Written Communication Jul 1991

Contextualizing Writing and Response in a Graduate Seminar

PAUL PRIOR

Abstract

Theoretical and pedagogical interest in writing in academic disciplines and other discourse communities has grown in the last decade, but few studies have looked at advanced levels of disciplinary enculturation. In this study, I examine the contexts for writing and response in a graduate education seminar with fifteen students, including eight nonnative speakers of English. I consider how the professor explicitly and implicitly communicated expectations for the form and content of writing assignments; how the students understood, negotiated and undertook these tasks; and how the professor evaluated and responded to students' final written texts. Finally, I argue that the students' writing tasks occur in a complex, multidimensional historical field of personal and social contexts and that advanced levels of disciplinary enculturation are marked by a specific set of issues revolving around students' emerging authority and conflicts inherent in disciplinary microsocieties.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1991-07-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088391008003001
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
discourse analysis writing pedagogy graduate education multilingual writers
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Citation Context

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