Recent research into student academic writing adopts an academic literacies approach in which writing is no longer viewed as a generic skill to be taught as a set of static rules but rather as shaped by complex interactions of social, institutional, and historical forces in contexts of unequal power. This chapter reviews research into student academic writing in Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, identifying how students and teachers negotiate academic literacies within specific local contexts. The key themes discussed are the changing notion of understandings of the concept of discourse community in academic writing; the significance of the interrelationship between intertextuality and plagiarism; and the increasing significance attributed to the role writer identity plays in academic writing. The pedagogical implications and potentialities of the academic literacies approach is
considered and avenues for further exploration, particularly those that involve greater engagement of academic literacy practitioners and disciplinary specialists, are briefly examined. |