AWA: Academic Writing at Auckland
There are many ways AWA can be used to help students write more effectively. Here are a few suggestions.
1. Before class, assign one or more papers for reading. Depending on the purpose, students could read papers on similar topics or similar types of paper, or sometimes even completely different papers - to see how writing in one discipline varies from writing in another, for example. Groups could be assigned one paper each. Papers with or without comments could be used, depending on the level of challenge desired.
The aim could be to see how good writers respond to a topic, to see what a well-structured paper looks like, or the way particular ideas or theories are employed in the paper. You could draw attention to a Writing feature undeveloped in your students’ writing, eg. idea development, source support, coherence or referencing. The Writing features page itself is a useful catalogue of the qualities of academic writing, and can be used in conjunction with AWA papers to help students understand more about academic writing.
2. In class, students spend a few minutes reporting what they noticed, whether its content, paper structure, a specific writing feature, similarities or differences across papers, or something else. If the whole class focuses on one paper, showing it on the data projector helps everyone follow the discussion.
3. While all AWA papers received high grades, no writing is perfect, so it can also be helpful to consider how a paper could be improved, perhaps in depth of explanation and support, use of sources, clarity and flow, academic style, referencing, or something else.
4. Have students read just the Body section of a paper, and then discuss how they would write the Introduction and Conclusion for it. Or vice versa. Then compare to the AWA paper.
5. Provide the topic sentence, quotes, paraphrases and summaries used in one paragraph of an AWA paper, and have the class write it together, either fully or just in outline form. Then compare to the AWA paper.
6. Provide a topic and get students to brainstorm ideas on it. Ask them to consider what their overall position might be, what sources they could draw on, how they might structure a paper on the topic, and what type of paper it would be (eg. Explanation, Argument Essay, Proposal etc). Then compare to an AWA paper on a similar topic.
7. There are a number of possible variations on the suggestions here, which aim to help students mainly by breaking a paper down into manageable chunks at some point and then building it back up again. Many elements contribute to a well-written paper, and focusing on just one or two of these elements at one time can be an effective way to help students learn. The Writing features help in a similar way – a specific writing feature can be selected so only that feature is highlighted in a paper, allowing readers to focus on that feature. See for example, this paper.
