Writing in the Disciplines

Writing in Discipline-Specific Courses

Writing in discipline-specific courses facilitates thinking and learning, promotes communication that is integral to the knowledge making of every discipline, and prepares students for success in their careers. Within the classroom, writing functions as both process and product. Writing is a process to the extent that it operates as a tool for learning and as feedback for the teacher, and it is a product in that it serves as the means of production of finished documents for evaluation purposes.

In addition to whatever generic writing opportunities are available to students, writing needs to be assigned within specific disciplines by faculty members in those disciplines. Only by working with members of the discipline will students come to understand how and why the discipline-specific writing conventions are manifested in the organization, format, vocabulary, and citation systems of the discipline's written work.

Depending upon the purpose of the writing and the size of the class, teachers may ask students to write in or out of class. They may request that an entire document be written in class (for example, an essay exam); they may ask students to write an initial draft in class (useful to confirm the authorship of documents) and then ask the student to revise at home or in a workshop setting with other students; or they may assign the entire writing to be done outside of class. Again, depending on the purpose and situation, the assignment may request draft-quality work or it may require publishable pieces. Needless to say, the nature of the task will be determined by the purpose of the assignment; this may vary from requesting students to report back what they have read or to directing them to operate at more complex cognitive levels, synthesizing or evaluating concepts, for example.

Whatever writing is done, it should be consistent with the larger goals of the course. Writing for writing's sake is counterproductive in discipline-specific courses. Rather, if writing--whether to stimulate learning or to give students an opportunity to practice the conventions of the field--is incorporated in a manner consistent with the course's goals, teachers will believe in its worth. At the same time, students will come to value writing because they have learned the subject matter through their use of writing.

Reference:

Walvoord, Barbara E. "Considering Goals and Options for Writing in Your Course." Helping Students Write Well. New York: Modern Language Association, 1986. 6-32.

Learning the Expectations of the Discipline:
The Research Paper

As an instructor who teaches and conducts research in a specific discipline, you know or are in the process of learning the expectations of your field of specialization through immersion in your field of study. Your students, in contrast, take classes in several different areas. Not all these areas operate with the same cognitive priorities; nor do they all work from the same conventions. Consider, for example, the research paper.

As students prepare to write the research paper, they need to be aware that different disciplines have their own conventions. These may vary in the ways of conducting research and writing the paper, and in the form the final copy of the paper should take. Because students take courses in a variety of fields, they have the challenge of learning the expectations of the particular field for an acceptable research paper.

Given the growing interdisciplinary nature of our courses, it is difficult to assign a specific label to a particular course. Nevertheless, we can work with the major academic groupings--humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences--as we consider how research papers differ by field. Donald Zimmerman and Dawn Rodrigues (Research and Writing in the Disciplines. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992, 24) suggest questions that will help students to adapt to the writing expectations of the various disciplines:

1. What research methodologies are favored by the field?
2. What kinds of writing are done in this field?
3. What patterns of organization are typical of the writing in the field? How are these patterns shown in headings or subheadings?
4. What does a sample document from the field reveal about style, word choice, and tone?
5. What kinds of evidence do experts in the field use?
6. How is that evidence documented?

Zimmerman and Rodrigues (17-19) comment on the different approaches to research paper writing among three disciplinary groupings.

Humanities

In the humanities, knowledge is developed through observation, reflection, and analysis. The tendency is to build from existing data and to expand knowledge through new insight. Research papers in the humanities, which are usually developed through library research, generally follow an essay structure: introduction, body, conclusion.

MLA (Modern Language Association) documentation is popular in the humanities. A summary of that form is included in most Freshman-Sophomore English handbooks. Many history professors prefer Turabian or Chicago Style. Manuals for these documentation systems, which are available at most bookstores, include detailed information about appropriate citation forms and formatting details.

Social Sciences

Social scientists are interested in controlled investigation and inquiry in order to clarify social issues. They use a variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies including interviews, laboratory experiments, and surveys. Many social science papers are written to investigate a hypothesis (a statement to be tested); that is, the writer moves from a concept to specific instances of the concept. If the paper is a write up of research involving a hypothesis, the structure of the paper is likely to consist of an introduction, methods used, results and discussion, and conclusion. If, on the other hand, the research paper is a review of existing information in the field, the structure is more likely to be the introduction-body-conclusion order that is typical of the humanities paper. (Page 21 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association summarizes the types of papers typically written in the social sciences.)

APA (American Psychological Association) is the documentation form for the social sciences. Some social scientists also use Chicago Style. An overview of APA documentation is included in Freshman-Sophomore English handbooks or refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association or The Chicago Manual of Style. Those who prefer APA expect it to be followed meticulously.

Natural Sciences

To answer the research questions they pose, natural scientists look for facts that can be replicated. Research consists of direct and indirect observation in the laboratory or in the field. A research report based on original research will have an objective and formal tone, and the structure will be standard: abstract, introduction, methods, results and conclusion, discussion, and summary. In contrast, a research paper about the literature of the field or about an issue relevant to the field will be closer to the humanities structure listed above.

CBE (Council of Biology Editors), as listed in the CBE Style Manual, is a widely-used documentation system in the biological sciences.

If students understand the conventions of your field, you are more likely to receive papers that meet your expectations and that give students an appreciation of your discipline.