The Influence of Interpretive Communities on Use of Content and Procedural Knowledge in a Writing Task

In this study, we analyzed how students from different interpretive communities shape their academic texts. Prospective educational researchers, prospective reading specialists, prospective teachers, and prospective nurses read an educational research article from which we had deleted the discussion...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Written communication 1991-07, Vol.8 (3), p.348-378
Main Authors: CHOU HARE, VICTORIA, FITZSIMMONS, DENISE A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Discourse
Discourse analysis
Education
Graduate Students
Higher Education
Interpretive Communities
Teachers
Text structure
Writing
Writing (Composition)
Writing Improvement
Writing Instruction
Writing Research
Writing Skills
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Summary:In this study, we analyzed how students from different interpretive communities shape their academic texts. Prospective educational researchers, prospective reading specialists, prospective teachers, and prospective nurses read an educational research article from which we had deleted the discussion section. After they had read the article, subjects completed it by writing a discussion section. We analyzed subjects' texts in terms of writers' manipulation of both content and procedural knowledge. Our findings suggest that mere participation in an interpretive community without explicit instruction in its ways of writing can enhance students' ability to write in that community. Our findings also suggest that participation in one interpretive community can facilitate writing in another community, provided the communities share discourse conventions.
ISSN:0741-0883
1552-8472
DOI:10.1177/0741088391008003003