This document discusses writing instruction in higher education from international, national, and institutional perspectives. It argues that writing should be viewed as an integral part of the learning process rather than just an assessed product. This implies embedding writing support within curricula across disciplines and encouraging staff to see student writing as feedback on teaching. Taking a strategic, developmental approach can help shift perceptions and foster collaboration to better link writing with thinking and disciplinary learning.

1. WRITING AS PROCESS
OR PRODUCT?
IMPLICATIONS FOR INSTITUTIONAL
PRACTICE AND STAFF ENGAGEMENT
Alison McEntee
Centre for Academic and Professional Development

2. Overview

International, National and Institutional Context

Current practice at The University of the West
of Scotland (UWS)

Writing as a process of learning

Implications for staff engagement at UWS

3. International Context

The United States
 Disciplines of Composition and Rhetoric
 Clear professional identity

Writing in the disciplines(WID), Writing across the
curriculum (WAC)
 An integral part of disciplinary learning for all students

Developed alongside increased access to postcompulsory education

4. National Context

Elite system


Students were well prepared for demands of
academic writing
Mass system
 Wider
diversity of student body
 Implications for academic writing instruction

Move to modular system/combined degrees

5. National Context

The Dearing Report (NCIHE 1997) highlighted the
importance of ‘transferable’, ‘key’ and ‘graduate’ skills
acquisition in HE

Governmental and institutional priorities:




Access and inclusion
Retention and progression
Personal Development Planning (PDP)
EmployabilityMiss the importance of language in the student
experience of learning and focus on writing as a ‘decontextualised skill’

6. UWS Context
‘The University of the West of Scotland aims to have a
transformational influence on the economic, social and
cultural development of the West of Scotland and beyond
by providing relevant, high quality, inclusive higher
education and innovative and useful research’

20,000 students across 4 campuses

49.7% full time – 50.3% part time

58% of students are 25 or over

7. UWS Context
Strategic Aims - Learning and Teaching
‘The underpinning assumption is that the diversity of UWS
students will continue to increase. This will require the
University to respond and design programmes accordingly,
a critical factor in making UWS a University of choice and,
consequently, improving student recruitment.
The mix will include full and part-time students, school
leavers and non-traditional learners, and increasing
numbers of new Scots, EU students and international
students’

Implications for development of writing instruction

8. Effective Learning - Background

Strategy for the Enhancement of the Quality of
Learning, Teaching and Assessment (SEQLTA, 2007);
Student Progression and Retention Strategy

Funding from the Wider Access Retention Premium

Drop in sessions/individual tutorials/ ad hoc arrangements to
embed writing development

Move from deficit to developmental model?
 academic status?
 perception as a discipline?

9. Staff Engagement
‘Basis of Provision (Staff Development) - Effective Learning will
assist academic staff in the evaluation of current curricula and practice.
The service will assist in embedding learning skills into the curriculum
and in supporting the development of new and innovative practice in
this area. This will be informed by evaluation data collected through
student provision. The staff development role will link with and build
on existing School-based study skills support for students’
(University of the West of Scotland (2009) Development plan for the Effective Learning Service 2008-2011)


Current focus on writing for assessment
Challenge is ‘to link writing with thinking, learning and
disciplinary expertise’ (Ganobcsik Williams 2006, p.50)

10. The Writing Process/Product
Continuum
(Adapted from Mitchell & Evison, 2006, p.74)

11. Staff Engagement

Dialogue and collaboration:
 Cross
disciplinary communities of practice
 Illuminate the writing process as a site of
learning
 Challenge assumptions about the location of
the ‘problem’ of student writing
 Encourage a ‘shift in consciousness' to view
student writing as feedback on teaching

12. Staff Engagement

Curriculum development:
 Writing
to facilitate and enhance learning of
subject content
 Writing intensive courses
 Challenge traditional approach where
curricula tend to be defined by content
 Writing and textual practice as important as
any other teaching task

13. A Shift in Approach?

Writing as ‘an epistemic process in which thinking and
reflection develop...and as a communicative product,
structured in particular ways by particular conventions
and forming particular, recognisable social functions’
(Britton 1982, p.94)


Writing as usefully problematic ; greater focus on
process
‘Encouragement and crafting of students’ active
response to the subject: their construction of knowledge’
(Mitchell & Evison 2006, p.82)

A embedded approach that links to the discipline specific
epistemological assumptions underpinning feedback
language

14. A Shift in Approach?

Built in writing tasks may involve less coverage of
content but students;
 absorb more from materials
 respond better
 raise questions with texts
 think critically
 become independent learners (Fernandez &
Marsh,2002)

Policy implications and practical considerations

Implications for development of the Effective Learning
Team

15. The Right Approach?

Writing is central to student learning and assessment across all
disciplines

Development of the student as a person and as a thinker/writer

Academic success and graduate employability

Embedded provision viewed by students as being more important

Inclusive approach in line with initiatives to foster student
engagement

Central to the development of the university as a teaching
establishment

16. Take a
strategic
approach
Develop
individuals’
practice
Work towards
cultural change