Improving student writing at HE: putting literacy studies to work

摘要

This article builds on research into academic writing and student literacy,\udarguing that a focus on epistemology and institutional context should inform\udthe teaching of writing in higher education. It explores the experience of UK\udundergraduate students of English, including those studying joint honours, to\uddemonstrate their negotiation of complex and conflicting institutional and\udliteracy practices. The article suggests that the epistemology of humanities and\udsocial science subjects could be made more explicit to students; and proposes\udpedagogy to demystify the nature of academic writing and to develop the\udcollaborative writing skills appropriate to a literate and critical society.