Academics Engaging with Student Writing: Working at the Higher Education Textface

Student writing has long been viewed as a problem in higher education in the UK, and assessment and feedback have remained high on the agenda as a result of stubbornly poor sector performance. This book tackles these issues from a new angle, exploring the experiences of academic teachers as they set, support, read, respond to and assess undergraduates written assignments. Based on ethnographic research, from Sports Science to History, working practices around student writing are examined from the "inside." Drawing on interviews, observations, audio recordings and texts, this approach enables work with student writers to be understood in the context of mass marketised higher education.

Student writing has long been viewed as a problem in higher education in the UK. Moreover, the sector has consistently performed poorly in the National Student Survey with regard to assessment and feedback. Academics Engaging with Student Writing tackles these major issues from a new and unique angle, exploring the real-life experiences of academic teachers from different institutions as they set, support, read, respond to and assess assignments undertaken by undergraduate students.

Incorporating evidence from post-1992 universities, Oxbridge, members of the Russell Group and others, this book examines working practices around student writing within the context of an increasingly market-oriented mass higher education system. Presenting a wealth of relevant examples from disciplines as diverse as History and Sports Science, Tuck makes extensive use of interviews, observations, texts and audio recordings in order to explore the perspectives of academic teachers who work with student writers and their texts.

This book will be of interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of academic literacies, higher education, language and literacy, language in higher education, English for academic purposes and assessment. Furthermore, academic teachers with experience of this crucial aspect of academic labour will welcome Tuck's pioneering work as an indispensable tool for making sense of their own engagement with student writers.