resource \ Bibliography \ Index