Louise J. Ravelli and Robert A. Ellis (eds.), Analysing academic writing: Contextual frameworks

Extract

Louise J. Ravelli and Robert A. Ellis (eds.), Analysing academic writing: Contextual frameworks. London & New York: Continuum, 2004. (Pb 2005). Pp. xvi, 280. Hb £25.00.

Rather than focus on expert writing – as the title might suggest – the 14 contributors to this volume have chosen to center on issues related to students' written efforts to cope with the exigencies of the academic discourse community. The analyzed texts are viewed as “intimately related to their contexts” (p. 1). The latter are approached in ways based mainly on Systemic Functional Linguistics, along with “related social-constructivist frameworks and more generalised perspectives on ethnography” (1). The texts that provide empirical data were produced mainly by undergraduate students, but some are by high school and graduate students and, with the exception of one (German) set, were written by users of English (now the language of international academic exchange) as a first, second, or foreign language. The type of student, the type of academic writing (size, genre, level, discipline) and various other aspects of the social, cultural, and educational context are treated in their interrelatedness, which is theorized about, supported by empirical evidence, and, naturally, accompanied by pedagogical considerations in each study.