Becca Westrup, Writing Specialist
Liverpool Hope University
Tel. 0151 291 3995/3774
Email: westrur@hope.ac.uk
My role at the Write Now Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning is to support the work of the CETL at Liverpool Hope University. I am involved in the development of initiatives and resources to help students and staff with their academic writing, peer tutoring, research and evaluation. I also provide academic writing support for The Flying Start project which seeks to enhance the academic writing transition between FE and HE. I am also responsible for student academic writing mentor training.
My research interests include student writing and assessment in Higher Education. In particular I am interested in students’ identity and agency in the writing and assessment processes. Exploring what students say about their experiences of essay writing, my PhD research offers insights into the many complexities that some undergraduates can encounter when they write, their expectations and what is important to them. Findings suggests that the assessment of essay writing and in particular the mystery surrounding the marking criteria and students’ expectations can cause some students to become disaffected as a result of a lack of independence and autonomy in their writing. I am interested in exploring students’ possible opportunities for exercising agency and developing this with the aim to help develop students’ and staff understandings of essay writing in Higher Education.