Cuadernos del Sur Letras

Closing the gap between text and context in researching academic writing: revisiting ethnography as method, methodology and deep theorising

2024-02-20T09:38:52-03:00

Exploring academic writing from a contextual perspective remains a fundamental concern in research projects aimed at exploring the nature of writing— what is 'academic writing'?—and the consequences of specific configurations of academic writing— who participates in academic writing and under what conditions? This article has two objectives: 1) to summarize the arguments I proposed in an English-medium publication in 2008 on how to avoid a textualist perspective in the study of academic writing, using empirical and conceptual resources provided by ethnography; 2) to offer some critical reflections on the arguments I originally presented, including a sharper articulation of the importance of the notion of indexicality to bridge the gap between text and context. Throughout the article, I include questions that have arisen since 2008 in publications and conversations with colleagues about the arguments made, as well as some brief reflections.

Between Patterns, Threads, and Stitches: Notes on Academic Literacies and Writings in Research

2024-02-20T09:45:20-03:00

This work, approached from an auto-ethnographic perspective, recovers reflections on academic literacy practices, primarily related to writing in research. Within this framework, it addresses how these practices are regulated by community expectations and how this feature frames and influences the writing processes. Likewise, in response to the question of what it means to support literacy practices associated with research, it proposes a series of notes that seek to emphasize the role of the teacher to avoid practices of mystery in the face of inherently procedural and complex literacies.

Challenges in designing and implementing first-year academic reading and writing workshops

2024-02-20T09:50:14-03:00

Based on different socio-cultural approaches to literacy practices, this paper aims to contribute to current debates about teaching academic reading and writing. It discusses the design of a first-year writing-in-the-disciplines course from a socially responsible and committed perspective. The experience has shown that a focus on scientific concepts and their treatment in academic genres cooperates with epistemological transformations in students. It has also been observed that multimodal resources such as films are powerful tools in promoting the comprehension of theoretical notions and their relations with vital experiences. Finally, it has been found that academic writing appears to be a problematic practice for first-year students as it challenges their previous conceptions of written text production.

A multimodal approach to foster learning opportunities and semiotic work in Higher Education

2024-02-20T09:55:43-03:00

The deployment of multimodal pedagogical resources, traditionally used by teachers from different disciplines, is enriched by the Social Semiotics theory, which coincides with the socio-historical pedagogical approach in the conception of human beings as semiotic beings. From this perspective, this work intends to contribute to the pedagogical toolbox of Higher Education teachers. Thus, basic notions of Social Semiotics and multimodality strengthen teachers’ pedagogical intentionality when designing multimodal resources for the class. In turn, this enhanced pedagogical clarity will result in the ultimate goal of educational practice: the enrichment of students' learning experiences. The article presents a brief synthesis of the Grammar of Visual Design (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2006/2021) and investigates in particular the pedagogical contribution of three types of images classified by representational meanings: narrative images, conceptual classificatory images, and conceptual symbolic images. Through three examples of Higher Education and Upper Secondary Education classes, it will be shown how pedagogically intended multimodal ensembles and semiotic chains enrich the learning experiences of students.

Technology appropriation for assignment handling and feedback in academic writing courses: tracing teachers’ decisions in creating their own digital pathways

2024-02-20T10:04:10-03:00

In recent years, educational practices in Higher Education have been transformed by the implementation of Virtual Teaching/Learning Environments and the incorporation of word processor tools. For academic writing courses, this has provided new resources to organize three central dimensions in teaching tasks: the reception of assignments and feedback submission, guidance in written production, and student performance monitoring. The purpose of this article is to highlight the strategies employed by teachers to integrate digital resources in order to address the simultaneous demands they face in their work. To achieve this, we conducted in-depth interviews with teachers from universities and higher institutes in different regions of Argentina, generating graphical visualizations that allow for the reconstruction of their sequences of actions, identifying how they construct particular pathways through the available digital environments. This enables us to observe the different modes of technology appropriation by teachers and their margin of agency in facing the complexity of feedback and evaluation practices in writing, through the combination of online and offline resources.

Rogers, Paul M., Russell, David R., Carlino, Paula y Marine, Jonathan M. (2023), Writing as a human activity: implications and applications of the work of Charles Bazerman, Colorado, WAC Clearinghouse - University Press of Colorado, 456 páginas

2024-02-20T10:12:13-03:00

Editorial team and index

2024-02-20T09:27:04-03:00

Perspectives on academic literacy

2024-02-20T09:29:34-03:00