The critical nexus: Linked practices in reading, thinking and writing to develop discourse competency

Authors

  • Karen Orr Vered Department of Screen & Media School of Humanities & Creative Arts Flinders University

Keywords:

writing across the curriculum, writing in the disciplines, writing pedagogy, writing as discursive practice, reading comprehension, disciplinary discourse

Abstract

Informed by a conviction that writing is thinking, this paper presents a model for developing student writing within disciplinary curriculum by linking writing practice explicitly to reading non-fiction and critical thinking as co-constructive practices of disciplinary discourse. The challenge of developing students’ written communication is here focalised through reading and enacted through formative exercises that emphasise writing as a discursive practice and iterative process. This pedagogy aims to reveal to students the conventions and codes of disciplinary discourse through shared reading and writing exercises that focus on reading comprehension. Rather than an empirical study, I offer a practitioner’s perspective informed by several years of reflective practice and training in the approaches associated with Writing Across the Curriculum. The goal of describing this pedagogy is to demonstrate how writing practice and development can be integrated with existing curriculum without displacing subject content. The example here is drawn from a First Year subject in Screen & Media Studies located within a School of Humanities & Creative Arts.

Author Biography

Karen Orr Vered, Department of Screen & Media School of Humanities & Creative Arts Flinders University

Karen Orr Vered is Associate Professor of Screen & Media at Flinders University. She teaches and publishes across the intersections of feminism, film, television studies, and children’s media practices. Her essays have appeared in Camera Obscura, Continuum, Convergence, Screening the Past, Television and New Media, The Velvet Lighttrap, and several anthologies.

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Published

2016-01-24

How to Cite

Vered, K. O. (2016). The critical nexus: Linked practices in reading, thinking and writing to develop discourse competency. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 10(1), A155-A168. Retrieved from https://journal.aall.org.au/index.php/jall/article/view/392