How to Cite
Abstract
This study examined the types of writing emphasised in secondary school and university. The specific aspects studied were the genres that students write best, genres frequently written in school, and genres frequently required in written coursework assignments in university. The data on school writing were obtained from questionnaires distributed to 235 students enrolled in English courses in two Malaysian universities whereas the data on university coursework assignments were obtained through interviews with lecturers in the two universities. The results showed that there is a mismatch between types of writing emphasised in school and university. Students frequently write recount and discussion in school but university coursework frequently requires assignments to be written in the form of research articles and explanations. In view of the different emphases in school and university writing, students entering university have difficulty coping with academic discourse. The findings suggest that it is beneficial to sensitise university students to textual conventions of commonly used academic genres at university to speed up their learning of academic discourse.
References
Cahill, D. (2003). The myth of the "turn" in contrastive rhetoric. Written Communication, 20(2), 170-194.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088303020002003
Cullip, P. F., & Carol, D. (2002). Tailoring an EAP course to disciplinary needs: The UNIMAS effort. The English Teacher, XXVIII [Electronic version]. Retrieved July 23, 2009, from http://www.melta.org.my/ET/2002/wp05.htm
Darus, S., & Kuang, C. H. (2009). Common errors in written English essay of Form one Chinese students: A case study. Eur. J. Soc. Sci., 10(2), 242-253.
Darus, S., & Subramaniam, K. (2009). Error analysis of the written English essays of secondary school students in Malaysia: A case study. European Journal of Social Sciences, 8(3), 483-495.
Derewianka, B. (1991). Exploring how texts work. Newtown, New South Wales: Primary English Teaching Association.
Drury, H., & Jones, J. (2010). Transforming the teaching of report writing in science and engineering through an integrated online learning environment, WRiSE (Write Reports in Science and Engineering). In C. H. Steel, M. J. Keppell, P. Gerbic & S. Housego (Eds.), Curriculum, technology & transformation for an unknown future. Proceedings ascilite Sydney 2010 (pp. 313-323). Accessed April 8, 2013, http://ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney10/procs/Drury-full.pdf
Feez, S. (1998). Text-based syllabus design. Sydney, Australia: Macquarie University.
Flowerdew, L. (2000). Using a genre-based framework to teach organizational structure in academic writing. ELT Journal, 54(4), 369-378.
https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/54.4.369
Gautreau, A. L., Averett, J. B., Trusock, D., McFerren, S. E., Phipps, C., Lynch. M. … Speer, L. W. (1986). Our readers write: What's a practical idea for teaching organization in writing? The English Journal, 75(5), 61-68. Retrieved October 11, 2012, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/818208.pdf?acceptTC=true
https://doi.org/10.2307/818208
Horowitz, D. M. (1986). What professors actually require: Academic tasks for the ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 20(3), 445- 462.
https://doi.org/10.2307/3586294
Jackson, L., Meyer, W., & Parkinson, J. (2006). A study of the writing tasks and reading assigned to undergraduate science students at a South African University. English for Specific Purposes, 25(3), 260-281.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2005.04.003
Jenkins, H. H., & Pico, M. L. (2006). SFL and argumentative essays in ESOL. Proceedings of 33rd International Systemic Functional Congress, 155.
Klein, P. D., & Rose, R. A. (2010). Teaching argument and genre to prepare junior students for writing to learn. Reading Research Quarterly, 45(4), 433-461.
https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.45.4.4
Liu, L. (2005). Rhetorical education through writing instruction across cultures: A comparative analysis of select online instructional materials on argumentative writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 14(1), 1-18.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2004.11.001
Malaysian Examinations Council. (2006). Malaysian University English Test. Retrieved November 20, 2012, from http://www.mpm.edu.my/documents/10156/c5c332ab-3d97-4959-83c0-09866eea0774
Maros, M., Tan, K. H., & Salehuddin, K. (2007). Interference in learning English: Grammatical errors in English essay writing among rural Malay secondary schools students in Malaysia. Jurnal e-Bangi, 2(2), 1-15. Accessed May 6, 2013, from http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1539/1/marlyna07.pdf
Marshall, S. (1991). A genre-based approach to the teaching of report-writing. English for Specific Purposes, 10(1), 3-13.
https://doi.org/10.1016/0889-4906(91)90012-L
Mort, P., & Drury, H. (2012). Supporting student academic literacy in the disciplines using genre-based online pedagogy. Journal of Academic Language & Learning, 6(3), A1-A15.
Osman, H. (2004). Genre-based instruction for ESP [Electronic version]. Malaysia: Universiti Teknologi MARA. English Teacher, 13. Accessed March 20, 2006, from http://www.melta.org.my/ET/2004/2004-13.pdf
Talif, R., & Edwin, M. (1989). Error analysis of Form Four English compositions. The English Teacher Vol XVIII. Accessed October 5, 2012, from http://www.melta.org.my/ET/1989/main9.html
Ting, S. H., & Law, L. (2008, March 17-19). Genre-based approach to teaching English for Academic Purposes: Changes in undergraduates' academic writing. Proceedings of International Conference on Teaching and Learning (IMCICON), Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
Ting, S. H., Raslie, H., & Jee, L. J. (2011). Case study on persuasiveness of argument texts written by proficient and less proficient Malaysian undergraduates. Malaysian Journal of Learning and Instruction, 8, 71-92.
https://doi.org/10.32890/mjli.8.2011.7627
Ting, S. H., & Puteh, F. (2012). Academic discussion: From informal to formal writing in online forum. English for Specific Purposes (ESP Malaysia), 18, 31-40.
Ting, S. H., & Tee, P. F. (2008). TESL undergraduates' ability to handle academic text-types at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Asiatic Journal of Languages and Literatures, 2(2), 85-100.
Ting, S. H., & Tee, F. P. F. (2009, April). Organisational and grammatical features of explanations written by Biology undergraduates. Proceedings of 4th International Conference on English Language Learning Conference (ELT-CON 2009), Georgetown, Malaysia.
Unsworth, L. (1999). Developing critical understanding of the specialised language of school science and history texts: A functional grammatical perspective. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 42(7), 508-521.
Zhu, W. (2004a). Writing in business courses: An analysis of assignment types, their characteristics, and required skills. English for Specific Purposes, 23, 111-35.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(02)00046-7
Zhu, W. (2004b). Faculty views on the importance of writing, the nature of academic writing, and teaching and responding to writing in the disciplines. Journal of Second Language Writing, 13, 29-48.
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.
2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) For subscription articles, the author(s) agree that UNIMAS Publisher holds copyright, or an exclusive license to publish. Readers or users may view, download, print, and copy the content, for academic purposes, subject to the following conditions of use: (a) any reuse of materials is subject to permission from UNIMAS Publisher; (b) archived materials may only be used for academic research; (c) archived materials may not be used for commercial purposes, which include but not limited to monetary compensation by means of sale, resale, license, transfer of copyright, loan, etc.; and (d) archived materials may not be re-published in any part, either in print or online.
4) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.
5) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
6) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.