Teaching approaches for academic writing
There are three main ways to approach teaching writing to students of English. These are the product, process, and genre approaches.
The product approach is where the student produces writing based on a model, a final ‘product’. In the product approach students are given model texts to imitate and there is a focus on grammatical accuracy. The kinds of writing that are well suited to a product approach are genres which are more predictable and formulaic such as emails, resumes and CVs, formal letters, and recipes.
At its most basic, the product approach has three main stages. First, students read the model text. Next, they produce writing based on the model text. Finally, the teacher provides feedback on the written product, focusing on language use. The idea behind the product approach is that learning is accomplished by imitation and that it is important to teach grammar explicitly.
The process approach focuses more on the processes of writing, such as planning, drafting, editing, and reviewing. In this approach the process of writing is viewed as an important part of reaching the final product. There are many ways to approach process writing. Stanley (2020) has outlined three main stages as a general guide to teaching process writing. These three stages are pre-writing, focusing ideas, and evaluating, structuring, and editing.
Pre-writing – During this stage, students generate ideas about their writing project. Classroom activities to encourage idea generation include brainstorming, discussion, debate, planning, mind mapping, and generating questions about the topic.
Focusing ideas – During this stage, students generate content for their writing project. Students should not focus too much on accuracy or organization of their writing in this stage. The teacher should help students by checking whether the content is sufficient, should be further developed or reduced. Classroom activities to help focus ideas could include activities such as group writing and group discussion.
Evaluating, structuring, and editing – During this stage, students write with a focus on form. This stage is about producing a finished piece of work. The teacher should help with error correction and provide feedback on organization. Classroom activities at this stage include organizing ideas, self-editing, peer editing and proofreading.
The genre approach is where students become familiar with a specific genre or style of academic paper and then produce this themselves. This approach is particularly good for teaching academic writing. In academic writing, genre refers to “abstract, socially recognized ways of using language” (Hyland, 2007, p. 149). In the academic world, there is a certain way of approaching writing an essay, a literature review, or a thesis.
In academic communities, genres are used to support academic communication goals (Tuffs, 1993, p. 705). In the genre approach, teaching of the genre is explicit, and it considers the main features, both rhetorical and linguistic, of different types of texts. The genres studied are based on what kind of writing the learner needs for their studies. Teaching the genre approach can be done many ways. However, it usually involves analyzing texts, producing texts, and receiving feedback. See below for an example of how to teach an opinion essay using the genre approach.
Setting the scene – During this stage, the topic of the genre should be introduced to students. The teacher could elicit from students what they already know about essays and write the results on the board.
Analyzing texts – During this stage, students can break into groups to analyze an opinion essay and make note of the main linguistic and rhetorical features. Students might notice there is a thesis statement in the introduction and that paragraphs start with topic sentences. They might also notice that more formal language is used. They could see that there is more nominalization (making a noun from a verb or an adjective) than in non-academic writing. Other aspects such as referencing sources and supporting claims with argumentation might also be noted. The students then share the outcome of the analysis with each other as a class.
Producing texts – During this stage, students write their own opinion essay based on genre information gathered during the analysis stage. To be most effective, the opinion essay should be based on the discipline that students are studying so the task is more authentic.
Feedback – During this stage, written material produced by the students should be used to produce feedback and error analysis. The feedback should focus on both process and product. Good examples should also form part of the feedback.
Any of the above approaches can be used in teaching academic writing. The Genre approach is the most modern approach. It is, arguably, the best approach for academic writing. However, student needs and language level should determine the best approach to take in class.