Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T08:32:56.489Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Writing in the university: education, knowledge and reputation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2011

Ken Hyland*
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong, Chinakhyland@hku.hk

Abstract

This paper challenges the widespread view that writing is somehow peripheral to the more serious aspects of university life – doing research and teaching students. It argues that universities are about writing and that specialist forms of academic literacy are at the heart of everything we do: central to constructing knowledge, educating students and negotiating a professional academic career. Seeing literacy as embedded in the beliefs and practices of individual disciplines, instead of a generic skill that students have failed to develop at school, helps explain the difficulties both students and academics have in controlling the conventions of disciplinary discourses. Ultimately, and in an important sense, we are what we write, and we need to understand the distinctive ways our disciplines have of addressing colleagues and presenting arguments, as it is through language that academics and students conceptualise their subjects and argue their claims persuasively.

Type
Plenary Speeches
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anstey, M. & Bull, G. (2004). Literacy as social practice: The literacy labyrinth (2nd edn). Sydney: Pearson.Google Scholar
Bartholomae, D. (1986). Inventing the university. Journal of Basic Writing 5, 423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barton, D (1994). The social basis of literacy: An introduction to the ecology of written language. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Barton, D. & Hamilton, M. (1998). Local literacies. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Benesch, S. (2001). Critical English for academic purposes. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Oxford: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Clyne, M. (1987). Cultural differences in the organisation of academic texts. Journal of Pragmatics 11, 211247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1974). The order of things. London: Tavistock Press.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd edn). London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. & Martin, J. (1993). Writing science. Literacy and discursive power. London: Falmer Press.Google Scholar
Hawking, S. (1993). Black holes and baby universes and other essays. New York: Bantam Books.Google Scholar
Hinkel, E. (1997). Indirectness in L1 and L2 academic writing. Journal of Pragmatics 27.3, 360386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoey, M. (2001). Textual interaction: An introduction to written text analysis. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hyland, K. (2001). Bringing in the reader: Addressee features in academic articles. Written Communication 18.4, 549574.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyland, K. (2002). Directives: Argument and engagement in academic writing. Applied Linguistics 23.2, 215239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyland, K. (2003). Second language writing. New York: CUP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyland, K. (2004). Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Hyland, K. (2005a). Metadiscourse: Interactions in writing. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Hyland, K. (2005b). Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse. Discourse Studies 7.2, 173191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyland, K. (2006). English for academic purposes. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyland, K. (2008). As can be seen: Lexical bundles and disciplinary variation. English for Specific Purposes 27.1, 421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyland, K. & Milton, J. (1997). Qualification and certainty in L1 and L2 students’ writing. Journal of Second Language Writing 16.2, 183205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyland, K. & Tse, P. (2007). ‘Is there an “academic vocabulary”?’ TESOL Quarterly 41.2, 235254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivanič, R. (1998). Writing and identity: The discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. Amsterdam: Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Judson, H. (1995). The eighth day of creation: The makers of the revolution in biology. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lantolf, J. P. (1999). Second culture acquisition: Cognitive considerations. In Hinkel, E. (ed.), Culture in second language teaching and learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2846.Google Scholar
Latour, B. & Woolgar, S. (1979). Laboratory life: The social construction of scientific facts. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Lemke, J. (1995). Textual politics: discourse and social dynamics. London: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
Lillis, T. (2001). Student writing: Access, regulation, desire. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Street, B. (1995). Social literacies. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Stubbs, M. (1996). Text and corpus analysis. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ward, J. (2009). EAP reading and lexis for Thai engineering undergraduates. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 8.4, 294301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D. (2002). The Englishization of academe: A Finnish perspective. Jyväskylä, Finland: University of Jyväskylä Language Centre.Google Scholar