Open-access writing: An investigation into the online drafting and revision of a research article in pure mathematics

ESP research has provided an account of research articles (RAs) across disciplines using both text-analytical methods and ethnographically-oriented approaches. This study explores what additional insights are gained into the genre from the study of a collaboratively produced RA in pure mathematics, negotiated via an open-access research blog. The data consists of 659 thread comments posted by blog participants as they engage with the research and writing up process. Facets of research-based writing that preoccupy the blog participants are revealed, as well as how decisions pertaining to genre and dissemination outlets are made. In addition, blog posts point to how the RA is adjusted to cater for the more diverse readership that open-access knowledge dissemination may entail. The findings provide support for results of existing genre analyses of RAs in pure mathematics, and offer new insights into writing for publication practices in the discipline. Potential pedagogical applications of the findings are proposed

Self-mentions in anthropology and history research articles: Variation between and within disciplines

The aim of this study was to investigate the deployment of self-mentions in 18 history and 18 anthropology published research articles. ‘I’ was used more frequently in the anthropology articles than in history articles, a finding that can be traced to the knowledge-making practices of the disciplines. However, considerable intra-disciplinary variation was also observed, both in terms of frequency of self-mentions per article and the author roles adopted via the use of the first-person subject pronoun. Based on the results, I argue that there is a need to raise students' awareness of intra- as well as interdisciplinary variation in academic discourse, particularly in the humanities

English for Specific Purposes and Academic Literacies: Eclecticism in academic writing pedagogy

Academic Literacies and English for Specific Purposes perspectives on the teaching of academic writing tend to be positioned as dichotomous and ideologically incompatible. Nonetheless, recent studies have called for the integration of these two perspectives in the design of writing programmes in order to meet the needs of students in the increasingly diverse and shifting landscape of academia. The aim of the present paper is to reflect on how this theoretical integration could be put into practice. Drawing on the design of a research-based writing workshop for postgraduate anthropology students, we argue that rather than a ‘hybrid’ model of writing pedagogy, a theoretically grounded but eclectic approach is needed in order to respond to students’ personal, local, and disciplinary contexts

Scaffolding genre knowledge and metacognition: Insights from an L2 doctoral research writing course

This study investigates how genre knowledge and metacognition can be scaffolded in a genre-based course for doctoral students engaged in writing research articles. We argue that current definitions of genre knowledge development encompass the development of metacognition, and thus adopt an inter-disciplinary approach to illustrate how metacognition—specifically metacognitive knowledge—can be scaffolded in the genre classroom. We developed two tasks for this purpose. In the first, students were asked to describe their writing context and genres. For the second task, at the end of the course, students submitted a visual conceptualization of the research genres in their specific scientific community. This visualization was accompanied by an account of students’ observations about genre, and a reflection on how these insights could be applied to their ongoing writing situation. Students were also interviewed two to six months after the course to explore how they reported using genre knowledge in their writing. Results showed that the metacognitive tasks elicited an integrated view of genre and encouraged students’ conceptualization of this knowledge as a tool for writing. In interviews, students reported using facets of genre knowledge metacognitively in their writing, by describing how they engage with reader expectations, conventions, variation, and the possibility of strategic deliberate choices

Colobinae evolution: Using GIS to map the distribution of leaf monkeys across Southeast Asia over time

The Colobinae, or leaf monkeys, are distributed geographically across Africa and Asia. Colobinae are specialized arborealists and leaf eaters with sacculated stomachs, sheering teeth, reduced thumbs, and very mobile shoulders. Colobinae diverged ~10.9 million year ago (Ma) from the Cercopithecidae in Africa, and Asian colobines appear in the fossil record in the late Miocene ~8.5 Ma. However, an incomplete fossil record means little is known about the evolutionary pressures that led to Asian colobine migration and diversification. Here, we use recent fossil discoveries and geospatial information to develop hypotheses about how geographic barriers played direct roles in Asian colobine evolution. Using ArcGIS, we plotted Miocene-epoch to Pleistocene-epoch fossil Colobinae collection sites with overlapping geospatial information including geographic barriers that may have influenced species distribution like the Himalayas and the Hengduan Mountains. We also included extant species’ presence, distributions, and species diversity to assess patterns of distribution over time. Data from each epoch were compared to track species distribution over time. Results suggest that combining fossil data, extant species’ distributions, and biogeographically relevant geospatial elements provides some parameters for where and when Colobine adaptions were selected for. For example, cold climate adaptions in certain Asian Colobines, especially Rhinopithecus, are not recent and have shaped how that genus is distributed today. These parameters can support powerful hypothesis building about the evolutionary histories of extant species adapting behaviorally and anatomically to densely forested South East Asia.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1134/thumbnail.jp

English for Specific Playfulness? How doctoral students find fun in the development of genre knowledge, authorial voice, and genre innovation

The power of genre analysis to foster graduate students\u27 awareness of genre convention and context-related variation (Cheng, 2018) is well established. Nonetheless, concerns remain that the approach risks promoting rhetorical \u27painting by numbers\u27, in which writers glumly surrender their creativity and authorial voice to the demands of their genre. Thus, recent reappraisals of genre pedagogy encourage fostering innovation, play and challenge to convention in academic writing (e.g. Tardy, 2016). In this paper, we show that ESP-based pedagogy can promote a sense of playfulness with genre, or at the very least, some pleasure in the enhanced sense of control over genre convention. Data is derived from interviews with 24 doctoral students in the hard sciences over a two-year period. Transcripts were analysed using a cross-comparative method to extract comments indexing enjoyment, fun, and deliberate author choices that challenge convention. The findings reveal students\u27 appreciation of the sense of control derived from knowledge of typical rhetorical structures and recurrent linguistic forms, which affords them both confidence in their writing and an appreciation of the variation found within genres. Further, students reported making rhetorical choices based on their own stylistic preferences, a desire to engage their readers, the "fun" derived from experimentation, and the creation of a personal voice. Crucially, the data suggests that students do not ‘surrender’ and are in fact deliberate and metacognitive in their approach to writing. Our paper thus shows how doctoral students in the sciences can use their developed rhetorical consciousness metacognitively to trouble, bend, critique and innovate their genres.Cheng, A. (2018). Genre and graduate-level research writing. University of Michigan Press ELTTardy, C. M. (2016). Beyond convention: Genre innovation in academic writing. University of Michigan Press EL

Revisiting the role of 'discipline' in writing for publication in two social sciences

The role of discipline in shaping writing for publication has been widely acknowledged in EAP research, and a wealth of studies that seek to characterise and differentiate disciplinary writing have been published. However, a conceptualisation of disciplines as clearly demarcated territories may be outdated given the “constantly changing and dynamic […] contemporary university” (Manathunga & Brew, 2014, p.45). In light of these changes, our article interrogates the centrality of discipline in research-based writing, from the academics' perspective. To do so, we adopt Trowler (2014a) reconceptualization of discipline as an analytical framework. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven scholars in two social sciences. Interview data was supplemented by an analysis of the participants' research-based outputs. The results highlight the contested nature of disciplinary affiliation and reveal the range of factors that participants perceive to be “shapers” of writing for publication, beyond discipline: epistemological/methodological, structural and individual. Based on the results, we argue that Trowler's new metaphor of discipline enables us to account for our findings, and conclude with recommendations for EAP writing for publication interventions

Setting the stage(s) for English for Research and Publication Purposes: authors, audiences, and learning the craft

The stage is an apt metaphor for how the ERPP community has come to understand research-based writing: research writing is of course a textual practice, but it is also inherently social, with both cognitive and affective dimensions. The aim of our paper (based on a plenary given at NFEAP in 2021) is to bring new insights to our understanding of these stages by presenting a few data examples derived from a task completed by a group of doctoral students in the sciences. The task was designed to foreground primarily social facets of writing: writing as genre performance on a specific stage, for a specific audience and as a form of situated, purposeful communication against the backdrop of the current knowledge within a field. Further, the task foregrounded writing as a form of development towards a self-directed, agentive and possibly creative adaptation of one’s authorial choices. We present three main arguments: first, we show that a straightforward disciplinary framing of research-based writing may not be reflective of the hybridised, fluid and multidisciplinary audiences that our students write for; second, we argue that students need support in recognising this complexity and in developing rhetorical adroitness in order to write effectively; and third, we call for deeper engagement with well-established theories of learning such as self-regulation and metacognition to design tasks that investigate and promote student learning, and that encompass the social, cognitive and affective dimensions of genre performance

Factors Associated with Sustained Exergaming: Longitudinal Investigation.

International audienceBACKGROUND: Exergaming is technology-driven physical activity (PA) which, unlike traditional video game play, requires that participants be physically active to play the game. Exergaming may have potential to increase PA and decrease sedentary behavior in youth, but little is known about sustained exergaming.OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to describe the frequency, correlates, and predictors of sustained exergaming.METHODS: Data were available in AdoQuest (2005-11), a longitudinal investigation of 1843 grade 5 students in Montréal, Canada. This analysis used data from grade 9 (2008-09) and 11 (2010-11). Participants at Time 1 (T1; mean age 14 years, SD 0.8 ) who reported past-week exergaming (n=186, 19.1% of AdoQuest sample) completed mailed self-report questionnaires at Time 2 (T2; mean age 16 years, SD 0.8). Independent sociodemographic, psychological, and behavioral correlates (from T2)/predictors (from T1 or earlier) were identified using multivariable logistic regression.RESULTS: Of 186 exergamers at T1, 81 (44%) reported exergaming at T2. Being female and having higher introjected regulation (ie, a type of PA motivation indicative of internalizing PA as a behavior) were independent correlates. None of the predictors investigated were associated with sustained exergaming.CONCLUSIONS: Almost half of grade 9 exergamers sustained exergaming for 2 years. Exergaming may be a viable approach to help adolescents engage in and sustain PA during adolescence. Sex and PA motivation may be important in the sustainability of exergaming