Writing & assessment in the disciplines

In the UK, Writing in the Disciplines (WID) is an expanding field in which subject specialists and writing specialists collaborate to provide academic literacies and writing instruction to students within disciplinary contexts. Academic writing instruction in the UK has hitherto been largely discreet rather than embedded within disciplinary courses and modules. As a result, the teaching of writing has been associated with remediality and with providing support for failing or under-prepared students. However, building on academic literacies theorising, recent thinking about writing in Britain has made a strong case for the need to embed writing within regular disciplinary teaching. It has been pointed out that many of the ‘problems’ of student writing are a result of confusions concerning disciplinary demands and epistemologies (Lea and Street 1998, Lillis 2001, Wingate 2006). As such, attention to writing becomes the responsibility of all academic staff and has the potential to enhance the learning experience of all students.

A central aim of our work is therefore to promote and facilitate the embedding of writing practices within the academic curriculum.  This Writing in the Disciplines approach is premised on a fundamental connection between writing and thinking, and consequently an equally important connection between students’ writing and learning. Opportunities to practise writing as part of their subject-based tuition helps students to develop an understanding of what they are studying as well as an ability to adopt the writing conventions of their discipline. Embedding the teaching of writing in the curriculum also means that all students are given the opportunity to benefit, rather than just those who seek additional support.

Write Now advocates an approach to assessment that views it as a means of facilitating students’ learning and writing development. Assessment and feedback processes are thus used to enable students to continually improve and learn from their written work.

Write Now staff collaborate with lecturers to design and sometimes assist in the teaching of disciplinary modules, with the aim of embedding effective writing and assessment practices within the subject-based teaching curriculum. The aim is that, after a period of initial support, lecturers are enabled to continue this work on their own. We have worked on numerous curriculum design projects including in the disciplines of business, computer science, education, design, film studies, psychology, religious studies and sports science, and in postgraduate skills training programmes.

Liverpool Hope and London Metropolitan are both involved in a wide variety to projects relating to writing and assessment, see the menu to the right for futher information.

Lea, M. and Street, B. (1998) ‘Student Writing in Higher Education: an academic literacies approach.’Studies in Higher Education 23: 157-72

Lillis, T. (2001) Student Writing: Access, Regulation, Desire. London: Routledge

Wingate, U. (2006) ‘Doing away with ‘study skills.’Teaching in Higher Education 11: 457-69