Forms of University Assignments and Academic Genres
Dr Dai Fei Yang Student Learning Unit University of Western Sydney 2008 Sydney This presentation is adapted from SLU varies sources
What is an assessment?
While studying at university students are required to do various forms of assessments in order to measure learning outcomes. Assessments may include: • written work of essays, reports, critical reviews, annotated bibliographies and reflective journals. • oral presentations • examinations • performances and/or artistic work • participation in class and in groups • online tasks
Written assignments and the concept of academic genres
Written assignments may include: • An essay • A report • A critical review • An annotated bibliography • A reflective journal
The concept of academic genres
In a non technical term, genre is often referred to as text types. Different types of text have different purposes. For example
• • • A recipe - to give instructions on how to cook a dish. A recount - to tell an event or an incident. An essay - to persuade a reader that the writer’s argument is credible. A report - to explain what was done to solve a problem or to carry out an activity (e.g., a business report, a nursing report, a scientific report).
•
Academic genre – an argument essay
(Source: Unistep 2008, SLU, UWS)
Purpose To persuade a reader that the writer’s argument is credible Stages/components of an essay Introduction: Thesis and preview Body: Arguments & evidence to support thesis Conclusion: A summary & restatement of thesis Reference list: A list of all the sources used in the essay. Audience (reader) Lecturer / assignment marker Language features • Variable, but simple present tense predominates • Third person perspective (e.g., Brown suggests...) • Formal language
Academic genre – a research report, a case study
(Source: Unistep 2008, SLU, UWS)
Purpose To explain what was done to solve a problem or to carry out an activity/project
Stages in the Text Introduction: Background to report; previous studies of the issue. Aims Method (how the activity, project, etc. was carried out) Results (outcomes of activity) Discussion (significance of the activity/project) Recommendations
Audience (reader) Manager, or provider of funds, or lecturer / assignment marker
Language features •Simple present tense in Introduction and Discussion •Past tense in Method and Results •Third person perspective •Formal language
Academic genre – a critical review & an annotated bibliography
(Source: Unistep 2008, SLU, UWS)
Purpose To summarise and evaluate a single text (critical review) or a group of related texts (annotated bibliography) Stages in the Text •Bibliographic details •Purpose of the text •Summary of major themes •Critique (evaluation) Audience (reader) Potential reader of the text, lecturer or assignment marker Language features •Simple present tense •Third person perspective (Chapter One describes... This book is essential reading...) •Formal language
Academic genre – a reflective journal
(Source: Unistep 2008, SLU, UWS)
Purpose To reflect on personal learning experiences
Stages in the Text •Log or diary with relatively unstructured format; chronological responses to class, tutorials, and/or readings. •More formal journals requiring analysis, focusing on themes or comparison of readings or theory with personal experience
Audience (reader) Yourself, lecturer or assignment marker
Language features •Variable, but present tense dominates •First person perspective •Usually less formal than other genres
Writing style There are many characteristics of writing style that contribute to making a piece of writing appropriate for its purpose and its reader. It's very important to write in the appropriate style for each particular task; for example, if you are writing an essay, you use more formal, impersonal and technical language. An essay is more abstract than a letter to a friend.
formal impersonal technical abstract
– – – –
informal personal non technical concrete
Writing style – example of an essay paragraph
Gender can be considered a social construction, as can be seen in the differences in behaviour of males and females across different ethnic groups, cultures and class schemes within the individual cultures. The constructs that are created to define these differences between males and females are often reinforced by cultural identity with a particular ethnic social group and by institutional structures such as governments, media, religions and even schools (Bilton et al., 1996).
Features of formal language: male, female (instead of boy and girl), density of noun groups (e.g., social construction, different ethnic groups, ethnic social group).
Writing style – example of a reflective journal paragraph
When I think of how gender stereotypes have shaped my experiences, the first thing I think of is how teachers treated boys and girls when I was at school. Things like boys, who are always getting the interesting jobs, and girls getting to tidy things up, or clean stuff away. When we used to do music, girls got triangles to play, but boys got drums. Another thing that still annoys me now is that boys were expected to be noisy and active, but girls were supposed to just sit and watch and try to keep their clothes nice and clean. So if a girl wanted to climb a tree or something, there’d be all this disapproval, and you had to worry about people being able to see your knickers, because all the girls had to wear dresses.
Note: Informal language is used in this paragraph (see words in colour)
Summary
1. 2. 3. Different forms of assessments Concept of academic genres Academic writing style
Exercise 1. Use your own words, explain the concept of academic genre. Give an example. 2. List at least three differences between a persuasive essay and a reflective journal.