Schreibwerkstatt UOS: Approach followed in workshops for PhD and Masters students

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2 Schreibwerkstatt UOS: Approach followed in workshops for PhD and Masters students Challenge: lack of subject-specific expertise, limited instruction and contact time Solution: empower students to explore their fields academic discourses, manage their language learning and writing processes Tools: concepts from Systemic Functional Linguistics, text analyses, tailor-made exercises 2

3 Systemic Functional Linguistics Social view of language as a meaning making system Ideational meaning: Standardised models of experience and methods involved in their construction (e.g. general academic and subject-specific vocabulary, conventions pertaining to describing methodology) Interpersonal meaning: Relationship between interlocutors and attitudes towards meanings constructed (e.g. hedging, authoritative voice) Textual meaning: Organising language as text (e.g. cohesion and coherence, metadiscourse) Register (topic, tenor, mode) and Genre (functions) 3

4 Aims and methods I Analyse texts from field with a focus on the prevalent values, roles and functions and their linguistic realisations in order to raise awareness of mechanisms of the discourse 4

5 Examples of exercises 1) Focusing on the academic article as a specific text type in which language is used for particular purposes, list at least five examples of things academics do in their articles, e.g. give an overview of the state of research on a specific phenomenon. 5

6 Examples of exercises continued 2) Look at the abstract from the article entitled: Cultural variation of leadership prototypes across 22 European countries (Brodbeck et al., 2000: 1). Which of the following functions occur in the extract and through which sentence(s) are they realised? Explaining the aim/focus of the research reported about in the text. Describing the methodology. Presenting results. Giving background information. Referring to other research done in the field. Presenting the research questions. Explaining the relevance and importance of the contribution the paper in question is making to the ongoing scientific discourse. 6

7 Examples of exercises continued Look at the following sentences taken from the abstract and the introduction to the article entitled: The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Employees Affective Commitment: A Cross- Cultural Investigation (Müller, Hattrup, Spiess & Lin-Hi, 2012: ). What do you think the authors set out to do in each of these text extracts? a) This study investigated the moderating effects of several Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) cultural value dimensions on the relationship between employees perceptions of their organization s social responsibility and their affective organizational commitment. 7

8 Examples of exercises continued b) Based on data from a sample of 1,084 employees from 17 countries, results showed that perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) was positively related to employees affective commitment (AC), after controlling for individual job satisfaction and gender as well as for nation-level differences in unemployment rates. 8

9 Aims and methods II Raise awareness of the writing process as a series of choices and provide them with analytical tools to expand their own repertoire of words, phrases and expressions 9

10 Examples of exercises Embedding your text in the ongoing discourse 1) Why do academics cite other authors work? 2) Which other strategies do academics use to embed their research in the ongoing discourse? 10

11 Examples of exercises continued 3) Read through the section entitled: The Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility and Its Relevance to Employees taken from the article: The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Employees Affective Commitment: A Cross-Cultural Investigation (Müller, Hattrup, Spiess & Lin-Hi, 2012: ). Write down the words and expressions used to refer to other authors work. E.g.: In a recent review, Dahlsrud summarized similarities and differences in common definitions of CSR in the literature. (p. 1187) 11

12 Examples of exercises continued 4) Which other words and phrases can we use to refer to authors work? 5) E.g: Müller explains that Why do you think authors sometimes vary between the simple present and simple past tense in referring to other scholars contributions? 12

13 Aims and methods III Practice performing common functions and using important notions Introduce them to useful resources, including articles from their field and teach them to use these correctly Do exercises on areas of vocabulary, grammar, style and discourse that often pose problems 13

14 Examples of exercises 1) List five research methods that are commonly used in your field of study. Write down both the name of the method, as well as the verb with which it collocates, e.g. to conduct interviews. 14

15 Examples of exercises continued Writing task Write a paragraph in which you embed your current research in the ongoing academic discourse on the specific phenomenon in question in your field. Which theories and studies are relevant for your research and in which way(s) will your research contribute to the ongoing investigations? 15

16 Examples of exercises continued Participial and compound adjectives Sometimes we use the present and past participles of verbs to form adjectives, e.g. increasing numbers and continued interest. One can also use the present and past participles of verbs to form compound adjectives, such as a time-honoured tradition and life-enhancing measures. These are usually spelled with a hyphen. Whether to put a participial adjective before or rather after a noun is not always easy to predict. When in doubt, put it after the noun. 16

17 Examples of exercises continued Correct the errors in the following sentences. Pay attention to the adjectives. Note that some sentences are correct. 1. The discussed theories have all led to breakthroughs in the field. 2. The desired effect can be achieved by carefully regulating the temperature. 3. This is a culture specific phenomenon. 4. The proposed method renders highly accurate measurements. 5. The estimated amount is shown on a large screen. 6. The mentioned theories all provide a sound basis for the analysis of this phenomenon. 7. The discussed research offers some answers to the above posed questions. 8. The observed phenomena provide evidence of these changes. 9. The concerned study looks into the effects this type of treatment has on children. 10. The encountered problems were dealt with by changing the setting. 17

18 Examples of exercises continued Extending Bhattacharya and Sen s (2003) arguments, we suggest that CSR may add value to a product. The broadest definition of value encompasses everything the consumer receives in relation to everything the consumer sacrifices to buy and consume a product (Zeithaml 1988). For consumers who care about CSR, the social responsibility level of the company that makes a product bolsters or diminishes the value of the product. In situations of product parity, it would not take much added value for a consumer to choose a product made by a highly responsible company over one made by a less responsible one. CSR would need to add more value, however, for a consumer to be willing to pay more for a product made by the more responsible company. For this reason, we investigated the impact of CSR on consumer responses in the context of price differences. We turn now to the development of our hypotheses. We first discuss how external (or stimulus) factors affect consumer responses. We then go on to discuss the impact of personal trait factors that are internal to consumers. 18

19 Examples of exercises continued Interpersonal function: How would you describe the authors attitude towards what they are saying? Are they certain, relatively certain or relatively uncertain that things are the way they say they are? Which words as used by the authors made you come to this conclusion? Textual function: Creating coherence and a symmetric text structure Look at the extract again, this time focusing on the pattern created by the placement of the concepts highlighted in bold and italics in the sentence. See if you can identify a specific pattern or rhythm. 19

20 Limitations of this approach Time involved in preparing material High level of autonomy and ability to understand discourse required on the part of the participant Focus on text and not so much on the writer and his or her writing process 20

21 Strengths of this approach Collaboration between language expert and subject expert Insight into discourse and how it works Tools offered with which processes involved in developing language competence for academic purposes and writing process can be managed 21

22 Thank you! 22