Developmental Gains of a History Major: A Case for Building a Theory of Disciplinary Writing Expertise

Research in the Teaching of English Nov 2004

Developmental Gains of a History Major: A Case for Building a Theory of Disciplinary Writing Expertise

Anne Beaufort Stony Brook University

Abstract

In literacy and composition studies, efforts to develop data-driven theories of disciplinary writing expertise and of writers’ developmental processes in joining specific discourse communities have so far been limited. This case study, of one writer’s experiences as an undergraduate history major, parses the multiple knowledge domains comprising disciplinary writing expertise and compares his beginning and later work for signs of developmental progress. A conceptual model of five knowledge domains writers must draw upon—discourse-community knowledge, subjectmatter knowledge, genre knowledge, rhetorical knowledge, and writing-process knowledge—is applied to the data both for analysis of the case and for exploring the usefulness of the conceptual model for further empirical and theoretical work. What results is a fuller depiction of the complexities of gaining expertise in any given discourse community, as well as an indication of the importance of educators across all disciplines considering the multi-dimensional and developmental nature of their curricula for building literacy skills.

Journal: Research in the Teaching of English
Published: 2004-11-01
DOI: 10.58680/rte20044467
Open Access: Closed
Topics: discourse analysis qualitative research multimodality multilingual writers

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