First-year writing in the humanities and social sciences: Requirements, expectations, and perceived weaknesses

Abstract

This study aimed to explore writing requirements and lecturer expectations in first-year humanities and social science courses at a New Zealand university. Document analysis and lecturer interviews were used to collect data. The document analysis included writing assignment types, rhetorical functions of writing tasks, and descriptors in marking rubrics. Eight lecturers were interviewed to discuss their expectations of academic writing and perceptions of students’ writing problems. It was found that writing tasks require students to construct evidence-based scholarly arguments grounded on concepts from course readings. Students are expected to show their understanding and critical engagement with the readings, select ideas to strengthen their arguments and evaluate authors’ arguments. Counter-arguments are not required, but showing an awareness of different perspectives is important. Summarization is important for writing, but it is not often assigned as a stand-alone task in this context. These are the areas which challenge students, according to the lecturers. The findings imply that reading and writing instruction should be integrated, and rigid preformulated forms of writing should not be taught, particularly in high-level writing classes. Students need to be prepared to evaluate sources, integrate source ideas into their own essays, and construct scholarly arguments. Implications are discussed for teaching and assessment of writing as well as assessment of integrated reading and writing.