Asking the right questions: Demystifying writing assignments across the disciplines

Abstract

Writing assignments in university classes can be opaque to novice undergraduate students, including L2 writers, who may struggle to identify the appropriate genre for their response. This paper introduces a simplified 3 × 3 matrix (adapted from Humphrey et al., 2010) as a heuristic for analyzing writing assignments across the disciplines. The matrix asks questions at the text, phase (move), and sentence levels using the Hallidayean view of language as construing ideational, interpersonal, and textual meanings simultaneously. To exemplify the potential of the 3 × 3 matrix, two assignments are analyzed from a pathways program for international undergraduate students at a US university: a “research paper” in Art History and a proposal in Political Science. Interpersonal language choices present particular challenges in these tasks. The 3 × 3 matrix provides the tools to deconstruct and demystify academic genres by enabling content instructors, EAP faculty, and eventually students to ask the right questions.