Research Discourse

Words: 1198
Pages: 5

Before students even enter the university system, they are thrust into placement exams ranging from math to science to writing. The math and science exams are basically just quizzing you on what you know, which is contrastingly different when compared to the writing exam, where students are expected to step into the university’s discourse without having any previous knowledge of how to write like a scholar. To add to this insanity, students are also expected to write within their own particular discourse rather than the university’s as a whole. After the exams, students are placed accordingly in various writing classes, where they are expected to write multiple papers, including the dreaded research paper. To better understand what a research …show more content…
Firstly, they value credibility. Professors and scholars are looking for scholarly sources, everything else is guaranteed to be negated. Finding the right voice is valued as well, even David Bartholomae agrees in his essay “Inventing the University” when he states “The students have to appropriate (or be appropriated) by a specialized discourse, and they have to do this as though they were easily and comfortably one with their audience, as though they were members of the academy. . .” (p.4-5). This is important for students to keep in mind because even if we are not comfortable or familiar with our audience, we are still being asked to fill their shoes as if we are. Next, professors want the writer to understand their topic enough to be able to discuss it with another person familiar with the topic and to answer questions about it as well. They also value an understanding of the format for the paper as well as having a healthy mix of facts and opinions. This can be summed up with a statement taken from the essay “What is Academic Writing” written by L. Lennie Irvin, “Your success with academic writing depends upon how well you understand what you are doing as you write and then how you approach the writing task.”