Abstract
The acquisition of academic writing poses challenges for students, who are often provided with little guidance. This article aims to analyze student writing in the early years of university education with a longitudinal perspective, focusing on a student genre – the essay – that is ubiquitous in academia, but roughly defined and rarely problematized. An emic approach, complemented with quantifications of usage, is used to address the emergence of discursive resources of positioning that contribute to the construction of voice in academic writing. A sample of eight students enrolled in social sciences and humanities programs at a Chilean university who participated in a three-year study was selected, to analyze the emergence of voice and positioning while contributing to the description of metadiscourse in Spanish. The results show that almost all uses of metadiscourse increase or become more sophisticated over time, but few do so in a statistically significant way. In addition, participants adhere to simplified views about academic writing, which lead them to believe that positioning should be avoided. Consequently, tensions emerge between the desire to express their voice and to meet the expectations of essayist prose. The findings offer clues about the potential of teaching metadiscourse to develop a metalinguistic mastery of resources and promote greater agency and the expression of voice in academic writing.
References
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Lillis, T. (2013). The sociolinguistics of writing. Edinburgh University Press.
MacDonald, S. P. (1994). Professional academic writing in the humanities and social sciences. Southern Illinois University Press.
Martin, J., & White, P. (2005). The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Palgrave Macmillan.
Matsuda, P. K., & Tardy, C. M. (2007). Voice in academic writing: The rhetorical construction of author identity in blind manuscript review. English for Specific Purposes, 26(2), 235-249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2006.10.001
McCambridge, L. (2019). If you can defend your own point of view, you’re good: Norms of voice construction in student writing on an international Master’s programme. English for Specific Purposes, 54, 110-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2019.01.003
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Navarro, F. (2021). Más allá de la alfabetización académica: Las funciones de la escritura en educación superior. Revista Electrónica Leer, Escribir y Descubrir, 1(9), 38-56.
Navarro, F., Montes, S., & Álvarez, M. (2022). How do students write in engineering and the humanities? Intertextuality and metadiscourse in undergraduate dissertations written in Spanish. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a La Comunicación, 90, 35-46. https://doi.org/10.5209/clac.81305
Nesi, H.., & Gardner, S. (2012). Genres across the disciplines: Student writing in higher education. Cambridge University Press.
Nowell, L. S., Norris, J. M., White, D. E., & Moules, N. J. (2017). Thematic analysis: Striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847
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Soliday, M. (2011). Everyday genres. Southern Illinois University Press.
Tardy, C. M., & Matsuda, P. K. (2009). The construction of author voice by editorial board members. Written Communication, 26(1), 32-52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088308327269
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Yoon, Hyung Jo, and Ute Römer. 2020. Quantifying Disciplinary Voices: An Automated Approach to Interactional Metadiscourse in Successful Student Writing. Written Communication. Vol. 37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088319898672.
Wu, B., & Paltridge, B. (2021). Stance expressions in academic writing: A corpus-based comparison of Chinese students’ MA dissertations and PhD theses. Lingua, 253, 103071. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2021.103071
Zavala, V. (2011). La escritura académica y la agencia de los sujetos. Cuadernos Comillas, 1, 52-66.
Zhang, F., & Zhan, J. (2020). Understanding voice in Chinese students’ English writing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 45, 100844. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2020.100844
Zhang, L., & Zhang, L. J. (2023). Improving EFL students’ stance-taking in academic writing with SFL-based instruction: A qualitative inquiry. Language Teaching Research, 136216882311647. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688231164758
Zunino, C., & Muraca, M. (2012). El ensayo académico. En L. Natale (Ed.), En carrera: Escritura y lectura de textos académicos y profesionales (pp. 61-78). Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento.
Aull, L. (2019). Linguistic markers of stance and genre in upper-level student writing. Written Communication, 36(2), 267-295. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088318819472
Aull, L., & Lancaster, Z. (2014). Linguistic markers of stance in early and advanced academic writing. Written Communication, 31(2), 151-183. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088314527055
Ávila Reyes, N. (2021). Literacy histories and talk around texts: Emphasising the emic to explore students’ perspectives on academic writing. In I. Guillén-Galve & A. Bocanegra-Valle (Eds.), Ethnographies of academic writing research. Theory, methods, and interpretation (pp. 125-143). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Ávila Reyes, N., & Cortés, A. M. (2017). El género “informe de caso” en la formación inicial docente: Una aproximación basada en la actividad. Lenguas Modernas, 50, 153-174.
Ávila Reyes, N., Figueroa, J., Calle-Arango, L., & Morales, S. (2021). Experiencias con la escritura académica: Un estudio longitudinal con estudiantes diversos. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 29(159), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.29.6091
Bazerman, C. (2004). Intertextuality: How texts rely on other texts. What writing does and how it does it: an introduction to analyzing texts and textual practices (pp. 83-96). Laurence Earlbaum Associates.
Benveniste, E. (1997). Problemas de lingüística general I. Siglo Veintiuno Editores.
Buskirk, T. D., Willoughby, L. M., & Tomazic, T. J. (2013). Non parametrical statistical techniques. In T. Little (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of quantitative methods. Volume 2 (pp. 108-141). Oxford University Press.
Carroll, L. A. (2003). Rehearsing new roles: How college students develop as writers. Southern Illinois University Press.
Castelló, M., Corcelles, M., Iñesta, A., Bañales, G., & Vega, N. (2011). La voz del autor en la escritura académica: Una propuesta para su análisis. Revista Signos, 44(76), 105-117. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-09342011000200001
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. SAGE.
Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in Applied Linguistics. Oxford University Press.
Fazel, I., & Shi, L. (2015). Citation Behaviors of Graduate Students in Grant Proposal Writing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 20, 203–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2015.10.002.
Harwood, N., & Petrić, B. (2012). Performance in the Citing Behavior of Two Student Writers. Written Communication 29 (1), 55–103. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088311424133.
Hyland, K. (2005). Metadiscourse. Exploring Interaction in Writing. Continuum.
Hyland, K. (2018). Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse. In The essential Hyland (pp. 134-155). Bloomsbury.
Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2018). Metadiscourse in academic writing: A reappraisal. In The Essential Hyland (pp. 156-178). Bloomsbury.
Kerbrat-Orecchioni. (1997). La enunciación. De la subjetividad en el lenguaje. Edicial.
Lancaster, Z. (2014). Exploring valued patterns of stance in upper-level student writing in the disciplines. Written Communication, 31(1), 27-57. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088313515170
Lancaster, Z. (2016). Expressing stance in undergraduate writing: Discipline-specific and general qualities. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 23, 16-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2016.05.006
Lea, M. R., & Street, B. V. (1998). Student writing in higher education: An academic literacies approach. Studies in Higher Education, 23(2), 157-172. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079812331380364
Lillis, T. (2008). Ethnography as method, methodology, and “deep theorizing”: Closing the gap between text and context in academic writing research. Written Communication, 25(3), 353-388. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088308319229
Lillis, T. (2001). Student writing: Access, regulation, desire. Routledge.
Lillis, T. (2013). The sociolinguistics of writing. Edinburgh University Press.
MacDonald, S. P. (1994). Professional academic writing in the humanities and social sciences. Southern Illinois University Press.
Martin, J., & White, P. (2005). The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Palgrave Macmillan.
Matsuda, P. K., & Tardy, C. M. (2007). Voice in academic writing: The rhetorical construction of author identity in blind manuscript review. English for Specific Purposes, 26(2), 235-249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2006.10.001
McCambridge, L. (2019). If you can defend your own point of view, you’re good: Norms of voice construction in student writing on an international Master’s programme. English for Specific Purposes, 54, 110-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2019.01.003
Montes, S., Figueroa Arce, C., Klener, H., Vera, J., Tamburrino, Í., & Gómez, Pablo. (2022). Negotiating academic and professional identities in writing the undergraduate dissertation. Pensamiento Educativo: Revista de Investigación Educacional Latinoamericana, 59(2), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.7764/PEL.59.2.2022.8
Navarro, F. (2021). Más allá de la alfabetización académica: Las funciones de la escritura en educación superior. Revista Electrónica Leer, Escribir y Descubrir, 1(9), 38-56.
Navarro, F., Montes, S., & Álvarez, M. (2022). How do students write in engineering and the humanities? Intertextuality and metadiscourse in undergraduate dissertations written in Spanish. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a La Comunicación, 90, 35-46. https://doi.org/10.5209/clac.81305
Nesi, H.., & Gardner, S. (2012). Genres across the disciplines: Student writing in higher education. Cambridge University Press.
Nowell, L. S., Norris, J. M., White, D. E., & Moules, N. J. (2017). Thematic analysis: Striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847
Paltridge, B., Starfield, S., & Tardy, C. (2016). Ethnographic perspectives on academic writing. Oxford University Press.
Soliday, M. (2011). Everyday genres. Southern Illinois University Press.
Tardy, C. M., & Matsuda, P. K. (2009). The construction of author voice by editorial board members. Written Communication, 26(1), 32-52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088308327269
Turner, J. (2018). On writtenness. Bloomsbury.
Yoon, Hyung Jo, and Ute Römer. 2020. Quantifying Disciplinary Voices: An Automated Approach to Interactional Metadiscourse in Successful Student Writing. Written Communication. Vol. 37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088319898672.
Wu, B., & Paltridge, B. (2021). Stance expressions in academic writing: A corpus-based comparison of Chinese students’ MA dissertations and PhD theses. Lingua, 253, 103071. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2021.103071
Zavala, V. (2011). La escritura académica y la agencia de los sujetos. Cuadernos Comillas, 1, 52-66.
Zhang, F., & Zhan, J. (2020). Understanding voice in Chinese students’ English writing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 45, 100844. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2020.100844
Zhang, L., & Zhang, L. J. (2023). Improving EFL students’ stance-taking in academic writing with SFL-based instruction: A qualitative inquiry. Language Teaching Research, 136216882311647. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688231164758
Zunino, C., & Muraca, M. (2012). El ensayo académico. En L. Natale (Ed.), En carrera: Escritura y lectura de textos académicos y profesionales (pp. 61-78). Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento.
Copyright (c) 2024 Natalia Ávila Reyes, Estrella Léniz, Javiera Lagos, Javiera Figueroa Miralles
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