Written Communication Jan 2006

Registers in the Academic Writing of African American College Students

Anna F. Syrquin

Abstract

The study examines the development of the registers of academic writing by African American college-level students through style and grammar: indirection inherent in the oral culture of the African American community and the paratactic functions of because. Discourse analysis of 74 samples of academic writing by 20 African American undergraduate students and of 61 samples by a control group showed that first, only African American subjects used indirection; second, paratactic functions of because were significantly more prevalent among African American students than in the control group; and third, among African American students, those from low-income families showed statistically significant higher frequencies of the use of both indirection and paratactic because. A relationship of hierarchy in the uses of indirection and paratactic because was also evident in the data.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2006-01-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088305283935
Open Access
Closed
Topics
graduate education discourse analysis quantitative research voice and style

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. McNely (2019)
    Under Pressure: Exploring Agency–Structure Dynamics with a Rhetorical Approach …
    Technical Communication Quarterly

Cites in this index (2)

  1. CHAPMAN (1999)
    Situated, Social, Active
    Written Communication
  2. BALL (1992)
    Cultural Preference and the Expository Writing of African-American Adolescents
    Written Communication
Also cites 20 works outside this index ↓
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  3. 10.1080/10610405.2004.11059233
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  5. 10.1017/CBO9780511621024
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CrossRef global citation count: 6 View in citation network →

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